Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/05/good-deal-on-kindle-unlimited.html
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I’m torn. I like reading, but would I get $120/yr worth of ebook reading done to make the expense worthwhile? Or, with this offer, $93 for the 1st year?
This deal is the typical “low bar to entry” that subscription services offer, expecting that when the bar rises once the initial offer passes, you’ll be too entrenched or lazy to cut it off.
And I still have kindle books in my “purchases” that I only borrowed from a library app that didn’t go away once they were returned. Would this work the same way? Would my library be filled with ebooks I don’t actually own if I turn off the service?
I know “owning” ebooks doesn’t really apply to Kindle ebooks unless you bust the DRM, so my current Kindle library isn’t exactly mine. Still, the point is most of them – at this moment – I can open and start reading when I want, without an added subscription.
The final thing that makes me question doing this is the fact it’s Amazon. They already get so much of my money. They don’t need more.
I’ll probably pass, but thank you for the heads up though.
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This is actually crap. You pay to rent books, which are gone as soon as you stop renting. Like Spotify or Netflix.
Isn’t that what people here on boingboing are always ranting against?
Buy a proper ebook reader (not a kindle), and rent your ebooks from libraries, instead of supporting Bezos, he’s rich enough as it is.
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And in addition, it as good a deal for the writers and Spotify is for songwriters.
Yeah, thanks for pointing that out. Writers and songwriters are truly fucked with these flat-rate deals.
It would literally help them more if you spend $10 per month for buying just one book or one album directly from the source and you just pirate everything else.
The Watchmen graphic novels are now on KU. And there are some unexpectedly good books on Kindle unlimited. If you look long enough there’s some fun genre fiction. But admittedly, is it $120 a year’s worth? Especially since many libraries now have e-book loaning (which is a good deal for patrons but a big budget suck for libraries), It’s definitely not for everybody. Plus there are a lot of complete b******* books that are just used for money laundering for the “authors”, and plenty of crappy fiction that’s written to trick the Kindle unlimited payment system.
Overall, I have found it worth it to me, but I am probably paying too much for how much I actually use it. Even so I read some fun Russian lit RPG books that I would never have read otherwise.
This deal appears to be only for people who are not already signed up for Kindle unlimited. In the past there have been some deals where you could convert the deal into a gift card which you could use on yourself. It doesn’t seem like this is one of those but I’m not sure.
As to comparing it Spotify I would say that’s not true, because there are a number of authors actually making a living just from Kindle Unlimited. Books are chosen individually, rather than played on a playlist. So it’s very different. But it’s not perfect. All the authors are fighting for a percentage of a limited pool of money. It’s a zero-sum game if they get more other people get less, so there is a lot of cheating going on as has been documented on boiling point in the past.
That makes no sense, does it?
Which is what’s left after Amazon already took out their “share”.
It’s definitely self contradictory, but Daniel Kahneman has already proven that many economic decisions are irrational 
I could have written it better. I’ve enjoyed KU and found just enough books each month to read to make the KU subscription fee less than the books’ list price, so I’m saving money. I used to buy lots of new and used paperback genre fiction. And while browsing bookstores can be fun and I enjoy the hunt, it costs money to drive or take public transit from store to store, so there are hidden costs to my previous book buying. That and I’m left with a physical items to store.
However, I should probably look at using my local library’s ebook system. Selection and check out time will be reduced, but it would cost me less.
In some countries you can lend ebooks from all over the country, so there’s actually a pretty large selection.
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