Who should and shouldn’t subscribe to Kindle Unlimited

Is Kindle Unlimited right for you? What does Amazon Prime offer book lovers if you don’t have Kindle Unlimited? Read on and find out!

Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans give subscribers access to thousands of book titles, a rotating batch of periodicals and some audio books – all for the cost of a $9.99 monthly membership.  Try it free for a month, if you’re interested. You keep the books until you decide to return them to make room for new books. A subscriber has access to a maximum of ten Kindle Unlimited books at a time.

I have memberships to both Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited. Although I’ve enjoyed getting books without an additional cost, I’m considering canceling Kindle Unlimited. I started using my local library more frequently AND I’m trying to cut some of the fat out of my budget.

Before Kindle Unlimited, I was probably purchasing two books a month via Amazon Prime. I discovered one of my favorite mystery authors, Christy Barritt, through her 99 cent books on Amazon Prime. I started with the Squeaky Clean Mysteries, which I’ve linked here. Then I moved on to her Worst Detective Series and now I’m on Lantern Beach. Her heroines are spunky, flawed and funny. Once she became more popular, she began charging up to $4 for some titles. Most of her books are free on Kindle Unlimited, but I only borrow them instead of keeping them.

Most of what you find on Amazon Prime cheap or free books and Kindle Unlimited are self-published works. Every month, both services will feature a selection of top titles. If you follow your favorite authors, you may find that their ebooks go on deep discount on Amazon once or twice a year.

A few of the biggest motivations for me to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited were gaining access to new books by some of my favorite authors, perusing Joanna Gaines’ magazine “Magnolia” (no longer free on K.U.) and getting more free audio books.

The free audio books are hard to find. Search “books with narration in Kindle Unlimited” if you want to locate those titles. I had no luck searching “free audio books with Kindle Unlimited” or other variations. Amazon should make the Kindle Unlimited benefits crystal clear, if they want to draw and keep subscribers.

Here’s who would benefit from Kindle Unlimited:

1. Voracious readers (reading more than three books a month) who aren’t very picky about what they read and can enjoy many different types of books, both ebooks and audio books.
2. Voracious readers who want to read both books and random magazines.
3. You’re not on a tight budget and enjoy reading, but aren’t so wealthy that you can buy all the books you want outright.
4. That’s all I can think of at the moment. Seriously.

I decided to subscribe because as a blogger I want to be reading a lot of nonfiction, but many of the books I want are not available on Kindle Unlimited. Again, you’ve got to be flexible. I borrowed “The One Thing” by Gary Keller with the service and LOVED the book. I’m holding on to it in my ten. Here’s a review I wrote on it. It’s no longer available on K.U.

That brings me to another recommendation. Check monthly for new titles on Kindle Unlimited, and if you see one that interests you, grab it. You may not see it again.

Checking the current titles showed me a few that I really want to read. So I’ll probably hold onto my K.U. Subscription for a little longer.

Either that or check my library. They have a good collection, but you often need to request popular books and wait your turn. Other options are shopping at Half Price Books or swapping books with your friends.

Kindle Unlimited may appeal to the same part of my brain that signed up for a Columbia House membership in 1990 to get 13 CDs for a penny. It took a lot of time and effort to get out of that commitment. I can cancel my Kindle Unlimited membership at any time.

While I’m probably going to cancel Kindle Unlimited, I don’t even question having an Amazon Prime membership. I think we’ve been members since it rolled out years ago.

We order several times a month and get free two-day shipping (sometimes one day, depending on the item). The video service has tons of movies and TV shows we enjoy. You also get special deals on Prime Day and access to the new clothing service, Prime Wardrobe (willpower, don’t fail me now). If you take advantage of deals, you can make up the $99 annual cost of Prime.

For items that aren’t on a deep discount, shop around to ensure you’re getting the best price. Sometimes Walmart, Target or another retailer beats Amazon’s price.

If you’re an Amazon Prime member and have a Kindle e-reader or Fire tablet, you have another option of borrowing from the Kindle Owners Lending Library. Amazon says that hundreds of thousands of titles are available in the lending library, but you MUST own a device (not just using the app) and you can borrow just one book per month and one at a time. You can keep a book as long as you’d like, but you must return it before getting another one. It appears that the Kindle Owners Lending Library includes most all the Kindle Unlimited titles.

My recommendation for most book-loving folks? Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial. You can get one book free on your Kindle device and several inexpensive books each month for less than a Kindle Unlimited membership, unless you read LOTS. Again, with both programs, check the monthly featured books and happy reading!