BJ: Amazon recently launched a potentially ground-breaking new eBook/audiobook purchasing model named “Kindle Unlimited.” For those of you have not yet had a chance to explore this new program, Kindle Unlimited boasts a library of over 600,000 books and 2,100 audiobooks across all genres, up to ten of which can be borrowed at any time, in exchange for a monthly fee of $9.99 to its U.S. customers. Additionally, Amazon is including a three-month membership to Audible, and is presently offering a 30-day free trial for new members. Brenda have you had a chance to look into Kindle Unlimited yet? What are your initial impressions?
Brenda: Yes I was immediately interested in checking out the program – admittedly for my mom who is a voracious reader (at least one book a day). With her reading appetite, she is not particular in her choices as long as the title contains romance but no erotica. ;) We have her signed up with a long list of authors or specific titles on her Amazon Wishlist as a queue of “go to” titles to start with.
My personal interest was piqued after realizing audiobooks would be included. Who of us here at AudioGals could resist delving into the possibilities with that initial hook?
BJ: As a romance enthusiast, the first thing I looked into when I heard of this program was Kindle Unlimited’s romance library. Right now a little over 38,000 romance e-books are included. Although that’s only around 6% of the entire library, this is still a good number. However, a quick glance indicates that many of the titles are already Amazon Prime eligible. As an Amazon Prime member, I can borrow one of these eBook titles a month (one of my favorite Amazon Prime perks, and one that I make sure to use on a monthly basis). Therefore, that means that I would have to borrow on average three – four eBooks, assuming a Kindle price of $2.99 to $3.99 per book, a month from this library to break even. I just don’t see that happening. What about you Brenda?
Brenda: I too am focused on their romance library. After going through my vast (six years of collecting) Kindle library, I found two dozen titles by authors I would purchase no matter the format (as opposed to the many I’ve downloaded for free or 99 cents because they struck my fancy) that are included in the Kindle Unlimited program. Doing the math tells me there is an extremely small ratio of titles that would currently be of interest to me within Kindle Unlimited.
BJ: The audiobook feature of this program holds greater economic potential for me. Given that approximately $9.50 is the cheapest Audible credit one can buy – and that’s only if you are willing to buy the Platinum 24-credit plan where you pay for all 24 credits upfront – listening to just two Kindle Unlimited audiobooks a month could save you money. All that said, the romance audiobook library presently contains only 295 titles. I would really like to see that number increase exponentially before I consider joining this program. Brenda, did any of the Kindle Unlimited books that interested you contain the free narration with the Kindle Unlimited membership?
Brenda: Out of the two dozen books I mentioned above that reside in my Kindle ebook library, only one dozen had the matching audiobook included as part of the Kindle Unlimited membership plan – again, not nearly enough titles to entice me to presently join the service full time.
BJ: I’ve noticed that many of the selections included in the Kindle Unlimited program are either Amazon/Brilliance produced or self-published titles. This anomaly makes me wonder if this is really an additional vehicle to promote Amazon platform books. While there are a number of Amazon titles each month that are on my wish list, I’d also really like to see the selection extended to other publishers before considering joining this program. Brenda, what are your thoughts?
Brenda: As a romance fan I would definitely need to see the selection extended and I have high hopes of this happening given Amazon’s history with Prime Instant video, Video on Demand, and Whispersync. These programs all started off sounding big (while in actuality having small current or desirable selections) but have grown into great programs with large selections. They are also constantly improving which means I will be keeping a close eye on Kindle Unlimited.
BJ: That’s a great point Brenda! I hope you’re right! What about alternative programs offering eBooks on a subscription basis? Have you ever had the chance to explore any of those options, and, if so, how do they compare with Kindle Unlimited?
Brenda: Last week after looking into Kindle Unlimited I also looked into two other unlimited eBook rental sites – Scribd. and Oyster – that are in the same price range. Both allow you to browse their catalog of titles and search by author. I also looked into Entitle where your $9.99 per month membership purchases two eBooks per month that are yours to keep. You can browse Entitle’s selection but you cannot search by author unless you sign up – which I found off putting. All of these services offer free trials like Kindle Unlimited does.
And on an important note, each of the above services offer a wider selection of popular authors (Linda Howard – Kresley Cole – Susan Elizabeth Phillips – Julia Quinn to name a few) and publishers when compared with KindleUnlimited’s current choices.
BJ: Unfortunately, none of those services offer audiobooks. Are you aware of any subscription or audiobook rental services?
Brenda: Last year I looked into the available audiobook rental sites and while they piqued my interest (and at times have audiobooks available before Audible releases them), I concluded that for price and selection, Audible was still my best choice as in the end I owned the audiobooks. Here is a link to the article for any interested. I was happy to see that the comparison chart of audiobook services linked in the article has been updated for 2014.
BJ: One interesting, incremental benefit of the Kindle Unlimited program is that Amazon is, according to a customer service representative I spoke with, making the Whispersync for Voice add-on narration feature available for Kindle Unlimited books – meaning that, although not free, for a small fee (many of which are between $1.99 and $3.99), you can purchase the audiobook for a Kindle Unlimited book you are borrowing. Previously, you could only take advantage of this deal if you purchased the Kindle book (which depending on the book, your Audible plan and the 
specific Whispersync deal, may or may not be cheaper than using an Audible credit). In addition to the 295 free ones, there are about an additional 800 romance audiobooks that are available for a reduced price using the Whispersync deal price. I understood from the customer service representative, that if you do purchase the Whispersync deal, you are able to keep the audiobook even if you later cancel your Kindle Unlimited membership. Perhaps this could be a way to get other publishers to join on to the program. Brenda, do you think that an expansion of this feature alone could sway you, as a listener, towards subscribing to Kindle Unlimited?
Brenda: I am very interested by this aspect of the plan BJ. I did not know about it until reading your well-researched comments – intriguing. Being allowed to keep the audiobooks purchased at a steep discount after canceling your Unlimited membership is generous on Amazon’s part and gives me an added incentive to continue to follow what’s happening with it.
BJ: I suppose with the 30-day free trial period that Amazon is offering, giving Kindle Unlimited a limited try is a no-brainer. Thereafter, I imagine for at least the first three months, when you receive the bonus three Audible credits, it’s still a no-risk proposition. Beyond that period, however, I would have to see a substantial increase in the number of romance titles, or at least some rotation thereof, in order to be interested in continuing a Kindle Unlimited membership. Will you give it a try Brenda?
Brenda: Yes I will be taking advantage of the free 30 day trial to see how it works. Further, I can see utilizing the Kindle Unlimited program for one month at a time a few times a year to experience new authors and narrators at a reasonable price. Being able to cancel your membership at anytime makes this possible, which I appreciate. I’ve started building a list of authors and narrators that are in the program so that when I’m ready to branch out and experience new talent, I have a starting point. BJ, we’ll have to report back in with our trial results and as we watch the Kindle Unlimited program unfold and grow.
BJ and Brenda
I also went through my recent Kindle purchases to see which would have been kindle unlimited, and was disappointed that most were not. I’m spending more than $10/month on kindle books but if I did kindle Unlimited it would double my spending! Or limit my reading. I also did a search by author to skim the listings for kindle unlimited and again, my go-to authors don’t seem to be in the program. I don’t even know if a 30-day trial is worth it. Hmmmm, 600,000 titles sure sounds like a lot!!
Thanks for doing the research and I look forward to seeing what you think after your trial!
I did the 30 day trial and the free credit that came with this and read only three books. While it sounded good, when I went through the catalog, I couldn’t find much that I didn’t already own or wanted to try. I do listen to a lot of audiobooks but the narrators used are not some of my favorites.
Plus, Amazon has a habit of making their imprints Daily Deals or Bargain priced for .99 and 1.99 with the Whispersync audio priced around the same. As frequently as they do this–usually a few months after the title is released–I can’t see myself spending 9.99 a month to read/listen book or two that may only cost me 2.00 a few months down the road.
I’m currrently doing the free 30-day trial. I’m enjoying it quite a bit. As someone who relies almost solely on audiobooks for reading, anything that will give me access to more of them at a discounted price is a good thing. I found several things that interested me in the initial list of romances that included narration, and I’ve yet to look through the additional titles available with Whisper Sync.
I would love to be able to see a listing of Kindle Unlimited books that are available with the free audiobooks. I have been searching through authors I like to see if their books are on the list, but as you say, they aren’t there. But if Amazon just had a list (without spending hours searching), it would be much easier. Who knows? We might find books by authors we like but didn’t know about.
Hi Donna, here’s a link to a listing of all the books on Amazon Kindle Unlimited that have free narration: http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_422999562_4?ie=UTF8&node=9630682011 Once you get to that page you can further refine your search by searching via subject or other featured category. Additionally, for those of you who, like me, are primarily interested in romance titles, here’s a link solely to the free romance audiobook titles: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_20?rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133143011%2Cn%3A9630682011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A158566011&bbn=9630682011&ie=UTF8&qid=1407848881&rnid=154606011
Hi Donna, if you click on the top image of this article, it will take you to a webpage on Amazon where you can access all of the audiobooks that come free with the Kindle Unlimited narration. Once you land on that page, you can search by genre or other featured category.
This is something I will wait on. I can’t see myself getting much use out of the present selections. Thanks for all the legwork. I was very curious.
Carrie
I came to the same conclusions as y’all after going through my list of books that I wanted to read – Kindle Unlimited just didn’t offer enough of them for it to be a good value for me at the moment. I will keep any eye on it, though, since (like you said) Prime has turned out to be a pretty great value. Great post!
I’m only interested in the audios as well. Maybe once I get caught up on my purchased and for review audios I’ll do the free 30 day trail. But I won’t do the full membership since my two local libraries I have cards for has TONS of ebooks and audios (YAY) that I can check out. Seriously I have over 200 audios on my wish list on my library account. And those are FREE all day everyday. LOL
Wow Jennifer! That’s great that you have access to libraries with so many great audiobooks! Although the Kindle Unlimited books are less likely to be in their collections, I’m with you, take advantage of what they do have that you’re interested in first!