Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by MumblingFumbler

I think any strategy that 'raises red flags' based on book turnover is going be a very tough one to implement, for some of the following reasons:

1) I like to browse. I check out a book, it stinks, and I return it right away.
2) I'm doing research, and I just need access to a passage in a book. I
read/quote/cite the passage, and return the book right away.
3) I'm fixing my toilet (or pruning my fruit tree, or cooking a recipe, or whatever). I have no intention of reading the whole book. I just get the information I need, and return the book right away.

There are many other cases like this. Its going to be very difficult to separate these cases from those where the reader is up to no good.

But they don't have to be up to no good. If Amazon determines that certain behavior is not making them money (or even costing them money) they are likely to pull the plug on that user. When they cancel the ability to return books, they don't accuse the person of reading and returning. They simple cancel the ability.

So if someone actually reads one or two pages of 160 books, they may determine they will 'refuse' the service.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

If you recall, Prime DID go monthly, for a brief period of time. I am guessing it was a test and that they weren't satisfied with the results because it didn't last. However, those who signed up for the monthly plan were able to keep it. I still have it.

Yeah, and only lasted about two weeks. Not much of a test. Are you still paying $7.99/mo?

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

So if someone actually reads one or two pages of 160 books, they may determine they will 'refuse' the service.

I would think Amazon wouldn't especially mind those types of subscribers. They only pay commission if 10% of the book is read. People sampling can be quite profitable.

Amazon promotes its discoverability. It is KU's most prominent feature.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Amazon promotes its discoverability. It is KU's most prominent feature.

Oh, so you think that Amazon may never intent to include the big publishers in KU since they are already easily discovered everywhere?

I would not really mind since most of their book are too expensive for me. And if included would more than likely raise [the] price for KU. And who is going to have to pay for it? The subscribers.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by MumblingFumbler

I think any strategy that 'raises red flags' based on book turnover is going be a very tough one to implement, for some of the following reasons:

1) I like to browse. I check out a book, it stinks, and I return it right away.
2) I'm doing research, and I just need access to a passage in a book. I
read/quote/cite the passage, and return the book right away.
3) I'm fixing my toilet (or pruning my fruit tree, or cooking a recipe, or whatever). I have no intention of reading the whole book. I just get the information I need, and return the book right away.

There are many other cases like this. Its going to be very difficult to separate these cases from those where the reader is up to no good.

Numbers 2 & 3 actually are cases of the reader being up to no good.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Oh, so you think that Amazon may never intent to include the big publishers in KU since they are already easily discovered everywhere?
I would not really mind since most of their book are too expensive for me. And if included would more than likely raise [the] price for KU. And who is going to have to pay for it? The subscribers.

I would hope that they don't raise their price if they expand their selection. Their competitors do offer access to big publishers. Scribd charges $8.99 per month, and Oyster charges $9.95.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Yeah, and only lasted about two weeks. Not much of a test. Are you still paying $7.99/mo?

When Prime cost went up, it increased to $8.75/mo.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I would hope that they don't raise their price if they expand their selection. Their competitors do offer access to big publishers. Scribd charges $8.99 per month, and Oyster charges $9.95.

Amazon does not need to beat their competitors in selection if the competitors cannot compete with the ecosystem. For ease of use neither scribd or oyster will do me any good on my eink kindles. They are not reason enough to abandon my kindles either. Who knows if they are able to survive once Amazon goes aggressive in gaining market share. "Accidental" leak of KU? I don't believe that for a second - it is the start of something to keep an eye on. Amazon got enough money up their sleeve to play dirty.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why would they do that, when they can get $119.88 out of that same person the way it is now?

Because it's common business practice to give discount for committing to longer term?

A dozen donuts cost less than 12 individual donuts bought separately, that kind of thing.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon should add a yearly plan to KU for $99.

They probably will offer that option or something similar if they don't get into their target signups range in few months.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Amazon does not need to beat their competitors in selection if the competitors cannot compete with the ecosystem. For ease of use neither scribd or oyster will do me any good on my eink kindles. They are not reason enough to abandon my kindles either. Who knows if they are able to survive once Amazon goes aggressive in gaining market share. "Accidental" leak of KU? I don't believe that for a second - it is the start of something to keep an eye on. Amazon got enough money up their sleeve to play dirty.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who isn't going to pay $9.99 per month to have access to books that I don't want to read just because they can be read on e-ink Kindles. Lots of people these days are reading on tablets and phones. It's better economics to pay that much for access to books that I want to read with my Oyster subscription and read them on my iPad. Or, I could just stick to borrowing from my public library which has a very expansive collection.

If they expand their selection, then I don't want to pay more than $10 if I can get the same selection elsewhere for under $10. I suspect that $9.99 is a psychological barrier that Amazon doesn't want to cross yet. There are many people on this forum who don't like to pay that much on a book purchase.

I do prefer to read on my Paperwhite over my tablet for most books. If Amazon keeps the current price and expands selection, then I will consider canceling my other subscription and switch to KU. That's the nature of competition. I won't lose anything if I support one service now and then switch to another later. You're just paying for access during the time of your valid subscription.

[The Old Man]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon should add a yearly plan to KU for $99.

Like Netflix Amazon needs to have several plans. Different strokes for different folks. Harry accused me of "gaming the system" when I suggested I may cancel for a few months while I read the ten books and then sign up again for ten more. Why not offer a $4.99 / month plan for 5 books. Something like that might keep me signed up month after month.

On a different note - does anyone know how Amazon pays the publisher/author for these KU books it is offering?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Like Netflix Amazon needs to have several plans. Different strokes for different folks. Harry accused me of "gaming the system" when I suggested I may cancel for a few months while I read the ten books and then sign up again for ten more. Why not offer a $4.99 / month plan for 5 books. Something like that might keep me signed up month after month.

No, the "gaming the system" comment referred not to the fact that you planned to leave and then rejoin - absolutely nothing wrong with that - but that you said you planned to leave your WiFi turned off to avoid books being deleted. I believe that the intended usage of the system is that you read books while you're a member, rather than joining to "stock up" and then leaving while you read them.

[hardcastle]

Originally Posted by The Old Man

Like Netflix Amazon needs to have several plans. Different strokes for different folks. Harry accused me of "gaming the system" when I suggested I may cancel for a few months while I read the ten books and then sign up again for ten more. Why not offer a $4.99 / month plan for 5 books. Something like that might keep me signed up month after month.

Because the goal of the service isn't local storage of books, just like the goal of Netflix or Spotify isn't to let you locally store a ton of video/music at any given time. The point of Amazon's limit is to make the service dependent on Amazon's servers. If you want to cycle through more than 10 books, just download another book and get rid of the one you've read the longest ago. Functionally the service is still the same (unless you have poor wi-fi, which means Kindle Unlimited was already functionally useless to you anyway).

Downloading 10 books and then cutting off the wi-fi misses the point of the service entirely. Maybe you'll be able to cackle madly while you read those ten books on a free trial (which I'm sure only applies once) but if you kept the service around, connected to the internet every so often and continually rotated books out as they drew your attention, you'd have the full access to Kindle Unlimited's entire library instead of just 10 books. What's the point of spending $10 to read 10 books when you could ready so much more than that? The difference between local storage and Amazon server storage is non-existent from the user's point of view.

[The Old Man]

I respond to the two replies above. I read other books, mags, news, etc other than those 10 books. I can't see paying $10 per month for 3 or 4 books. I know, then you say the system isn't for me. Perhaps.