Kindle Unlimited, Amazon Prime, Or Neither?

[Barbara1955]

Originally Posted by issybird

I suppose what I should do is keep a separate wishlist of KU titles that interest me and eventually sign up for a promotional month or two and bomb through them - except that's not how I like to read, which is whatever I feel like at the time. Still, I can see the value in that approach. (After all, I'm not shelling out ten bucks for that poetry book, ever.)

THIS is what I Do

[Barbara1955]

Originally Posted by stumped

Ps the free books for prime members is called Amazon first reads
Each month they send a list of 6 -8 books, a month before they go on sale ,and you can buy for free one, sometimes two, from the list. They are books that then usually get added to kindle unlimited the following month or sell of £3 - £4
I would struggle to highly recommend anything I have acquired from that scheme mostly they just clutter my purchased books list
Prime lending is like a subset of kindle unlimited, it is free but you can borrow a max of one book per month for as long as you like. Often they put volume 1 of a series into prime lending but not the subsequent ones. Again, it's mostly poor quality.

NON Prime members can BUY the books for $2 each....

[Junket]

Originally Posted by stumped

Prime lending is like a subset of kindle unlimited, it is free but you can borrow a max of one book per month for as long as you like.

Prime Reading (Prime lending replacement?), allows 10 books at once and you can change which ten you have on hand as often as you wish.

[tomsem]

I think the one per month thing is still called Kindle Owner Lending Library. If you buy a Kindle or Fire, you can borrow one book per month from what is essentially anything with Kindle Unlimited tag. You do not have to join Prime or KU. But you cannot read it on a non Amazon device (hmm would Echo qualify?). If you are either Prime or KU member then the one per month benefit effectively does not exist. Last time I checked, and it took a bit of trouble, there were only two books in KOLL that were not in the subscription selections.

[barryem]

I've had Amazon Prime since it began when it was only free shipping. I live in a rural area and I no longer drive so it was a big money saver for me.

Then they added video and that was a big plus for me. I also have Youtube and since I like old movies and TV shows I doubt I'd have signed up for Prime if the free shipping didn't interest me. But I soon realized I was watching a lot of good stuff on Prime Video that wasn't previously available to me. I don't own a TV and haven't for most of my life so my experience in this isn't typical. I also have Netflix and i think I probably watch 3 or 4 Prime TV shows for every Netflix show I watch. They seem to have a better handle on my taste.

I have a library full of books so Prime books didn't interest me much. I've used it a time or two. Kindle Unlimited didn't interest me either but then I got 6 months free with my new Paperwhite. I didn't even bother to check it out for a couple of month and when I did one day when I was in the mood for a legal thriller and none in my library seemed to fit my mood. I checked out a Kindle Unlimited book by an author I'd never heard of and gave it a try and it was excellent. I never would have paid the $10 price for that book, being by an unknown author, and I would have missed a really good book. My free 6 months has long expired but I've kept it just for trying out strange new authors. I can't say it pays for itself. I don't think it does in my case. But I do get a extra good book now and then that I'd have missed without it.

I don't need KU because of the size of my library. I've been buying books when they go on sale for years, usually for $2, and I have a lot of them now. But I'd miss it and I have no plan to get rid of it.

Barry

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by issybird

I suppose what I should do is keep a separate wishlist of KU titles that interest me and eventually sign up for a promotional month or two and bomb through them - except that's not how I like to read, which is whatever I feel like at the time. Still, I can see the value in that approach. (After all, I'm not shelling out ten bucks for that poetry book, ever.)

If you do want to try it, you can get three months for $1 at the moment.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/subscribe/ku
If I remember correctly, you can cancel your subscription immediately and it will still continue until the end of the period, so you don't have to worry about forgetting to cancel it at the end and getting charged.

[Junket]

That is a country-specific link. Offers vary from portal to portal.
When I bought a PW4 recently, it included three months free KU.

In Canada it would be a free 30-day trial

[JSWolf]

Here is a 30-day free trial in the UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/...u?tag=mr060-20

What I want to know is why does Amazon treat it's customers outside the US as third rate?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Junket

That is a country-specific link. Offers vary from portal to portal.

It is, but issybird's profile lists them as being in the US, which is why I posted it.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

If you do want to try it, you can get three months for $1 at the moment.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/subscribe/ku
If I remember correctly, you can cancel your subscription immediately and it will still continue until the end of the period, so you don't have to worry about forgetting to cancel it at the end and getting charged.

you can, but beware- just because you see a free trial banner does not necessarily mean another free trial.
I had such a banner on my new 2019 fire tablet, so I thought that's awfully generous of them I will take 30 days free. .. and was charged immediately.
I had to complain & get a refund. i honestly thought it was some "buy a new tablet get a free trial" deal, but I was wrong, and to be fair I have had several free trials already

so by all means take a trial but check the order details !

also beware, just because an amazon CS says they have cancelled an auto renew it ain't necessarily so. I was on a 3 month trial of amazon HD music - I contacted them to say that at the end of the 3 months I wanted to pay annually, not monthly. I was told I had to wait until end of trial and then create an annual payment but not to worry, they had cancelled the auto start of a monthly fee arrangement. [ and also told not to make an annual payment to soon as the trial would end early and I would be charged immediately. ]
luckily I checked later - they hadn't - i would have been charged monthly if I'd trusted them

[Junket]

What I want to know is why does Amazon treat it's customers outside the US as third rate?

It's because they misspell flashlight, stroller, truck and gasoline.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Here is a 30-day free trial in the UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/...u?tag=mr060-20

What I want to know is why does Amazon treat it's customers outside the US as third rate?

for some things yes, it is often the case that we pay £8 in place of 8 dollars- but see my other post.
Amazon are quite generous with KU trials in the UK. simple wait until you get a personalised invite and beware of banners

I still have no effective way of finding good reads in the million+ titles dross of KU, given that customer reviews are blatantly manipulated and not trustworthy.

EDIT: UPDATE. this looks good though, but dunno if it is USA only or genuinely live.. it says that only accounts that have spent USD 50 at amazon.com are eligible to write book reviews.
https://justpublishingadvice.com/ama...th-50-minimum/

I am starting to revert to goodreads, not that I like that site, but if a book or an author has zero reviews there, they are probably best avoided.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

If you do want to try it, you can get three months for $1 at the moment.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/subscribe/ku
If I remember correctly, you can cancel your subscription immediately and it will still continue until the end of the period, so you don't have to worry about forgetting to cancel it at the end and getting charged.

Thank you. I'd have to work up a substantial KU wishlist first to make it worthwhile, however, so I'll have to trust to luck down the road. Since I'm a KU virgin, I figure there'd have to be another offer eventually. Signing up first and then trolling for reads strikes me as an exercise in frustration and futility.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Here is a 30-day free trial in the UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/...u?tag=mr060-20

What I want to know is why does Amazon treat it's customers outside the US as third rate?

They don't. Why take business decisions personally? Amazon has no animus against its British customers. Heck, subscriptions at Audible UK are far cheaper than in the US, but I figure they charge what they can get, consonant with maximizing profits.

[Paperbackstash]

All answers are thorough on this, just wanted to put in my two cents that Prime would never be worth it for the books alone, that is a minimal and side deal. Most of the prime books will be offered the following month for free if you have unlimited anyway, or else they stay considerably cheap and go on sale often.

Our household uses Prime Video quite a bit but mainly by adding on extra channels to supplement, have to have that BritBox for our Poirot, you know We use the shipping as handy but it's not that often anymore, mainly around holidays.

I have my account without prime since I use my parents for the Prime purposes. When I ordered something recently on my account, the time difference to receive it with free shipping versus Prime free shipping was about the same anyway. I must have warehouses near me with that particular order. It was estimated two weeks but took 2 days.

[stumped]

i did have one good use for KU. That was wanting to read about some topic I knew nothing about.. . lets take "how to use windows 10" as an example. you know that most of the books about it will be rubbish but with KY is does not matter, you just grab 10, skim , return if crap, rinse, repeat. , "Bitcoin" was another example, back when it was new & mysterious
that's when you stumble across the 10 page wonders , links to final page, and other scams designed to trick amazon into paying for a full book read...
as a guitar teacher at a time, I also read all the KU on how to play guitar- didn't learn much but I always wanted to peek inside those" learn anything instantly/ effortlessly" scams , so I did.

so join and have fun reading all those how to get very rich, very quickly books ( some of them will tell you to write for KU, I expect), then you can study how to lose weight effortlessly, how to pickup women/men, and all those other things you'd be too embarrassed to ask your local librarian for