Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Kindle Unlimited

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 199 posts

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#22

Post by ntaso »

Is this the same as the Lending Library you'll get with Prime, where you can get 1 book for free per month if you're Prime customer? If so, the offer in Germany is absolutely terrible. I found only 2 books in that library, because they count endless self-published garbage-titles to their library of "600,000+" titles.

From the comments here, I assume that the model is similar in the US and 9.99$ is only so cheap, because there's mostly junk in the library.

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#23

Post by uptown »

swanson wrote: post #17

I love the idea, but the selection is not good enough (for me) yet. I keep an Amazon wishlist as a "reading queue" and none of the 60 books (technical, business, pop-psych) in it were available on Kindle Unlimited. I usually buy 2-3 Kindle books a month at around $9/per, so I would definitely use this service if the selection improves. I kind of wonder if Amazon could get away with charging $9/month for any book they…

Agreed. I don't read many books, but I asked my wife about the last 3 ebooks she'd read. One of the three was already a free book due to Amazon prime and was also included in Kindle Unlimited. The other two weren't available as part of Kindle Unlimited.

So comparing Kindle Unlimited to Netflix's online streaming is actually a pretty accurate correlation. It's currently comprised of second-tier (or lower) books that aren't likely to yield the same profits as new and currently popular titles, so they're used as filler for this service.

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#24

Post by officemonkey »

Hermel wrote: post #11
leviathan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't understand why, when content is digital and distribution doesn't cost anything extra, things like this are restricted to specific countries.

It's legal, not technical restrictions.

It's not even laws, it's just contracts. Which, if parties were motivated, could be rewritten.

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#26

Post by hospadam »

Echo117 wrote: post #18
hospadam wrote: post #6

Can anyone offer any guidance on the audiobook aspect of this? What is a "Kindle book with narration"? If I'm an audible customer... doesn't this seem like a far better deal? Their page seems very light on details for audiobooks. Edit: I just found a link that includes Kindle Unlimited books with Narration: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=9630682011

There are about 2,000 audiobooks available through Kindle Unlimited. Compared with 150,000+ available through Audible. So yes, if the books you want to listen to are on KU, it's a better deal. *Full press release embedded here: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-unlimited-reading-2014...

Full press release ended with me finding a link that shows the narrated books they include. Edited above.

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#27

Post by wiremine »

bennesvig wrote: post #20

As an author with two books enrolled in KDP select, I didn't know they'd be included in Kindle Unlimited. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on sales.

Do you know how you and the publisher are compensated in this situation? I'm assuming there is some sort of royalty stream coming back to you? (I'm not asking for details, just generalities).

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#29

Post by thefreeman »

edent wrote: post #14
watty wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon isn't intentionally discriminating against your country, they don't have a choice.

I'm well aware of that. And, I don't think it's discrimination to only sign complex licensing deals in only one territory. I'm just not sure why people in the UK would go for this when the Library already does a fine job of "all you can read".

I haven't been to a Library in probably 20 years, so this is a legitimate question, not being snarky. Can you somehow check out e-books at libraries these days? Some people actually prefer that experience.

Re: Kindle Unlimited

#30

Post by bigtunacan »

mrt0mat0 wrote: post #15

To all the "this is just a 10 dollar library card", I ask you this: if library books are the way to go, why do people buy endless amounts of books from amazon. Amazon became successful by selling books. Audible is another successful company that offers a feature that according to you, can be achieved at a library. Clearly libraries are missing something or else we'd be using them more. Maybe it's one click instant ac…

Just to make sure we're all on the same page. Audible is just another piece of Amazon.
Post reply on HN