The Limited Kindle Unlimited – Look Before You Leap
Friday, Amazon announced a new plan called Kindle Unlimited which would allow readers to download and read as many books as they’d like, including audio book versions, so long as their subscription remains active. The news was touted far and wide as a big step forward for electronic books, and the Kindle Unlimited service was compared often to the Netflix streaming service (which Amazon already competes with via Prime).
Quite often, however, the small but significant detail that five major publishing houses are absent from the available Kindle Unlimited library was mentioned only as an aside with little comment on what this means for subscribers to the Kindle Unlimted Service.
In short, what it means is that nearly every bestselling book and major blockbuster in print will not be available to you as a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.
Outside of a few major titles, like the Harry Potter series and the long-in-print JRR Tolkien Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books, you’ll otherwise mostly be stuck with virtual unknowns and shoddy written-for-Kindle independent publications. This is not to say that there aren’t some hidden gems inside the huge 600,000-plus title library that will become available to the Kindle Unlimited subscriber, but anyone who’s spent any time perusing the e-books available on Amazon realizes that finding these precious stones is akin to catching a greased pig during a downpour. It’s going to be hard work.
According to several who caught this slight oversight, including the Puget Sound Business Journal, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, and MacMillan are all absent from the Kindle Unlimited library. Of course, the dominance of these publishing houses is likely headed down the drain, but it may be quite some time before the old guard actually hits the sewer, and until then, they still sign and publish some of the most sought-after authors and books on the shelf, virtual or otherwise. One look at the New York Times Bestseller List emphasizes this. That puts a lot of limits on the mainstream subscriber to Kindle Unlimited.
On the other hand, Kindle Unlimited subscribers do have access to some other great books, and for the parent looking to keep a child interested in reading with plenty of titles available, the fact that Scholastic is among those participating in Kindle Unlimited may make the $9.99 a month worth it.
Be aware, however, that a large chunk of those 600,000 book titles are pure junk. Many are literally created by web-scouring robots, unscrupulous marketers, and wannabe authors who have little regard for details like grammar and readability. Some of this was illustrated in quotes in this Inquisitr article about the Kindle Unlimited and what’s available for reading.
So although you may be thinking that the Kindle Unlimited plan is a huge boon to the book reader, caveat emptor. Make sure it’s actually a $120 per year value to you or you might find that Kindle Unlimited is pretty limited.
