Review : Is Kindle Unlimited Worth It?

UPDATE: I am now noting kindle unlimited availability, by book, in my monthly reading lists and providing ongoing analysis of whether kindle unlimited would have saved me $ that month. For my Sci-fi & Fantasy reading list–August 2014, kindle unlimited would have saved me $10, so the value has improved for me in the past month. Will keep you posted, @securityjones.

This past week, Amazon introduced kindleunlimited, a service available for $9.99 a month, which offers a library of more than 600,000 e-books and thousands of audiobooks.  In this post, I look at whether that subscription is worth it for most readers.

The least you need to know:

The kindleunlimited subscription, as launched, provides little value for the vast majority of people. 

Continue reading for all the details and analysis.

The Washington Post has asked Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? in one article and I want to address the same question here, since I found their answer unsatisfying in terms of specifics.  Their main criteria came out to be how many books you read per year:

Kindle Unlimited is $9.99 per month. So you'll be paying Amazon, whose chief executive Jeffrey Bezos owns The Washington Post, around $120 per year for the unfettered e-book access. If you're habitually spending money on more than one book per month, then it's a service to think about. It has its perks for big book buyers -- namely that don't have to worry about spending money on a book you end up hating.

According to the research highlighted by the Washington Post, the average person doesn’t read enough to make kindle unlimited worthwhile, but it may be worth a look if you read more than one book per month.

This simple analysis really only makes sense if you are someone who primarily reads paperback or hardback books and are making the jump to ebooks.  Realistically, if you are reading ebooks on a Kindle or Nook or your iPad already, then you are already reaping large savings over your peers who still buy “real” (non-electronic) books.  My wife, for example, reads 3-4 books a month, but it is not at all clear to me that she’d benefit from this new service.  On one hand, when she’s looking through the Amazon library, she gives preference to books she sees that she can “borrow for free”, but on the other hand is equally willing to spend 11.99 to pre-order the latest from a known and well-loved author.

How many books do you read?

So, let’s start where the Washington Post did with the question of how many books we read.  I looked back at the actual digital orders for my wife and I from the beginning of April to July 20. Note that Jacki largely reads romance/romantic suspense/romantic comedy and I primarily read science fiction & fantasy.

So, using the rough guideline from Washington Post, it looks like kindle unlimited could be a good fit for both Jacki and me.  Let’s continue looking at a second question.

How much do you spend on books each month?

I made a spreadsheet of all of the ebooks that Jacki and I purchased and read since April and divided the total by the number of days.  It turns out that Jacki has spent about $0.75/day and I’ve spent about $1.50/day – but let’s look at that by month (rounded values).

Again, it looks like kindle unlimited could be a good fit for both of us.  Even though Jacki hasn’t spent $9.99 yet in July, it seems likely she’ll buy another book or two.  Even if she doesn’t, the potential saving from the other months make a subscription look potentially valuable.  So, if all of the books we’ve read could be acquired under kindle unlimited, it would clearly be a deal of us.

So far, though, we’ve been ignoring one huge question – how many of the books we buy would be offered as part of kindle unlimited?

How many books did we read that were covered by kindle unlimited?

In this table, I captured how many books we actually read that are covered by kindle unlimited and then put the $cost next to it.

This puts in solid numbers and it is clear that kindle unlimited would not have been a value for either Jacki or me.  In fact, if we wanted to read the same set of books, we would have ended increasing our costs by more than $55 over the time period. (representing the difference between the monthly totals in the table and $9.99)

For another data point, I did a forward analysis looking at books on my “Recommended for you > Books on Kindle” and found that only 49 of the 150 books (~ 30%) on the list were covered by the subscription.  My average book cost was $4.42 [note: these costs include tax since we live in Washington] and I read an average 9 books/month in the table above, so let’s call it 10 books per month since July is not over. 

In theory, it looks close for me if I read 3 subscriptions books each month of an average value of $4.42.  Again though, the value isn’t quite that high, since the average cost of my books covered by the subscription were only $3.40.  Another issue would be the variance – I’m not going to get a refund on months where I read less than 3, while I would have to read 4 or greater to really accrue any savings in a given month.

Would it be valuable if you only read self-published books?

To be succinct, no.

To be honest, when I started this analysis, I sort of expected that kindle unlimited would be of value to us because we tend to read a lot of self-published books from Amazon. 

I’m a huge supporter of self-published books on Amazon, which has opened up a vast new set of science fiction and fantasy series that I otherwise wouldn’t have had access to.  I’d estimate that 80% of my ebook purchases now fall into that category thanks to awesome stories from Christopher Nuttall, Lindsey Buroker, Jamie McFarlane, Michael G. Southwick and many, many others.  These authors, given a fighting chance, are creating some great stories to entertain us – and becoming better writers with each book they release!

On the other hand, these books are cheaper anyway.  Out of 37 books since April, only 6 cost me over $7.  Over half of the books cost me less than $3.50 including tax.

Contrary to what I expected though, when I look through these authors’ books on Amazon, many of them are not covered by kindle unlimited.  School in Magic, for example, and Bookworm by Chris Nuttall and I don’t see any of Buroker’s books are in the subscription, nor Chris Hechtl’s books.

So, in spite of speculation by myself and media, even folks who focus exclusively on the emerging self-publishing genres on Amazon aren’t necessarily getting enough value to justify the monthly subscription.

When would kindle unlimited makes sense?

Assuming you are a pretty frequent reader, there are two scenarios where kindle unlimited could be worthwhile:

Scenario 1: It would be worthwhile if enough of the books read are covered by kindle unlimited which consistently cost more than $9.99 total, per month.  As demonstrated above, this is not the case for us with the current set of books covered by kindle unlimited.

Scenario 2: It would be worthwhile if one was willing tailor their choices to what is covered by kindle unlimited.

Honestly, scenario 2 seems very unlikely for any dedicated reader.  Are you not going to read the latest from your favorite author if it isn’t in the subscription?  Unlikely, so that means you’ll pay for books above and beyond the subscription while still needing to read enough volume from kindle unlimited to make it worthwhile.

And while having some high profiles book series like the Hunger Games, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter makes it seem more valuable and interesting, I suspect avid readers have already read all of these.  I know I have.  To make it valuable to me, there are a few things that will have to happen:

• Known and loved authors for key genres will have to join the program.  Think of the books you read that show up on Amazon and allow you to place an advance order.  I’m not holding my breath on this one, but this would seriously increase the $ value of the subscription.
• If all self-published fiction (at least for key genres) was included.  I suspect it is heading this way, so I’ll have to do a reassessment in 3-6 months to see how things have changed.  I will still be buying books outside of the subscription for ‘big’ authors/books, but this sort of change could represent a bigger savings to me.
• A change in the business model.  I can’t anticipate what this would be, but in my opinion, the current business model is almost completely unsustainable because the value to customers is so low.  It must be a loss leader or forcing function for Amazon towards some other future objective because it is hard to imagine very many readers for which the subscription is worthwhile.

Other Considerations

I don’t leverage the audiobooks, so I didn’t really assess the value of the “more than 2,000 digital audio titles,” but at least one of my colleagues was very interested in that.

Also, I didn’t look at a scenario for youth or children readers – and this could be more appealing for newer readers since they won’t necessarily have read Harry Potter or whatever.  I did spot check my 9yo sons three favorite book series and none of them were covered by kindle unlimited, so that is a data point.

Another thing that I didn’t explore was leveraging one account for the family.  My wife and I use separate accounts for our book purchases because of the recommendations, so I did my analysis that way.  Eyeballing the final table makes it obvious that even if we worked from a single account, kindle unlimited would add cost for us, rather than saving us anything, but your mileage may vary.

Finally, I’m a bit of a collector. One thing I love about my kindle/Amazon experience is that I can go back through 2010 and see exactly what books I read, when I read them and potentially read them again.  I don’t know how that changes with kindle unlimited.  Is it like Netflix in that I could read a book, but potentially lose access to it later when a contract expires? I don’t like that idea, especially when we’re talking about books that only cost $2.99.

Conclusion – Kindle Unlimited is Not a Value for Most People

As an avid reader, the idea of a “Netflix for books” is one that appeals to me, but in my analysis, the kindle unlimited service as it is currently implemented would simply increase the amount of money I’m paying for my books.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  That is true and I'd even put myself sort of in the category, in that I'm always reading something. But it isn't free, so you look at the alternative scenarios. Right now in my recommendations (just looked), there is 1 book for 0.99, 1 book for 1.99 and 3 books for 2.99. If I'm willing to filter to (some subset) as you describe, and only read 1 book per week, then I can buy 4 books for less than $9.99 without even looking very far in the list. Also, if there is a month when I get busy and read less, I haven't paid $9.99 for nothing. If I was more budget-focused, this might be a value for me. However, if I was really budget constrained then I'd probably leverage openlibrary.org and the King County Library more heavily.
• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Thanks for the copyediting feedback! I corrected some places (and several other mistakess you didn't point out), so let me know if you find other errors. Best regards, Jeff
• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  As I note in my update, selection has increased for me already, so August would've save me money (though over 4 months, it is still a net loss, so I'll continue to monitor.) I think they needed to get it in place before making it a more prominent part of their strategy for self-published authors.
  
  Melissa - glad to hear you are liking it. I'm still not sure how I feel since I like to "collect" my books and Netflix has shown me that stuff "on the list" can easily be taken "off the list."
  
  MichaelC - We used to leverage one account, but it is a trade-off. My wife and I read very different genres, so she was always super annoyed by my influence on the recommendations. It is better to use two separate accounts for us ;-) Interestingly, I've been thinking in the context of the whole Hatchette dispute that Amazon should be adding some budget-friendly editing services for self-published authors too. As a (someday) aspiring writer, I think I'd value it.
• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  thanks for sharing.
• Anonymous
  July 22, 2014
  Some people will read books just to read them. So if the latest Steven Kings isn't in the list, some will wait and see if it is added. Meanwhile they'll find a free book that they do like.
• Anonymous
  August 05, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 05, 2014
  Image background from wallpaperup.com
  
  
  
  July was a mixed reading month for me, some great and
• Anonymous
  August 09, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 12, 2014
  I joined, and 24 hours later, I cancelled. I had assumed that 600,000 books would be about everything on Amazon. After spending 2 and 1/2 hours trying to buy some books I was interested in, I found that most of the books were not included in the offer. I cancelled after 24 hours, so that I wouldn't have an automatic payment withdrawn in 30 days. I think this is poorly explained and shame on Amazon for selling a service that misleads people. If this stays the same it will do more damage to Amazon's reputation than the revenue it generates.
• Anonymous
  August 16, 2014
  I too canceled before the 30 days was up. Though I did read quite a few books that were not available via my library, Amazon didn't offer the books for free I really wanted to read, they wanted me to buy them. Not a chance...why buy a book that I will only read once?
• Anonymous
  August 17, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 19, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  September 01, 2014
  Thank you for this detailed analysis! I just saw this Kindle option. I read more than 4 books a month, and I wondered about the selection of offerings through this "unlimited" option. Your review just saved me an additional $9.99 a month - $ that I will spend on books I actually want to read! Great review! - IMO - this feature should be included in the new, more expensive "Prime" offerings. We've been Prime members for years, and I expected some increase in service for more $. Sadly, this is not the case. Not sure if we will keep up our Prime membership this year. I'll need to perform a similar cost/benefit analysis before our renewal date. - Your efforts were a huge help to me! Thanks again!!
• Anonymous
  September 03, 2014
  I just heard about Kindle Unlimited and from browsing on their site was having my doubts but your post helped clarify the issues. I was hoping it would be worth it for my elderly mother as she reads dozens of books a month but has fairly narrow areas of interest. None of her favorite authors were included. And even older series available in ebook form (I checked on Rex Stout, a favorite of mine) were not included. My libraries keep improving their ebook offerings so I'll stick with free for now. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting in your analysis - very helpful.
• Anonymous
  September 03, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  September 05, 2014
  I read a lot of self published books mainly to do with travel or self help and I find a lot of the books on the list are books i'm interested in reading or a LOT are books I've already paid for. I know I'm saving money already I just wish this had been around sooner.
• Anonymous
  September 06, 2014
  A couple of thoughts. Since you can have more than one device signed into an account, wouldnt it be possible to have your whole family or group of friends signed into an account? That would make it more viable.
  
  As far as Amazon's next step is concerned, what they need to do is to improve the quality of the self published books to make them have a broader appeal. In short, they need to start an editing service (maybe in exchange for a percentage of your sale price) to will help whip your manuscripts into shape. If they were smart they would do it along the lines of the Mechanical Turk service, at least for the first round of editing.The second round might have to be an individual or a small group, in order to make the suggestions more directed.
• Anonymous
  September 07, 2014
  I appreciated the feedback which has helped me to decide against Kindle Unlimited. I would love, however, if you would realize that 'I' is not always the appropriate pronoun! When you say, "...it looks like kindle unlimited could be a good fit for both Jacki and I" it should be "...a good for for both Jacki and me." After all, you wouldn't say, "a good fit for I." (At least I hope you wouldn't!) This occurred over and over in the post!
• Anonymous
  September 15, 2014
  This was a great article - thanks for breaking it down like that! I can see that for my personal reading, I would be wasting money on this if it were just for myself. I thought the range of Unlimited titles was pretty bare - the items I was specifically looking for weren't there at all. However - I have two children, and I read bedtime stories to them every night. Also, they're having to do homework where they choose a book to read each day for 20 minutes or so. For this scenario, I think the Unlimited is working great. They both have their own kindles and I can browse through and add books for them. They've even got "Choose Your Own Adventure" books - which I thought was pretty awesome. We've switched over to e-books (now the bookcases in their rooms have been repurposed) and we're able to keep the content fresh - choosing a new children's book every night if we want to. It's been great for this specific scenario.
• Anonymous
  September 15, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  September 17, 2014
  I was perplexed by your comment that people reading books were saving money over people who bought paperbacks. I always find thee book version (of a newly released book) to be higher than the cost of a paperback. Which is kind of ridiculous really.
  
• Anonymous
  September 24, 2014
  i read a dozen books a month. most of my reading is done at work while waiting for production. i need to read books that do not require a lot of concentration and can be put down and picked back up randomly thru the day. unlimited fits my needs pretty well. i also rent bestseller free from my local library.
• Anonymous
  October 04, 2014
  It doesn't seem that anyone else has commented on this, so perhaps it's just me... but what made me cancel my 30-day freebie within an hour of starting it was Amazon's utterly appalling (as in nonexistent) search facility. There are broad categories, but as soon as I attempt to search for an author or title, I'm back to the whole library - not just the Unlimited collection. To me that's enough to render the whole scheme completely useless, and it wrecks Amazon's reputation for clever thinking. It's lazy and exploitative.
• Anonymous
  October 06, 2014
  Not worth the money, the selection is abysmal. In my goodreads que I have 24 books, I was astonished to find that none of them were available through the kindle unlimited program. Those 24 books are from a wide variety of topics. So if you are at all picky about what you read don't waste the 9.99 a month.
• Anonymous
  October 08, 2014
  I download books to my Kindle from the public library. It's free. There are a few drawbacks: it's set up like a "regular" library where you might have to put a copy on hold, then wait for it to become available; you have a limited number of days to read it ( my library lets you choose 7, 14, or 21 days); depending on the number of copies and the amount of people waiting for the book, it might take a while to be able to download; sometimes brand new releases aren't out in ebook form right away; If you put a bunch of books on hold, thinking it will be awhile before you come up in the queue, you might all of a sudden have 5 books available. My library only allows 10 downloaded (checked-out) books at a time. You do need a library card to use the service.
  
  My library offers audio and e-books.
• Anonymous
  October 18, 2014
  Thank you all. My mind is now made up. No thank you Amazon.
• Anonymous
  October 23, 2014
  Image background from wallpaperup.com
  
  
  
  September was another great reading month, with a new
• Anonymous
  October 26, 2014
  I love my Kindle Unlimited. I have discovered fairly unknown self-published authors that tell wonderful stories that are as good as the big names. I save lots of money each month. I do occasionally buy other books including tech books which I would not expect to be included. As an aside, I bought and read the Hunger Games trilogy before it was "cool". I found this article interesting, but for me, the limited unlimited program fit right in my reading target area. May peace be with each of you, Must.
• Anonymous
  October 28, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  November 01, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  November 05, 2014
  Thanks for saving me money! Just a point re multiple users on one account. We do this, as why should my family have to pay for books that I have already bought? However a real downside is that the search facility on the kindle is now so slow that it has become unusable and I have resorted to using Apple iBooks. And taking away the Prime borrowing is really poor customer service. Amazon has some good stuff going for it, but they should stop being greedy and start thinking about customer service and need!
• Anonymous
  November 25, 2014
  Your review tells us a lot more than Amazon does, confirming, as I suspected, that the choice available ia actually more restricted than it appears with not necessarily the books I'd want to buy. Downloading several books a month, Kindle Unlimited seemed a good option until reading your research - if it truly was 'unlimited' then it would be too good to be true for most readers. Many thanks!
• Anonymous
  December 11, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  December 22, 2014
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  April 29, 2015
  Thanks, I was not sure if the selection of authors and books would be satisfying enough for my tastes, your review helped me a lot. The information Amazon offers is very poor. And knowing that Amazon demands exclusivity to the authors (thanks, Massimo Marino) in AU creeps me out. Faust anyone?
  
• Anonymous
  September 13, 2015
  Thank you so much for sharing your evaluation of Kindle Unlimited. I'd have exhausted the trial subscription and a few months paid subscription before laying out the various angles as well as you've done for us. Very helpful.