Kindle Unlimited: Value for Money?

Hello, fellow book lovers. Thank you, Kim, for inviting me to the BG Blog. Today, I’d like to share a discussion post I wrote for my personal blog in November 2020. It was discussing my experiences with Amazon’s book borrowing service, Kindle Unlimited.

I’ll share my thoughts and experiences about the scheme, explain what you get as part of the subscription and whether I feel the monthly fee is value for money.

This isn’t a sponsored post or anything but I’ve seen a lot of reviews about Kindle Unlimited coming up in my feeds. I want to add my thoughts to the blogosphere.

Just in case you didn’t know, here’s a bit of information on what it is.

Kindle Unlimited Subscription

Kindle Unlimited is a paid monthly subscription that gives you access to Amazon’s Kindle lending library. You can enjoy ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon’s catalogue is extensive (over 1 million eBooks) and has titles in every category and genre including those with audible narrations. There’s a rotating selection of popular magazines that you can borrow too.

For £7.99 a month, you can borrow up to 10 Kindle Unlimited books at a time. Once you have 10 out and are looking to borrow another one, Amazon lets you choose which book or multiple books to return.

Sign up for a 30-day free trial. You have the option to cancel your subscription any time. What are you waiting for?

Here are the links:

Kindle Unlimited UK ¦ Kindle Unlimited US

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I’ve had my subscription since 14th May 2019 and have borrowed lots of books. But is it worth it?

The eBooks

To a book hoarder worm like me, my biggest issue at the beginning was that I didn’t actually own any of the books I download. I like owning books. However, if I’m honest with myself, there are certain books I re-read, but the majority of the books I own I read once and haven’t picked up since. Since starting Kindle Unlimited eighteen months ago, I’ve borrowed 26 books which is about 3 books borrowed every couple of months.

The Audiobooks

I bought an Audible subscription way back on 8th July 2018. It’s the same price per month as Kindle Unlimited. I’ve always used my free monthly credit as soon as it pops onto my account. Therefore, I’m frequently taking advantage of the discounted price for the audiobooks to Kindle Unlimited members. There are over 50,000 audiobooks available through the scheme, all have whispersync so you can swap between the eBook and narration easily.

My first experience of whispersync was with Chosen by K.F. Breene.

The story was an epic fantasy. I’d steered clear of that genre in the past due to the usually tricky pronunciations. Listening to the story while I was reading it seemed like the perfect solution. It was! In fact, listening to the narration while reading on my Kindle quickly became my favourite way to immersing myself into a story.

The Magazines

To be honest, I’m not a big magazine reader. Therefore, I can’t comment on this aspect of the membership. I know that there are lots of magazines to choose from across many genres. If you’re a KU subscriber and have borrowed magazines with your membership, drop me a comment. I’d love to know your thoughts about the selection, rotation and quantity of magazines available.

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My Conclusion: Is a subscription for Kindle Unlimited worth the money?

I think for me, it is worth the £7.99 a month I’m currently paying. As a supporter of indie authors, many of them put their books in Kindle Unlimited either permanently or temporarily after release. Plus, I’ve taken advantage of the huge discount on audiobooks by borrowing the eBooks from the catalogue.

For example, I borrowed Semi-Psychic Life by Elizabeth Hunter with my Kindle Unlimited membership and added the narration for £3.49! The audiobook costs non-members £16.00. Damn good saving, right?

In conclusion, Kindle Unlimited hasn’t saved me megabucks as I’m not a super-fast reader. However, I still think my bank account is in a healthier state because of it. I mean, I’d still be buying books, right?

I’d love to hear your thoughts about Kindle Unlimited. Are you thinking of buying a subscription? Do you have KU already? Drop me a comment below.

Before you go, don’t forget to check out my post about my growing love of eBooks and audiobooks over on my personal blog, Flora’s Musings.

Bye for now,

Flora x