Kindle Unlimited is a service offered by Amazon that functions much like a Netflix for books. For a fee of $9.99 per month, you can read as much as you want from its library of more than 1 million books, thousands of audiobooks and many magazines. You don’t need a Kindle device, either. You can read books on your smartphone, tablet or on any computer with a web browser. It’s a pretty good deal if you’re the type of person who reads multiple books per week.
However, Kindle Unlimited does have a major drawback: Much like Netflix and other video-streaming services, the Kindle Unlimited library has a small selection of hot releases on top of a much larger catalog of older titles. Kindle Unlimited does include a number of notable and popular titles, such as the “Harry Potter” series and the “Hunger Games” series. It is also well-stocked in certain genres such as how-to books and romance novels, but it’s not loaded with all of the books from every author you’ve ever heard of.
In other words, Kindle Unlimited is great for someone who reads a lot of books, particularly in a specific genre, and isn’t afraid of older titles. It isn’t the best fit for someone whose reading habits consist of occasionally reading a current bestseller.
What if you’re someone on the fence? Read on for how to get the most value out of Kindle Unlimited.
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Try a free trial first. Kindle Unlimited comes with a 30-day free trial that will give you ample time to explore the Kindle Unlimited library and decide whether it’s right for you. You’ll have plenty of time to dig through the books available and find titles you’re excited to read.
If you do sign up for the trial, however, be sure to turn off the subscription before the end of the 30 days. If you forget, you will be charged for the first month.
Make reading into a hobby. Dial down some of your other hobbies that come with an expense and spend more time reading.
For example, you might consider deactivating Netflix for a few months while you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited and fill your evenings with books, rather than television. In a few months, you can reactivate Netflix and deactivate Kindle Unlimited and catch up on all of the binge-watching you missed. That simple move will pay for Kindle Unlimited.
[See: 10 Steps to Cut the Cable Cord.]
Unsubscribe from some magazines. One excellent feature of Kindle Unlimited is that it offers current issues of many popular magazines, including Good Housekeeping, Popular Science, Golf and many others.
Rather than investing money in print magazine subscriptions, cut out a few of the titles you don’t read often and instead read the publications available on Kindle Unlimited. While this won’t recoup the full cost of the service, it will make a nice dent in it.
Subscribe to Kindle Unlimited for a year when a deal comes up. On Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day, one of the perks frequently offered is a discount on an annual subscription to Kindle Unlimited, often dropping the price by 30 percent or 40 percent. By patiently waiting until such a discount comes along and purchasing a year at a time, you can drop the price down to $7 or $6 per month, rather than $9.99.
Consider Amazon Prime instead. Amazon Prime offers lesser versions of many of these features. It offers current issues of a few magazines (much fewer than Kindle Unlimited, but still a lot) and has a small Prime Lending Library (much smaller than Kindle Unlimited, but still a large number).
However, Amazon Prime bundles many other benefits alongside those reading benefits, such as Amazon Video (a good Netflix substitute with a lot of great original programs) and free two-day shipping on millions of items. Plus, the annual cost of Amazon Prime is currently the same as the annual cost of Kindle Unlimited.
If you’re considering Kindle Unlimited, you may want to choose Amazon Prime instead. Although the book benefits aren’t quite as good, the other benefits are nice and may add up to greater value for you.
[See: 10 Fun, Frugal Ways to Spend Your Free Time.]
Use the library instead. Your local library offers many of the same benefits as Kindle Unlimited — more books than you’ll be able to read in your lifetime available to be checked out at your convenience, current and older issues of tons of magazines, lots of audiobooks and even e-books. But at most libraries, membership is absolutely free. Just sign up for a library card and start checking out books. Plus, at the library, you will have access to many current releases, though you may have to wait around on a waiting list for a while.
Kindle Unlimited can be a good deal if you really enjoy a particular genre of books and read at a high volume. For other readers, other options might be more of a bargain. The key is to find what’s best for you and your reading dollars.
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How to Get the Most Value From Kindle Unlimited originally appeared on usnews.com
