Is Kindle Unlimited Worth it?

Is Kindle Unlimited Worth it?

The Pros and Cons of Kindle Unlimited

By: Preston Simmons | Written: February 10th, 2022

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What is Amazon Kindle Unlimited?

If you are a fan of reading in any capacity, there is a good chance that you have heard about Kindle Unlimited. Maybe, you were buying a book through Amazon and saw in the price tag that the book you wanted to buy cost $0.00 with Kindle Unlimited. Or, potentially, you follow a few authors on social media and see that they were promoting the book that they published through Kindle Unlimited.

So, what is Kindle Unlimited? Is it a free service that Amazon offers out of the goodness of their heart? Is it a publishing company similar to TOR that helps authors get their books on the shelves of your local bookstore?

Well, Kindle Unlimited is a lot of things.

Amazon Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service Amazon offers for customers who are a fan of reading. Over one million e-books and thousands of audiobooks are available to listen to through the service.

It’s Netflix for book lovers.

What Books does Kindle Unlimited Have?

Over one million e-books are a lot of books, so does that mean that if you search for your favorite book from your favorite author, you’ll more than likely find it available on Kindle Unlimited? Well, your mileage may vary.

Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? If your favorite author happens to be a self-published author, more than likely, you’ll find their book on Kindle Unlimited. If your favorite author is someone who traditionally releases books from big-name publishing houses and if most of their books you can find physical copies at Barnes and Nobles, more than likely you won’t find that book on Kindle Unlimited.

Kindle Unlimited does have an insane amount of books, and hundreds of new ones are added every day. The catch is that most of the books you will find are from self-published authors, not traditional authors.

That isn’t to say that there are no traditional authors on Kindle Unlimited. You can find tons of the classics on Kindle Unlimited, like The Lord of the Rings by J.RR Tolkien or All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Only, if you’re looking for the latest Brandon Sanderson book, more than likely, it’s not on Kindle Unlimited.

Kindle Unlimited is a dream come true for fans of niche genres

Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? If you are a fan of niche genres, like LitRPG or Progression Fantasy, Kindle Unlimited will be a dream come true for you. Almost anything you could hope for, more than likely someone has published some book in that genre and released it on Kindle Unlimited. Every day hundreds of new books are added to Kindle Unlimited, allowing you to discover and try out as many books as you could ever want.

That’s the beauty of Kindle Unlimited for self-publishers. Nowadays, anyone can self-publish a book. Authors can go wild with their ideas and stories and write about whatever they want without worrying about conforming to the publishing house’s whims. Because of that, as a reader, you will be hard-pressed not to find a single book that doesn’t catch your interest in the practically limitless book options available to you through Kindle Unlimited.

If you are a fan of a super niche sub-genre, you’ll be able to find something to read with Kindle Unlimited.

Kindle Unlimited Price and Plans

Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? Let’s look at the service price to get a better look at the whole picture.

There are four different plans available to join the Kindle Unlimited membership.

• 30-day free trial
  • 30 days of Kindle Unlimited for free
  • $9.99/month renewal after the initial 30 day free trial period ends (cancellable at any time)
  • monthly plan
  • comes out to $109.89/year (excluding your one month free) if you don’t cancel for at least 12 months
• 6-month plan
  • one time payment of $59.94 (on sale for $30.00 as of 2/10/22) for 6 months of Kindle Unlimited access
  • renews for $9.99/month after the initial 6 month period ends
  • With the $30 deal, comes out to $5.00/month for initial payment (At $59.94, comes out to $9.99/month for initial payment)
  • Comes out to $89.94 for 12 months (with $30 deal) if not cancelled for 6 months after original 6-month plan ends
• 12-month plan
  • one time payment of $80.30 for 12 months of Kindle Unlimited access
  • renews for $9.99/month after initial 12 month period ends
  • comes out to $6.70/month for initial payment
• 24-month plan
  • one time payment of $143.80 for 24 months of Kindle Unlimited access
  • renews for $9.99/month after initial 24 month period ends
  • comes out to $5.99/month for initial payment

In comparison, Spotify Premium costs $9.99/month after a 2-month free trial, and Netflix costs $19.99/month if you want to watch 4k movies.

For more information on the prices, visit the Kindle Unlimited Homepage to see which is best suitable for you.

Is Kindle Unlimited Worth it?

The big question: is Kindle Unlimited worth it?

Let’s look at it this way. Typically, a single softcover book purchased at Barnes and Nobles, or any traditional wholesale bookstore, costs $9.99. Imagine if you bought one softcover book a month from B&N for an entire year. That would end up costing you $119.88, excluding tax.

That is 12 books, in an entire year, for a total of $119.88.

On the other hand, with Kindle Unlimited with the 12-month plan, for $80.30, you get access to over one million books and thousands of audiobooks. That’s over 999,987 more books you can read in the same amount of time, for less money.

Another example, Bastion by Phil Tucker, is a recently released highly acclaimed self-published progression fantasy book praised as the next Iron Prince and Cradle, other massively popular progression fantasy novels.

Without Kindle Unlimited, the book alone costs $4.99. That’s more than half of the price of one month of Kindle Unlimited access. With Kindle Unlimited, Bastion, Iron Prince, and Cradle are included. So are thousands of other books that are just as highly acclaimed.

So is Kindle Unlimited worth it? In my opinion, if you are a fan of reading, it’s worth it.

How Kindle Unlimited helps Self-Published Authors

I think the most crucial reason why Kindle Unlimited is worth it is that it helps self-published authors more than you would think. You may think that purchasing the self-published book from Amazon benefits the author in the most significant way. In truth, downloading the same book through your Kindle Unlimited membership helps the author the most.

When you choose to download their book, the author is paid per page read rather than from a cut of the initial purchase price. In other words, the author makes more money if you read their book through Kindle Unlimited than if you purchased their book without Kindle Unlimited.

Pros and Cons of Kindle Unlimited

Pros	Cons
Over a million e-books are available	It May be hard to find more popular books
An excellent resource for finding self-published books	No option for physical copies
Thousands of audiobooks are available	More than likely, won’t find newly released books
Perfect for fans of hard to find niche books	Subscription may be expensive if you do not read much
Thousands of books added daily	Not free like a library
Save tons of money if you are an avid reader
It helps self-publishers more than buying their book at the standard price.

Final Verdict

Is Kindle Unlimited worth it? Kindle Unlimited is worth it if you are a fan of reading, like books by self-published authors, enjoy books in nonmainstream niches, and want to save money from constantly buying physical book copies.

Kindle Unlimited may not be worth it if you only read physical books, are only looking for newly released New York Times bestsellers, or don’t want to add another subscription on top of your Spotify or Netflix.

For me, Kindle Unlimited helped reignite my love of reading and broadened my horizons for genres of books that I couldn’t have even imagined existed.

It might just do the same for you too.

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