Is Kindle Unlimited Worth It?

Last week Amazon announced a Kindle book membership program that includes unlimited books from their Kindle Unlimited library of 600,000 titles for $9.99 a month. Is it worth it?

First of all, it’s certainly worth taking advantage of their Kindle Unlimited 30-day free trial. The free trial will give you access to to all the books, and you can download as many as you want. But understand that if (and when) you cancel the service, all these books will disappear from your Kindle library.

For everyone the question of worth will be quite individual. These are some factors to consider.

1) How many Kindle books do you read a month? How much do you currently spend on Kindle books per month?

2) Do you prefer current bestsellers to older books? There are not many current bestsellers in the Kindle Unlimited collection.

3) Do you have a very specific wish list of books you want to read? Or do you just like browsing to find your next read? If you like browsing, and read more than two books a month, Kindle Unlimited is a great deal!

I certainly read enough Kindle books to make the Kindle Unlimited offer appealing. But I have a pretty long list of books I want to read (97 at last count!) and I found only two of these books available in Kindle Unlimited. On the other hand, I did find three additional books on Kindle Unlimited to add to my reading list.

After weighing the pros and cons, I decided that its not worth it for me. With the free ebooks I already get from my local library, the Kindle First program, the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, and Net Galley, I am better off just buying the books Kindle books I want.

If you’ve signed up for the free trial and want to cancel your membership, login into Amazon and click over to “Manage Your Content and Devices.” Choose the “Settings” tab, and under the heading “Kindle Unlimited Settings” you’ll see a “Cancel Kindle Unlimited” button.