Amazon Unveils Subscription E-Book Service For $10/Month

After accidentally posting info about the service to its site earlier this week, Amazon has officially unveiled “Kindle Unlimited,” a $9.99/month subscription service that offers users access to a library of e-books.

The company claims that Unlimited is launching with more than 600,000 titles to select from. Additionally, a subscription includes three free months of Audible audiobook access to about 150,000 titles.

Like other e-book subscription services, including Oyster — and not unlike video services like Netflix or Amazon Prime — Kindle Unlimited is not currently the place to go to see newly released big titles.

Many of the Unlimited titles featured on Amazon are either from small publishers or are books that many voracious readers have either already consumed or passed on reading:

There are a couple of marquee series involved in the service, like the Hunger Games books and the Harry Potter titles, both of which Amazon has previously used to promote its Kindle Lending Library offering.

The ideal customer for a service like Kindle Unlimited may be the reader who is just constantly looking for anything to read. In fact, the predominance of smaller publishers and lesser-known authors in the library may help introduce curious readers to titles they might not otherwise have read.

Amazon is offering a free 30-day trial of Kindle Unlimited, but note that the site will begin charging you the $9.99/month if you do not cancel at the end of that trial.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist