8 April 2016: To Kindle Unlimited … or not to Kindle Unlimited …

In case you’re not aware of Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program, for $9.99 a month, you can have unlimited access to read as many books as you like so long as these books participle in the program. It’s sort of like a library card. You can take out “on loan” up to ten books at a time. You can keep any book for as long as you like, but if you should decide to drop the program, any books you have on your Kindle that you acquired through KU will be yanked off your Kindle.

If you’re like me and you read constantly, this $9.99 is a huge savings. I’m simply limited to book that are in the program, but so many are that it’s never been an issue. I still buy books that I can’t resist, but all things considered, I save a ton with KU.

So last night I finished reading a book that I got for free on my Kindle. It wasn’t through KU, just listed at a price of $0.00. It was an okay book. The story was decent, but I could take it or leave it. As I suspected, when I checked to see what else this author had to offer, the book I’d just read was indeed the first in a series. The second book was $2.99. For $2.99, I took a pass. However … had this book been on the KU program, I’d have read it.

There are many authors that poo poo the KU program because they feel the royalties just aren’t there for them. To those authors I feel the need to remind you that the members of KU are hard-core readers, but we’re also extremely budget conscious. I might WANT to read your book, but I’m just not willing to pay more than $2.99 for an ebook of an author I’ve never read before, or was slightly ambivalent about their first book. This was the case with the book I read this week. The author missed out on me reading the second book in their series because I’d have had to have paid for it. My suggestion would be to take the first book and put it in the KU program instead of making it $0.00 on amazon. If they had, they’d have gotten royalties on the first book instead of nothing which is what they got from me. I’d price book one at $0.99 for non KU and have it enrolled in the KU program. I’ll be honest, if a book looks interesting enough, even with my KU, I’m willing to pay $0.99 for it.

As an author, I can tell you that I’m currently generating just as much royalties through the KU program as I am with straight sales. So what have your experiences with KU been like? Let’s here from some other authors or KU members!!