Although flat-rate ebook subscriptions have revolutionized the ebook world, many users are still unfamiliar with these services. Adding to this is the decline of several streaming reading services, such as the popular Oyster and Skoobe. Faced with this situation, Amazon, the industry leader with Kindle Unlimited, has decided to take things a step further with a new service called Amazon Prime Reading . But what exactly is this new service? Is it compatible with all eReaders? What will happen to Kindle Unlimited? Below, we explain what this new service is and where it fits within the Amazon ecosystem.
What is Amazon Prime Reading?
Amazon Prime Reading is a new unlimited reading service for Amazon Prime members. It can be classified as another flat-rate ebook subscription service that competes with Nubico, Kindle Unlimited, and Scribd, to name a few. Amazon Prime Reading doesn't include all the ebooks available on Amazon Kindle Unlimited , but it also avoids the lower quality that some ebook authors have experienced by choosing whether or not to include their content in the Kindle Unlimited service. Therefore, we can say that Amazon Prime Reading is a premium flat-rate subscription service where quality takes precedence over quantity , at least for now. When we open the Amazon Prime Reading catalog, we see that the ebooks are divided by genre: suspense, horror, science fiction, crime, young adult, Looney Planet guides, and non-fiction.
The money bag for the payment of readings per page, something that made Amazon's first streaming e-book service famous, is not initially available on this service, that is, Amazon negotiates directly with the authors and they decide what price to set for the rental or loan of the ebooks and do not create a bag with all the income from the service and set the price per page reading.
How can you have Amazon Prime Reading?
Anyone can get Amazon Prime Reading for a lower price than Kindle Unlimited. All you need is an Amazon Prime member and then to sign up for the Amazon Prime Reading service . This membership doesn't incur any extra costs and is compatible with other Amazon Prime services as well as Kindle Unlimited.
All devices compatible with Amazon Prime Reading include e-readers, tablets, and mobile apps, making it possible to read anywhere. Once everything is set up, simply search for a book, and if it's in the Amazon Prime Reading catalog, tap the "Read for Free" button , and it will appear on your reading device. Currently, there's a limit of 10 ebooks at a time , so if you reach that limit, simply deselect any ebooks you've already read and select the new one. All of this is done through the Amazon account management platform.
How is it different from Kindle Unlimited?
It's important to emphasize that the main difference between Amazon Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited lies in the quantity and quality of ebooks each service offers . However, as mentioned earlier, Amazon Prime Reading is full of curated, reviewed, and researched titles designed to maximize your reading experience, while Kindle Unlimited doesn't offer this level of selection, or at least requires you to do it yourself.
At the moment this is the main difference between the two services. There are other differences such as the price of the service or the titles that can be read simultaneously.
The price difference is clearly lower for Amazon Prime Reading than Kindle Unlimited, as Kindle Unlimited costs €9,99 per month while Amazon Prime Reading costs €19,95 per year . Amazon Prime Reading comes bundled with Prime Video, Amazon Prime, and other services that Amazon is adding to this premium subscription. In short, the price difference between the two services is obvious. However, the other differences between Amazon's reading services are less clear.
An important function within Amazon services is the number of ebooks that we can read simultaneously. While Kindle Unlimited allows you to read several ebooks at the same time although not on all the devices that we would like, Amazon Prime Reading only allows you to read 10 titles at a time, having to leave a title if we want to add a new ebook.
It is true that this feature makes the service somewhat tedious, at least for those who only want to select and read, but it is also true that the Amazon Prime Reading catalog is not so large, half a thousand ebooks approximately, as to have a quota of ebooks higher.
And you, what option do you get from these flat rates?
We've reached the point many of you have been waiting for : Which service is worth it?
For the most demanding users with their readings, Amazon Prime Reading is a great option, possibly many of these titles have already read them. But it is true that the price vulture flies around Amazon Prime Reading.
For months, several sources close to Amazon have been announcing that Amazon will raise the price of Amazon Prime, from €19,95 to €40 or €100 per year . This would increase the price of these services, and consequently, the cost of Kindle Unlimited would be lower. However, the price change has not yet been implemented, and it's unknown when it will take effect. Therefore, we can take advantage of the current price for now and enjoy at least six months of Prime services.
On a personal level, I prefer the Kindle Unlimited flat rate and would recommend this service to both users looking for curated reading material and those who are indifferent to low-quality reading. Why? Because Kindle Unlimited has a larger selection of ebooks at a reasonably low price (though not as low as Amazon Prime Reading), leaving the content curation to me—something we can all do, and even better than many experts or artificial intelligence, since no one knows our own literary tastes better than we do.
But, if we really want to get good readings quickly or we are users who buy everything through the Amazon store, perhaps the best thing for the moment is Amazon Prime Reading, not only for its readings but also for free shipping that Amazon still offers for its more premium customers.