Writing in Ridble I think I have already repeated several times: I am a great lover of reading and am a fan of new technologies. This means that the arrival of the books and eReader has really opened up a world. Digital books have been for me a real revolution in the way you think about reading. You will thus understand the high expectations that have been created in me when a week ago (time in reference to the implementation of this article) arrived in Italy Amazon Kindle Unlimited , the service that allows you to read a number unlimited eBook catalog dedicated for an monthly subscription of € 9.99 . I ran immediately to make up for the service by using the feedback page on Amazon, exploiting month free trial offered by the company Bezos.
I had to do is enter your user name and password on Amazon, press on the appropriate banner and within a few minutes I was already slingshots on the site in search of titles to download and read. Unfortunately, past the first ten minutes of euphoria, I started to notice a fundamental problem in the service: the catalog. We must therefore say that it is true that there are more than 700 thousand titles to read, but some of these 617mila are in English and only a little more than 15 thousand in Italian . Of course, Amazon has clearly stated during the launch, so no cheating. The big problem, beyond the simple numbers, is the very form of the books. There are in fact few titles, and often not very well known. Are excluded from the catalog Kindle Unlimited lots of great literature and fiction. Just to quote you a bit ‘of my research go empty I’ll name a few: the choice there are no such books of foreign authors such as Stephen King, JRR Tolkien, Nick Hornby, John Grisham and Jeffery Deaver, but not books by writers such as Italian Baricco, or Amanniti De Carlo; this is just a small selection of the names that we find.
But what are the authors present? Well, we have a few books of famous writers, but not many. He then speaks mostly books publishing groups small enough or self-productions. Not that that might mean that there are no interesting books or pleasant, in fact I found a couple of unexpected surprises, but the fact remains that this is a complete catalog far too little.
The reason is quite simple For the moment, the Italian version of Kindle Unlimited have joined many of the most important publishing groups as Mondadori, Feltrinelli, Gems, and even some of those who have joined, like Newton Compton, they did so by giving only a relatively small part of their catalog. Of course, things improve a bit ‘if you read the English , the quantity of books available is extended enough and you do not struggle to find interesting titles. Nevertheless, for those who do not like or can not read in foreign languages, the possibilities offered by Unlimited and many are not, which is really a shame, because the service technically works very well . Browsing the site or the app you can quickly choose the books you want to read and add them to your list by clicking on the “Read the Kindle with free Unlimited”.
You have the ability to download up to ten books simultaneously and read on a very wide range of devices. Of course they fall between the Kindle eBook reader like the new Touch, but also on Android devices, such as smartphones or tablets, such as the Fire HD 6, iPhone, iPad and PC (Mac and Windows), with the aid clients. The synchronization of the devices is always fast and functional app for reading are well made and easy to use. I open a small parenthesis here, however, to reiterate a concept very dear to me: talking to the reader, beyond the goodness of the service, my advice is always to use an eReader to have the experience of digital readout, because much more comfortable and compliant with various smartphones and tablets.
I believe that the choice of Amazon to launch Kindle Unlimited, even without a well-stocked catalog, it may be very counterproductive. First of all to the Target to which it is addressed, it is true that € 9.99 a month is not much, but it is also true that they are not even many readers who spend that amount on a monthly basis. The service is convenient if you always buy a printed book or alternatively two books per month, which, on average, thus reaching a ten euro of expenditure. We talk about fans , which are likely to be even more discerning readers sporadic with regard to the choice of titles to read. It is true that Amazon with Unlimited offers a variety of interesting volumes of authors self-produced or not very popular, so that probably can use the new service as an important resource, but it is also true that if a side of these authors are not also writers Note the attractions that the subscription has on potential users and also decreased a lot.
There is no doubt at this point the question becomes large, also play a factor in the VAT, and for the eBook is still 20% while for printed books is 4%, and critical of some members of publishing, the main example that this kind of subscriptions tend to flatten the books that would be put on the market at all same price, without attention to quality and value. My personal opinion is that such a service, if well implemented, can be very useful for both publishers and users. I myself abbonerei very happy if I knew how to have a catalog full of titles that interest me, securities in most cases normally would not buy it anyway, but I would go to get to the library or I’d borrowed from a friend.
This means that it is not necessarily true, as I heard someone say, subscriptions will decrease revenue for publishers, indeed. As I just said, at least in my case, will likely increase, since I often do not spend ten euro per month in the books, but I’m going to borrow them in physical and digital libraries; But I would be willing to pay an appropriate figure for the convenience of having a decent catalog always at hand .
Unfortunately, at the time the catalog Unlimited Amazon Kindle is not satisfactory, at least according to my expectations. It’s a shame, because the app and the site are simple and intuitive, books and comics are read very well and the price is also competitive. The offer little rich but does not convince absolutely . My hope is to see in the not very forthcoming Unlimited evolve and become a service that can provide you the best reading experience thanks to a wide and varied choice. Meanwhile, in spite of myself, I really do not renew your subscription and you will not deny that I say this with deep regret, given the high expectations I had on the matter.
If you would like to directly test the Amazon Kindle can do Unlimited directly through the following link. The free trial period is currently 30 days.
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