What Is Kindle Unlimited and How Does It Work?

Sonia Akavan
Written by
Last update:

What is Kindle Unlimited?

If you are a frequent reader, you will be able to read as many eBooks as you like. Kindle Unlimited has an extensive library ranging from Romance novels to Business books and even Comics. Kindle also has a huge collection of free eBooks too.

The advantage of Kindle Unlimited is that you get to read as many books as you like without spending anything. However, there are a few limitations to the service, which may not seem as attractive.

How does Kindle Unlimited work?

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service that allows its members to read eBooks from the Kindle Store and listen to Audible audio books via Kindle “anytime, anywhere.”

Here are some of the benefits of using Kindle Unlimited:

  • When you purchase a Kindle or Kindle Fire device you’re given a 30-day trial to try out Kindle Unlimited.
  • Using Kindle Unlimited also allows you to access Prime Music.
  • A lot of audiobooks sold in the Kindle Store are available for free in the Audible store. This means your monthly membership allows you to listen to audiobooks for free.
  • You can try reading books for free such as A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain…and a lot more.
  • You’ll get access to thousands of comics, magazines, newspapers, and magazines in the Kindle Store.
  • Kindle Unlimited members can try new Kindle eReaders and devices for free.
  • There are Kindle Unlimited exclusive titles to choose from.

What you get with a Kindle Unlimited subscription:

Amazon boasts that you get over 1 million books if you have a subscription.

It doesn’t matter whether those books are on Kindle Unlimited or not, or how many pages they have, or whether you can also read them in hard copy. The good news is that it is a great feeling to see your books. They come up in a matter of seconds, and you can quickly finish up an ebook in a few hours.

Kindle Unlimited Is Unlimited:

When you hear unlimited in the name, you can begin to make conclusions that it will not last. You’re wrong!

You can read as much as you want. You don’t have to pay any extra charges just because you drink too much.

You can compare it to owning a bookstore with the latest books that you can just take home. You don’t have to pay any extra, even if you read it 100 times.

There is no card limit or anything of the sort. That is why it’s called free unlimited books for Kindle reading.

How much does Kindle Unlimited cost?

If you’ve never heard of Kindle Unlimited and don’t know what it is, you’re not alone; I’ve been there before too. Luckily, I work too much to read all of the books that I’d like to read. So I wasn’t too worried about the service.

Kindle Unlimited is a service where you pay a monthly fee to receive content on your Kindle. When you log into your account, you receive unlimited access to thousands of books, audiobooks, magazines, and short stories. There’s a treasure trove of great content for you to read, and you only pay for what you choose to read or listen to.

Since I’ve subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, I’ve read almost 50% more books than I did in the same amount of time before subscribing!

As you may know, there are two types of users of Kindle Unlimited: Kindle Unlimited “ the e-reader and Kindle Unlimited “ the service. The e-reader app lets you borrow books from your library and read them on your Kindle, Android device, or iOS device, and the service lets you get access to the Kindle Unlimited library through the Kindle app or on your browser.

What books are included on Kindle Unlimited?

Kindle Unlimited ebooks are an part of an ongoing experiment by Amazon to find out how to include books in the ever growing digital media business. By 2013, Amazon had sold around 3 billion digital copies of books, and it wanted to increase its profit margins by adding a subscription element to its business.

One of the first ideas that Amazon tried was to offer books from authors whose popularity was increasing but whose work had not yet gained additional revenue streams. Kindle Unlimited allowed publishers to pay 20% of the author’s royalties and let Amazon keep 80% of each book sale.

Publishers got an additional perk because they could publish books to KU without having to make a large advance payment or offer cash royalties on each sale.

If you are interested in finding out if a book is included on Kindle Unlimited, head over to Amazon. If you click on the “Look Inside” button, you will see information about the book. Just look for a link in the Description box that says something like “Read the first XX% of the book for free”.

Want to learn more about which books are available through Kindle Unlimited? Check out this detailed guide.

Best Kindle Unlimited books

There are over 1 million titles available on Kindle Unlimited (KU). The best KU books are the The Bestselling and Top Rated books. These are books with more than 500 reviews. They have a good average rating of 3.7 or more.

Amazon also has KU categories. In the KU categories, you have up to 50% more books to choose from.

The KU Categories include:

  • Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
  • Romance
  • Science Fiction & Fantasy
  • Historical Fiction
  • Christian Fiction
  • Contemporary Fiction
  • Non-fiction
  • Short Reads
  • Teen & Young Adult

Amazon launched KU for the first time in July 2014. Their goal was to reach a library of 1 million e-books. Amazon has reached their goal a lot earlier than expected. So it’s possible that they will switch to a 2 million e-book library or a Prime membership requirement for access to kU books.

Also, with more than 1 million books to choose from, many people complain that they can’t find the right book to read.

The Best Classics

Kindle Unlimited is basically an all-you-can-read subscription service that allows you to read for a certain monthly fee. There are select titles within the subscription fee, and you are not allowed to read beyond that.

There are several advantages to this program.

There are thousands of free books available.

You can avoid reading a bad book by only paying for books that you like.

You can keep multiple users within a household on the same account.

Each book can be downloaded and saved for offline viewing as many times as you would like.

You also get access to magazines and websites.

The Best Self-Help Books

Accessing Kindle books has never been easier. Kindle Unlimited is a new subscription service in the US that lets you browse and read e-books, magazines, and more on your Kindle device or supported Kindle reading app.

Unlike traditional e-book stores where you need to purchase the e-book, you can read as many books as you want in Kindle Unlimited.

You can also keep as many books as you want in your library.

Also, you can get free access to thousands of audiobooks with this Kindle Unlimited membership.

Look, there are all sorts of books on Kindle Unlimited. But there is a big problem here.

There are a lot of self-help books to choose from. This is intimidating.

To help you narrow down your search, we’ve selected 25 of the very best self-help books you can get in Kindle Unlimited.

This list covers a wide range of topics and is divided into 4 categories:

  • Self-Love and Self-Care
  • Mental Health
  • Life Balance and Happiness

The Best Literary and Fiction Books

Kindle Unlimited is the new unlimited reading and listening subscription service from Amazon. You pay a flat monthly fee and have access to an unlimited amount of audiobooks, e-books and other reading and listening content from online retailers in the Kindle family.

Other than being able to read/listen to thousands of books and audiobooks, here are some of the features you can also benefit from:

Kindle Unlimited comes with Kindle Unlimited, a new Android app for tablet users, a mobile reading app for Kindle e-books, and Audible audiobooks.

Audiobook libraries. Unlimited starts with a collection of titles that users can enjoy via streaming or downloading to their phone or tablet.

Included in the app are well-edited and highlighted versions of contemporary and classic titles, from literature and short stories to text books to fiction and non-fiction titles.

The Best Book Series

Amazon has recently launched a new subscription-based service called Kindle Unlimited. It is the e-book version of Amazon Prime which is a membership program that offers a number of services to members.

Kindle Unlimited or KU, as some people already started calling it, is a service that lets users access an extensive library of e-books from an unlimited number of authors and publishers.

There are many things to gain from the service including convenience and cutting down on the cost of buying new books. But one of the most exciting things is that once you are part of kindle unlimited, you are getting access to the best book series that are out there.

The Best Cookbooks

Admit it – time is one of the greatest enemies for aspiring cooks. We simply don’t have time to cook. And no cookbook can substitute for the hands-on, immersive process of cooking at home for yourself. So, are you on a quest for a good collection of easy cookbooks to make great food without being a foodie?

Maybe you’re a power user of the popular Kindle platform and you want to collect as many cookbooks in a digital format as possible.

The Kindle platform is the quickest and easiest way to get hold of a large number of cookbooks, including ones that you can’t find anywhere else. But it’s also the least convenient way. You can’t skim through the pages, you can’t save your favorites, and you can’t take the book with you to use as a reference.

So, how do you make the Kindle cookbooks useful?

The Best Mystery and Suspense Books

Looking for the best mystery and suspense books to feed your curiosity? Kindle Unlimited has a wide variety of titles to choose from. Some of my personal favorites include:

The Tumbling Turner Sisters Mysteries Series by Kassandra Lamb. This great series of books can help you unwind after a long stressful work day. Each book involves a completely new plot that is filled with suspense and mystery. You’ll also come across plenty of mysteries within each book as the author weaves the plot to take your mind off your daily stress. This is a great series to kick off your research into Kindle Unlimited.

Suspenseful investigations stirring the souls of mortals, by best-selling author, Robert Gregory Browne. This compilation of books is great for anyone who loves a great mystery. It has mystery books, suspenseful research stories, and supernatural stories. The Haunted Hotel series is a great book to read during the winter time for a warm fuzzy feeling.

Taking the Devil by the Hand is a great and thrilling mystery by Mark Tessier. Being a paranormal, urban fantasy thriller, this is one of the most interesting books on Kindle Unlimited.

The Best Memoir & Biography Books

I was won over by this book by Chris Guillebeau “ The Happiness of Pursuit. It’s a perfectly written book for any person who is in search of happiness in his/her life.

As he writes in the book, “The thing that I am obsessed with is not some big amazing goal that will take a long time. It’s the process. It’s the action itself. I’m not interested in making 10 million dollars. I’m interested in getting 10 million dollars.”

With this book, he expresses the joys and pains of pursuing your goals. He makes you want to pursue your own happiness goals, whether they’re traveling to less traveled places, writing a book, starting a business, or even just staying at home, find a job you love to do, and follow your bliss.

Chris Guillebeau is the best example of how you can achieve anything that you set your mind to. He is making a living from writing his blog as well as writing books. He has visited more than 100 countries and has seen the joy on the eyes of people he has met along the way, with the happiness he can do life, whether it is through his book or his blog.

The Best Children’s Books

The best children’s books are those that your kids will enjoy and that you will love to read over and over. Finding these books that are both fun and enriching is no easy feat. Through our Kindle Unlimited program, you can get unlimited access to thousands of titles that will entertain the whole family. Those books include many of your favorites like Goodnight, Moon, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Amazon has a great list of best selling children’s books with the average rating of 4.5 ”star. With this list, you can find the best children’s books for your kids and have fun together.

Is Kindle Unlimited worth the price?

As much as modern day books are becoming very cheap to buy, there are still some that are left out because the publisher is being greedy and charges a crazy price for it.

While you can always borrow a book from a library, sometimes you just want to read that book. If you’re a little bit crazy and don’t consider book prices, you can opt for Kindle Unlimited.

What is Kindle Unlimited?

Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s attempt to persuade you into buying e-books by putting a nearly unlimited number of books at your disposal for an annual membership fee.

The program rolls out the red carpet for you by handing you a set of perks that include access to over 1.4 million books, and thousands of audiobooks. It also allows you to access Kindle Unlimited from any smartphone, tablet or computer.

How do I Get My Hands on Kindle Unlimited?

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription-based service that will give you access to over a million books and thousands of audiobooks that you can read and listen to.

To get started, you already have an Amazon account so you just need to pay the annual subscription fee to get started.

How to shop for books on Kindle Unlimited

How to find audiobooks on Kindle Unlimited

If you have an Amazon Prime account, you get a free 30-day trial for Kindle Unlimited and a free audiobook when you download the book.

Unlike buying a book, you can download a Kindle Unlimited book unlimited times. If you do, the audiobook goes back into the Amazon Prime library for you for another time when you need it.

You get to keep your library of Kindle Unlimited books as long as your Amazon Prime account stays active and in good standing. this means that you don’t have to consign your Kindle library to the “trash” in order to take advantage of the Kindle Unlimited service.

Note that you can’t return Kindle Unlimited audiobooks once you’ve downloaded them, so consider carefully beforehand which audiobooks to download.

Best Audiobooks

On Audible:

About Kindle Unlimited Plan

You can enjoy reading unlimited eBooks. Every month you get access to over 1 million Kindle books. Also, it includes a great audio listening experience with unlimited selections.

Amazon Prime members get it completely free. You can use your Kindle device or the Amazon Kindle app on various devices to read your books.

Should you try Kindle Unlimited?

There are plenty of reasons why had signed up for Kindle Unlimited.

It could be the free two-week trial which would give you peace of mind.

Or because you love reading. Maybe you have books in your library that you’ll never read but you want to take advantage of the free time to read them anyways.

Or maybe you’re always on the go and out. Sometimes reading a book before bed just seems too tiring a task.

Whatever it is, you’ve probably found a reason to sign up yourself.

What you need to know in order to make the decision whether Kindle Unlimited is right for you is whether you’ll love it or not.

To find out, you can head over to Amazon and try it for yourself.