Cozy Mysteries discussion

Hey. What do you all think of that Kindle Unlimited? Is it ripping off indie authors? I am not the richest person on the planet and just discovered a series I am interested in reading is available on Kindle Unlimited and so I thought I'd ask if anybody here has it and what is their and any author's who might hang out here opinions?

Thanks.

I don't know much about Kindle Unlimited, because where I live it's not an option. If you lack finances, try Overdrive or a decent library. Can I ask what series caught your eye?

PS - I don't have Overdrive as well. I only know that if you pay for a year in advance, it comes to less than $7 a month.

My husband buys it for me for Christmas every year when they have the special price cut and I love it. I get lots of books from it and have found many great series by indie authors that I probably wouldn't have found otherwise.

For me, it's worth the money even if hubby paid full price. I think it depends on what you like to read. I'm heavily into historicals and cozies and have no trouble finding books, but other genres might not be as heavily available.

As an author with a mystery/suspense series available there, I"m pleased since my main goal is to get as many new readers as possible. Most of the "promotions" available on social media are too little bang for the buck. As an indie I rely on word of mouth and honest reviews.

I love Kindle Unlimited! I use it frequently. As does my daughter. As for ripping off authors, they have the choice to put their books on there. They don't have to.

I love Kindle Unlimited both as a reader and an author. As a reader it allows me to read more than I could possibly afford to read if I had to pay full price for each book.

As an author, it is incredible! 72% of my readers come from KU. The author gets credit for each page that is read. The money that is paid by members goes into a huge pot. At the end of the month Amazon takes into account how many pages total were read and how many authors have their books in the pot. They figure up how much each page is worth and then pay the author that amount for each page that was read. There is a waiting period for the money paid to the author but once you have it set-up...the payments start being a regular thing.

The authors aren't ripped off. In fact, I make much better money with KU pages read than I do from actual sales of the books in either ebook or paperback.

I agree with Beverly. As an author, I get more reads via KU than sales. Authors are paid according to the number of pages read, so we're not getting short changed. I realize $15 can be a lot to spend on a print book, so if readers can get my work on KU, that's great.

As a reader, I didn't think KU was worth it. Maybe at $2.99 per month...

For more mainstream books, I can use my local library's Kindle collection. There may be a wait list on the more popular titles, but I just read other books while I'm waiting. Then I get an email that the book is available and can download it.

If your local library does't have an extensive collection, the "Free Library of Philadelphia" has an extensive Overdrive collection, and an out-of-state library card is only $50 per year. Less than half the price of Kindle Unlimited, but for more mainstream books.

There are many free Kindle books available. I currently have over 19,000 Kindle books in the Amazon Cloud. 99.9% of them were free. I publish lists of newly free Kindle books every day:

https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeEBOOKS/s...

Check out the "Notes" section of one of the documents to get all kinds of tips on getting free books:

http://ogres-crypt.com/Kindle/Free-Sc...

Free books can be lower in quality, but if I'm reading a book I'm not enjoying, I just discard it and go on to the next one. And I've found a number of authors I really enjoyed, so picked up some of their other books.

My sister has KU. She tries to read more than $9.95 worth of books a month and she's been doing that easily. There are many books in her favorite genres.

I think that it depends on what genres you read and if you read indie authors- I read mostly romance and cozy mysteries which I can find a ton of on KU. Because I read about 30 books a month I never have a problem getting to 9.95 in books through KU. Now if literary fiction or young adult is your jam, you probably aren't going to find as much available. And if you are looking for primarily traditionally published authors, you won't find a lot. I also have Scribd which my daughter and I use to find anything traditionally published. I read more indie authors than traditionally published so my daughter uses that account more often than I do, but I still feel I get my money's worth out of it. I don't like Overdrive through the library because I cannot renew so if I don't get it read in the 2 week time period my library provides, oh well. And I'm too much of a mood reader to put myself on a time crunch.

Cindy wrote: "I think that it depends on what genres you read and if you read indie authors- I read mostly romance and cozy mysteries which I can find a ton of on KU. Because I read about 30 books a month I neve..."

And you can't find enough to read with free books? The lists of newly free Cozy Mystery books I publish every 5 days or so usually has about 20 books.

Right now, an Amazon search shows 419 free Cozy Mystery books available, and the list changes every day:

https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A61904...

I only show the "newly free" because some are permanently free and others are free regularly. And I can always get a full list by using a link like the above.

When I find series I like or authors I like, I create watchlists on eReaderIQ to tell me with the author has discounted books or when specific books are free.

But I don't read 30 books a month. :)

I love Kindle Unlimited. There are times when I hang on to a book too long, but that's okay, as there are months when I barrel through several.

FYI, I've noticed a lot more books added to KU. Fun!

I have specific authors I go for and most are on KU. I find most free books are free for a reason and are not worth my time. I gladly spend money on KU and Scribd. It's worth every penny for me.

As an author, I have my books on KU because although the downloads are free, writers are paid per the number of pages read. I understand that many readers are unable to pay a large amount for books. However, writing does take an enormous amount of time and effort by the author, not to mention that we often give up other activities to write and have spent years in honing our craft, so even a small amount of payment is appreciated for our hard work.

Good Morning,
I am an avid reader, so so Kindle Unlimited really affords me the luxury of being able to read more than if I had to pay for every book I gobble up.
Also if I enjoyed the author's book listed on Unlimited, I would be more likely to purchase one of their books as well.

I was given a kindle for Christmas. I get a lot of free books for it through BookBub. Books I really like I buy with more to the series in print through Amazon.

I just started this service this week so it was nice to read other’s experiences with the program.

I ended up deleting my subscription, because I just didn't care for the choices. I found the selection to be lackluster and books I did find that I thought may be interesting, were not supported by my subscription.

I don't know, Kathleen, I find it has a wide selection.

Kirsten,
I agree that Amazon has a wide selection, I just didn't care for the books. I believe I read about 20 or so books from Kindle Unlimited and they were just lackluster for me.

I felt that the price was not the greatest for the amount of books. I could get those same books for free from the Library. I canceled after a couple of months (the free time, plus one month).

I have noticed a lot of free for the first book in the series but the rest of the series isn't free

They sometimes have an offer on Kindle Unlimited e.g. three months for 1.99, so I take that up. But I can't find enough to justify a regular monthly subscription.

As I new author I have chosen not to publish through Kindle Unlimited. It is the easiest way but you can only publish the ebook through Amazon and when Amazon changes their policy author's incomes can be severely affected. That may be why there are many first of series, to attract readers but the rest of the series are published wide through many distributors. KU is good for specific genres such as romance I believe.
I have recently changed to KOBO and they are offering a similar subscription format for readers without tying authors hands.

Ruth wrote: "They sometimes have an offer on Kindle Unlimited e.g. three months for 1.99, so I take that up. But I can't find enough to justify a regular monthly subscription."

I'm with you. Though I think there are a lot of items I could find to keep me busy, it would cut into my time reading non-KU items. Then, my cost per item would go up. For example, KU is $10 a month. To make it worth my while, I'd want to read at least 20 KU items a month (.50 per item), and would prefer I pay less than that, especially for something I don't "own." I do better with library books and freebies -- and there are so many freebies (some of which are KU offerings, BTW). My TBR files are filled with freebies I may never get to.

I guess bottom line for me is that I don't think I'd get $10 worth of use each month. And, those months I didn't get any use out of it (especially holiday season when my reading time is severely impacted) I'd still be paying $10 and getting nothing out of it -- and thus negatively affecting my overall cost per item for the year. For me, I don't find it cost effective.

Victoria wrote: "As I new author I have chosen not to publish through Kindle Unlimited. It is the easiest way but you can only publish the ebook through Amazon..."
I guess it depends on what they offer for what you give up. I don't like that they want exclusivity. What happens if you don't go KU, but do offer via Kindle?

Victoria also wrote: "I have recently changed to KOBO and they are offering a similar subscription format for readers without tying authors hands."
Good for you! I feel sorry for authors because it can be so hard to get published these days. I can't imagine having to trade exclusivity or profits, etc. to get your book out there... I'm just glad the authors I read are still putting their work(s) out there! (So, thanks!)

As with KU, I don't know if I'd go for any subscription reading service. As noted above, I just can't see getting my money's worth out of it. I love to read, but I want to read what I want when I want. If I can keep from paying for that love (library, freebies, etc.), all the better!

I have KU (bought it when it was on sale) and rarely use it. I do, however, use Scribd more. It has more new releases for cozies as well as tons of audiobooks for about $1 less a month than KU.

So Scribd is also a monthly subscription - is there a limit on how many books you can get per month? I think there is on KU right?

Karen wrote: "Victoria wrote: "As I new author I have chosen not to publish through Kindle Unlimited. It is the easiest way but you can only publish the ebook through Amazon..."
I guess it depends on what they o..."

Not sure if this reply will work! I am trying to look to the long term and would prefer to build my own group of readers, hence why I am on Goodreads, against some industry advice. As for subscriptions service, you are right there are so many free and low priced offers on books, it is just a matter of hunting around!

Please anyone using libraries do request our books--again it's harder for indie authors (my first book is called Fowl Murder by Victoria Tait in case you want to request it!!!)

Sandy wrote: "So Scribd is also a monthly subscription - is there a limit on how many books you can get per month? I think there is on KU right?"

No, there is no limit. KU allows you to have 10 books out at one time. Scribd has no such limits, although sometimes books go in and out of availability (not sure why). For example, I am trying to catch up on the Sarah Winston Garage Sale mysteries. I listened to one when they became available but then they have become unavailable again until next month (usually a date is given but not a reason).

Maria wrote: "Sandy wrote: "So Scribd is also a monthly subscription - is there a limit on how many books you can get per month? I think there is on KU right?"

No, there is no limit. KU allows you to have 10 bo..."

I think this may be because they work on a library system in that they can only lend the number of books they have bought from the publisher/author. If they have 3 electronic copies they can only lend out 3 copies at a time. Some libraries are moving to a system where they borrow books from the author/publisher so instead of paying $30 outright for a book they pay $0.99 for each borrow. I think this is the direction we are heading and it will help resolve unavailability and is how KOBO's subscription service will work. Personally as an author I think this is great, as long as there is no exclusivity like KU.