Kate's Pick: Kindle Unlimited

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This week's pick: Kindle Unlimited

My life is awash in books, although they are mostly ebooks, as osteoarthritis in my hands makes it tough to hold onto books without pain. Still, I read at least a couple hours a day, even if I stay up too late doing it.

As you can imagine, my reading habits are expensive. I do borrow ebooks from the library, but they have fewer choices than I’d like. Enter Kindle Unlimited.

At $9.99 a month, Kindle Unlimited is a pretty good deal, because if you read even one KU ebook per 30 days, you’ve earned back your money for the month, as most ebooks you truly want to read will cost you at least that much, and paperbacks will cost you more.

The system works like this: For $9.99, you get to borrow up to 10 books at a time. If you are at your limit and want to borrow another book, you must return one book in order to get the latest KU book you’d like to read. That’s it. Easy, isn’t it?

There is a downside, though. The fact is that a lot of KU books are just poorly edited self-published bad fantasy, YA, mysteries and romance. It can be an absolute sinkhole of unreadable dreck if you aren’t careful. (Why are bad self-published writers so drawn to KU? Not sure, but maybe they are betting on the system working for them.)

How to avoid the sinkhole? To begin, look up some of your favorite genre authors to see if they are on KU. Many highly successful series writers will offer the first novel in a series on KU to help get readers hooked. Second, do check reviews on KU books. If a book has 45 reviews and a rating of 4.3 stars, it’s probably worth giving a chance. Third, be aware that romance and fantasy dominate Kindle Unlimited in a huge way. If you are a fan of either genre, KU is worth it. Fourth, be willing to give self-published books on KU a chance, as there are many outstanding self-published books on that platform, despite the dreck.

Right now, I’ve started the Miss Fitz series, which only has two books so far and has a paranormal midlife mystery focus. It’s fun so far and that’s why I have a picture of the two books with this writeup.

Until next week, stay magic!