This overview by Piotr Kowalczyk from eBook Friendly should help you decide what’s better for you: Kindle Owners’ Lending Library or Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription.
Amazon offers two services that let users read Kindle ebooks for a fixed fee instead of buying individual titles. It causes a lot of confusion among users. There is no such thing as “Kindle Unlimited Library” or “Kindle Owners’ Lending Unlimited”. These two subscription-based services are completely separate.
The comparison between Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited is divided into eight sections. But, before the list, let’s define what is what:
Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, also known as KOLL, is not a way to borrow for free the Kindle ebooks from a public library. It is a part of Amazon Prime membership program that costs $99 a year. KOLL lets you borrow one Kindle book a month with no due dates.
Kindle Unlimited is separate from Amazon Prime and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. This is a standalone ebook subscription service with a monthly fee of $9.99. You can read an unlimited number of books in a month, but you can keep on your device only 10 books at the same time.
You may immediately conclude that KOLL is for occasional users while Kindle Unlimited – for avid readers. You are absolutely right.
Taking the 20/80 formula as a reference, we can say that Kindle Unlimited is for 20% of users who generate 80% of sales. And Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is for 80% of users who generate 20% of sales.
Read the full post on eBook Friendly.
I cannot use either one. I live in Puerto Rico, and yes I have Amazon Prime membership. Yet everytime I want to use either services for books only, it tells me that it’s not allowed.
Why is this?