Kindle Unlimited (now Kindle+) is Amazon’s subscription-based reading, and now listening, platform. The goal was supposedly to give readers an affordable source of books that they could read and swap out almost effortlessly. It also gave authors access to a highly engaged pool of voracious readers, but that access comes at a very steep price.

It used to be a good deal for readers, but it was and still is a source of consternation and agonizing indecision for independent authors.

I specify independent authors because traditionally published authors are given blatantly preferential treatment, despite the fact that indie authors have long made up a large proportion of Amazon’s vast catalog.

Independent authors are forced to publish their eBooks only on Amazon if they want to be able to access the Kindle+ readers, but trad publishers aren’t asked to comply with that extreme demand.

If you’ve followed my blog at all over the last couple of years, you may have noticed that I’ve gone back and forth on my opinions of Kindle+. I had decided to experiment with putting my new series, the Harley Cooper Mysteries, into the program. But then Amazon changed things, and these developments in the infamous subscription scheme have muddied the waters yet again.

I write this post with a twinge of frustration but mostly acceptance as I’m forced to reconsider my stance yet again. Without going into a massive rant, there’s plenty of those to be found online, I’m going to clearly set out the concerns afflicting this platform and the decisions I’ve made as an author and a reader.

The AI issue

This is the biggest and nastiest problem. Amazon has always been a magnet for AI generated books. First, because it’s incredibly easy to publish on Amazon. Second, because they heartily embrace AI, and third, because they have the Kindle+ audience.

AI books aren’t good. Some human-written books aren’t good either, but AI is flat and boring and built on codes and probabilities. No imagination, wit or ingenuity. It simply doesn’t have those things to give.

And because AI books can be made for free, or for a few dollars, it’s easy to slap a book-shaped object together and throw it into Kindle+. Since almost no time, effort or money was put into the product, any royalty it gathers is a profit.

The impact on real authors

The foundation that generative AI books are built upon is greed and disrespect. That may sound dramatic, but look at it closely.

There is no benefit to humankind in actively discouraging creativity. That will hurt us in the long run. Kids won’t learn to dream or write if computers are doing it all for them. People won’t learn to reason or think deeply if their thoughts and imaginations are fed by machines that are doing their best to imitate human thought. Why not just keep thinking for ourselves?

Because a small section of the population wants to be rich, and they don’t want to work for it. And big tech companies want to get people so dependent on cheap or free AI that they’ll pay hefty fees once the initial data foraging is done.

In the meantime, actual artists are squeezed and pushed aside so that a few lazy and greedy individuals can prosper. But human creativity is an important part of existence. They can’t just stamp that out, no matter how hard they may try.

The impact on readers

Kindle+ readers are supposed to be getting this great thing in exchange for their monthly subscription fee. But are they?

Not really, not like they used to. The quality of what’s on offer is getting increasingly less impressive. My sister, who had a Kindle Unlimited subscription for years, has told me several times that it’s gotten so hard for her to find good books now. She finds a lot of badly written ones with the hallmarks of AI writing.

In addition to the really good authors who haven’t abandoned ship yet, Kindle+ is awash with amateur work and a lot of fully AI books. The amateur stuff is okay; it could still have heart and promise. It may just need another proofread. The AI stuff… not so good. I read through a doozy the other day that was so bad it was offensive. I was actually insulted that someone thought a human being would be entertained by it.

How do I know it was AI? Because AI cranks out a particular variety of shite that quickly becomes apparent. The redundancies and repetitive hokey comparisons are frustrating to plow through and scream ‘AI slop’.

While it’s true that some readers don’t notice or care… that’s not a good thing. And it’s certainly not an argument in favor of AI. We’re talking about books! They are a collection of human expression and imagination and exploration.

There has never been a need to supplement something that special and creative with mass-produced garbage.

Trust me, there are enough human authors out there to provide plenty of books. No, not everyone who tries to write a book can, but there’s no risk to the supply. And quite frankly, AI books aren’t enjoyable reading for anyone with any experience with books.

When easy visibility becomes obscurity

The result of the platform’s low standards and ease of use is that scores of fake books are generated and uploaded to Amazon constantly. And where does someone who can’t write their own books, but wants to pretend they did, have the best chance of finding an audience? Yeah. Kindle+. And so the overcrowded pool quickly swells further.

This becomes a problem because visibility for budding and even established authors gets harder.

What we do know is that Amazon likes providing customers with a huge selection, but that does come at the cost of quality. They’ll take just about anything into Kindle+, provided the eBook isn’t published anywhere else. That seems to be where the quality control begins and ends.

The potential advantage of Kindle+ for human authors

Where is all this taking us? Are there any good books left in Kindle+?

Yes. There are some excellent books in Kindle+, along with some decent stuff, some okay stuff that needs a proofread, and then a metric butt-load of utter rubbish. But the rubbish is growing at an alarming rate because it takes no time or real effort to produce. I doubt it will be long before half or more of Amazon’s catalogue is AI.

But! And this is a big, juicy and important but. Kindle+ is doing a fantastic job of corralling the worst books out there. I don’t mean that harshly. Once again, I very much agree that there are good books on offer there, for now.

However, pretty much every scammer and money-hungry fraud will dive headfirst into Kindle+. That is where they have the best chance of making money, and so that is where they will gather. And even more so now that Amazon is offering to make those exclusive eBooks into audiobooks for free. (Nothing is free, by the way. Read the fine print.)

As the Kindle+ pool grows and grows, some readers won’t notice or care that they’re reading AI. Others will, especially the experienced and discerning readers, and they’ll turn elsewhere to get better books.

Is Kindle+ worth it for readers or authors?

There was a time when I would have said maybe, or even yes with an if attached. But as things stand now, I feel like the answer is turning into a no. As Amazon continues to bloat its virtual shelves with AI books and coaxes authors to turn their books into cheap and exclusive AI audiobooks, they’ve chosen volume over quality. That is a business decision that they have made, and the fallout from that choice will shape the future of the platform. I don’t know exactly what that will look like, but it will have an impact.

For a lot of people, reading is a love and an indulgent joy. They aren’t going to squander their money or, even more important, their time on crappy AI books.

It would be like buying a wedding dress at Walmart. Even something cheap becomes expensive if it’s a waste of money.

So as an author, I’m planning to publish everywhere I can, and that will have to exclude Kindle+ because they ask too much and give too little in return. As visibility drops and payouts plummet, there will probably be more authors leaving. There’s simply no motivation to remain exclusive if the money dries up.

As a reader, I’ve already canceled my Kindle+ subscription and switched to Kobo Plus. I just don’t want the deluge of garbage that makes finding something decent to read so needlessly difficult.

Kobo Plus is a subscription service which works similarly to Kindle+, but Kobo fights to keep AI out and doesn’t force authors to be exclusive to them. If you’re wanting to try something different, I suggest checking it out for yourself. Last time I checked it was also a lot cheaper than Kindle+.

There’s also Everand, but I haven’t personally tried that, so I can’t really venture an opinion on it. And finally, let’s not forget libraries.

The bottom line about Kindle+

In my opinion only, I don’t think Kindle+ is worthwhile as it sits now. Amazon has whittled away the advantages that tempted indie authors to build their entire following on a platform that is notoriously arbitrary and occasionally brutal. The reader base and potential page read payouts were worth it for some authors. But now that the competition has reached unmanageable levels, and the money is reducing sharply, there’s nothing there that makes it worth it.

If they acknowledge that the decision to encourage AI has changed the value of the platform and drop the exclusivity requirement, I’d put my books there. Or if they raised their quality standards, I’d maybe put a few books in. But as things stand now, no. I can’t justify it, and I can barely be found there anyway.

So unless I get a mind-numbing amount of page reads before my next book release, I’ll be sticking with wide publishing. And honestly, I’m happy about it.

Onwards and upwards for us all. Treasure your time and your thinking ability. Demand better for yourself. You have options.