Amazon Prime used to mean quick and free shipping in most major countries. It has since expanded into things like prescription drugs, Prime Video, Prime Music, Grocery delivery and much more; it is honestly hard to keep track of all the benefits of paying for a subscription. What about if you like to read? What are the Prime benefits for people who read on their Kindle, smartphone or tablet?
Prime Reading. Prime members can read whatever they like—as much as they like—from a rotating collection of over a thousand books, magazines, comics, and more. There are roughly 3,000 titles available with Prime Reading. Kindle Unlimited is a separate service that costs extra, but contains a much larger selection of titles than Prime Reading does.
Although Prime Reading works great with Amazon devices like a Kindle Fire tablet or Kindle e-reader, you don’t need one of these devices to make use of Prime Reading. Much like Amazon Prime Video, Prime Reading works on virtually every type of device through the Kindle app that’s available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.
Amazon First Reads. If you’re a Prime member, you also get access to Amazon First Reads—that’s free, early access to a newly released book every month from a curated selection of editors’ picks. There are eight books to choose from and the variety is plentiful; you can choose from a myriad of genres such as memoir, contemporary fiction, thriller, romance, and more.
Audible Narration. You can enjoy Prime Reading books with Audible Narration on iOS and Android phones and tablets, Fire tablets and Alexa devices through the free Kindle app and Audible’s free listening app. Look for the Prime Reading “Read and Listen Free” on Kindle book pages or browse Amazons catalog to find titles with Audible narration included in your Prime Reading benefit.
Free titles at Audible. New Prime members get a free Audible Premium Plus trial as well as two credits that can be applied to any books in the Audible library. There are hundreds of thousands of audiobook titles to choose from, in addition to podcasts, Audible Originals, Sleep Tracks, Meditation and tons more. Whether you cancel the trial before your next billing period, the audiobooks that are purchased with credits don’t expire. This plan normally normally retails for $14.99 per month.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
