Daily Archives: December 23, 2018

More pre-paid Kindle Unlimited plans are back (at least for now)

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Those longer term Kindle Unlimited subscriptions seem to be back again, at least temporarily.

There is now a special landing page where you can now choose between 6, 12 and 24-month pre-paid plans at savings of up to 40% off, depending on the length of your subscription. The offer says it is valid until 11:59 p.m. (PST), January 11, 2019.

Over the last month, I have written about how access to purchasing pre-paid, multi-month subscriptions had disappeared. The ability to purchase the subscriptions as gift reappeared a few days ago, with the only option being a 12 month subscription deal.

If the amount of mail I’ve received over this issue over the last month from people asking about this any indication, an awful lot of people want to pre-pay for their Kindle Unlimited and like to give subscriptions as gifts.

One of the things I have noticed is that Amazon has made information on this very hard to find. At one point, the old pre-paid gifting page had a message stating that gifting is unavailable; at this time that page is still blank.

The back and forth on access to these subscription makes me wonder if the ability to purchase pre-paid plans will remain available in the long term. The current page has promo landing as part of the page title, although it is unclear whether that is because of the sale pricing or if it is an indication that pre-paid subscriptions are only a temporary promotional item. It could be an early deal for Amazon Digital Day, but those deals are not supposed to start until December 28, 2018.

At this point, I am not sure what to think….

How to give an Kindle ebook as a gift

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Everyone who knows me knows what an avid reader I am. For many years, a  book was ALWAYS the perfect gift for me. Now, however, I pretty much only read ebooks and I am not alone in that choice. As more and more people are reading digitally, book giving has gotten a bit more complicated.  While gift cards are an option, some people think that a gift card is too impersonal. And what if you really want to give someone a specific book?

For that someone who now only reads ebooks, one solution is gift an ebook to them directly. Kindle book gifting allows allows you to:

  • Send your gift instantly via email.
  • Give a gift that can be read on any device
  • Give a satisfaction guaranteed gift. The recipient can exchange for a gift card if they have already read or don’t want the book you’ve selected..

To give an ebook, simply select the book you would like to give from the Kindle store. As an example, I am using Teresa Frohock’s excellent dark fantasy, Miserere, as an example.

On the Kindle book page, scroll down below the buy button to the section that looks like this:

Click the “Buy for others” button. A page pops up that looks like this:

(Click picture to enlarge)

Notice that there’s a picture of the cover of the book you are buying on the left side of the page. You simply fill in the recipient’s email address and, if desired, you can personalize the message sent with the book. The “From” field is pre-filled with name on the account and can be changed to read something like “Mom and Dad” if you prefer. At the bottom, you can set the delivery date for anytime up to a year in the future.

The right side shows the total cost of the book and the method of payment. You then click the yellow “Place your Order” button to order the gift.

The fine print: The availability may vary by country/region. If this title isn’t available for your gift recipient, Amazon will exchange your gift for an equivalent value Amazon gift card. If you have selected “Now” as the delivery date, your payment will be processed and your gift will be delivered immediately upon clicking “Place your Order”.

How about you? Would you rather give a specific ebook or a gift card to someone? And which of the two do you prefer to receive?