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Kindle Unlimited Launches in Mexico, Canada

Amazon launched its subscription ebook service in Canada and Mexico on Thursday. Readers in those two countries can now read as much as they like for only $10 (CDN) or 129 pesos per month.

kindle unlimited mexico

The readers won’t find many best-sellers or traditionally published titles, but they can choose from a catalog of over 750,000 mainly self-published titles which includes a few titles like the Hunger Games trilogy,  the Harry Potter series, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Interpreter of Maladies, Flash Boys, and The Giver and Wonder Boys.

That’s a smaller catalog than that of Oyster, which boasts 1 million ebook titles at a cost of $10 per month, or Scribd, which also offers 1 million titles (ebooks, audiobooks, and comic books) for $9 a month.

Today’s launch follows the US launch by close to 7 months. The gradual global rollout of Kindle Unlimited continues to support my theory that Amazon only launches KU in a market where they can guarantee a certain minimum number of titles from local publishers.

This would explain why KU didn’t launch in Canada at the same time as in the US, or that the Mexico launch didn’t happen alongside the launch in Spain last November.

Kindle Unlimited boasts 15,000 French language titles in Canada, and 30,000 titles in Spanish in Mexico.

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Comments


Alexander Inglis February 12, 2015 um 6:34 pm

Seriously? Amazon didn’t send me any notice of this. I am a long-time Canadian Kindle customer and user of Amazon Prime in Canada. Astounding. Amazon is usually extremely on top of things like this.

Nate Hoffelder February 12, 2015 um 6:49 pm

They didn’t even send out a press release for the launches. Now that was weird.

Simon February 12, 2015 um 11:16 pm

No press release may mean a soft launch, especially if, as you say in your post, offerings are still a bit slim in the regional KU’s.


Steve Vernon February 13, 2015 um 6:45 am

They sent me an e-mail yesterday. I just assumed everyone was notified. I’d love to see my amazon.ca sales improve a little – even if they are just KU borrows. Right now, for me, amazon.ca sales are as slow as frozen molasses. Amazon.com is DEFINITELY the big moose on campus.

Michael W. Perry February 13, 2015 um 10:36 am

Alas, from what some U.S. writers are saying, being in KU isn’t going to help your Amazon.ca sales. If anything, they’ll freeze up still worse.

For authors who want to get into subscriptions, I suspect Oyster and Scribd make more sense. Readers who go there are already tilted heavily toward checking out rather than buying, so few if any sales are lost. You get added subscription income with few lost sales.

In contrast, those who go to Amazon looking for an author or books like those that an author writes are expecting to buy. When they see KU availability, it’s more likely to take away a sale. Not good.

Managing distribution to all these subscription and library services can be a pain, so you might want to look into handling all of them through Smashwords.com. One Smashword upload will get distribution to txtr (Germany), Scribd, Oyster, Flipkart (India), Overdrive (U.S. libraries), Kobo (Canada-based) and others. You can choose which you want.

–Michael W. Perry, co-author of Lily’s Ride: Rescuing her Father from the Ku Klux Klan (available from the channels listed above and others)


Top 5 Publishing News Stories 2/9-2/13 – Publishing Trendsetter February 13, 2015 um 1:00 pm

[…] After securing a number of titles from local publishers, Amazon launched Kindle Unlimited in Canada and Mexico. […]


MPSingh February 14, 2015 um 8:05 am

I need kindle with 4g with 32 gb network in Chandigarh and Punjab?


Amazon Watch (8/2015) | Holger Ehling Worldwide Blog February 19, 2015 um 2:03 am

[…] unterwegs, wenn es um seinen Ausleihdienst Kindle Unlimited geht: Jetzt ging das Angebot in Kanada und Mexiko online. Wie gehabt ist der Löwenanteil des Angebots gespeist aus englischsprachigen Titeln von […]


Kindle Unlimited Payout Increases to $1.41 in February 2015 as Loans Drop | Ink, Bits, & Pixels April 16, 2015 um 5:04 pm

[…] Given that Kindle Unlimited has yet to reach its first anniversary, we don't have enough data to do a year over year comparison. But I do find it interesting that I can see a clear connection between the expansion of KU into Germany (October), Spain and Italy (November), France and Brazil (December), Mexico and Canada (February). […]


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