It’s been rumored for a few days now, but Amazon today introduced Kindle Unlimited, a new subscription service that gives customers access to over 600,000 Kindle Books, and and some of Amazon’s thousands of Audible audiobooks for $9.99 a month.
But, buried in the massive offering from Amazon are is a section dubbed “Comics & Graphic Novels” featuring currently 3,690 books.
When you dig deeper into the offering, things get a bit stranger. The biggest publisher I’ve found so far is IDW Publishing, but their offerings are limited. There’s also a lot of manga, but within that count too is a lot of “how too” books as well as books on the industry, so it’s not all comics and graphic novels in the traditional sense. What does seem present is a lot of independent books, some I recognize as having been sent to our site to review, or from Kickstarter.
The big question though, is how comiXology fits into the bigger plans. Earlier this year Amazon purchased the digital comics distributor, and other than how you can purchase your books (in the app vs through the web), the changes have been minimal. Rumors of comiXology providing an all you can read service have persisted, and it’s a question that’s come up at every panel I’ve ever attended of theirs. With this move by Amazon, maybe we’re seeing the first steps towards that.
