People who love cycling will no doubt have been glued to the TV for the last 11 days soaking up the Tour de France spectacle, I know I have. Although I am not a road racer, I can appreciate the sheer effort and physical ability of the riders; some of the hills they climb at speed are simply out of reach for us mere mortals.
Getting to know all the written and unwritten rules has been (and still is) a bit of a chore…then there is racing etiquette and team tactics…it all seems bewildering to the novice. I found the article below to be very helpful, it essentially explains the jersey’s that can be won during the course of the race. Most people know what the Yellow Jersey represents but what about the White or Polka-dot Jerseys?
Let’s hope that there are no more nasty crashes, the one suffered by Ritchie Porte during a steep downhill section on stage 9 was horrendous. Wishing all of those riders that have been injured on the Tour a speedy recovery.
Every time I log into Amazon, I’m constantly reminded that I have not signed up for Kindle Unlimited yet so I thought I would give the free trial a go and see what it was all about. The usual monthly cost comes in at £7.99 so the free trial was definitely worth a go.
As a Kindle author, I benefit from people choosing my book through the Kindle Lending Library/Kindle Unlimited. Subscribers to Kindle Unlimited have a huge choice of books to borrow/download for free. Royalties are calculated on the number of pages read for the first time only.
The free trial for Kindle Unlimited looked enticing and straightforward to set up, I thought it might be useful to blog my experience. I tend to be the kind of reader who has a pile of books waiting to be read as well as a few on Kindle that I have picked up when browsing (usually impulse purchases). I always have a book on the go and there just never seems enough time hence why I haven’t signed up previously.
I logged into my Amazon account, clicked ‘Your Account’ (top right) and selected ‘Your Kindle Unlimited’. The next screen presented me with a few details about what I would get during my free trial, basically a choice of over a million free Kindle books and thousands of audio books – sounds great so I clicked the big button marked ‘Start your 30-day free trial’, straightforward so far!
The word ‘free’ is mentioned a lot, which is why I was a little surprised when the next screen to appear was asking for payment card details. I read through the text and was reassured that this information was required in advance of any billing after the free period had expired. I noticed that Amazon gift cards cannot off-set any future subscription fees but there was still a box to complete the gift card reference. I’m guessing this was just part of a generic screen used for purchasing so paid it little attention. I clicked the ‘Place your order’ button and moved on….
The next screen asked me to click on my billing address for future invoices, the format looked like a normal Amazon purchase screen so no surprises there. That was it, the welcome screen appeared and I was ready to browse through all those tempting books, downloading what I wanted for free! Happy days!
I made a note of the trial period expiry date so I wouldn’t run into the charging period. I wanted to see if Amazon where as good as their word around the ease of cancelling your Unlimited subscription when the time came.
The welcome screen looked intuitive but I thought I would give that a test drive another time. I was eager to try out the process of looking for something in Amazon and downloading it through Unlimited. Worked a treat, I clicked the ‘Buy now with 1 click’ and that was it, a confirmation screen appeared and I received an e-mail to boot – standard Amazon stuff. I then had a look at Point North & Pedal to see how the screen had changed; it was slightly different, the button was marked ‘Read for £0.00’, apart from that it was clear that the book featured in the Kindle Unlimited section of Amazon.
Check back for part 2 of this blog where I will have a nose around the Unlimited menus, the final part will look at cancelling the free subscription. I tend to post new blog notifications on my Facebook Page and my Twitter account, please connect with me, there may be something of interest in all the white noise! Every ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ helps with raising funds and awareness for Cri Du Chat Syndrome Support Group.
If you would like to check out Point North & Pedal, please click here. All profit to www.criduchat.org.uk. It’s a great resource for anyone considering the UK End to End ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats (or vice versa or ‘There and Back Again’!), lots of anecdotes to help you plan your trip as well as good information about kit and training etc.
Thanks for dropping by.
Further reading…..
If you liked this blog please take a moment to check out my book describing the solo Land’s End to John O’Groats ride in 2012, all profit from sales to www.criduchat.org.uk
Please click the cover image for the Kindle version or click here to order a paperback copy. Thank you!
