I've had a Scribd trial subscription for about a month now and I love it. Given I saw some folks who seemed a little confused about it on the NINC hashtag. Here are some thoughts. I'm not sure I'll keep it forever, but right now I'm finding a lot of value. Also Dear Author had a
link for a free trial and some discussion of the services.
1. Scribd currently has a ginormous Harlequin backlist, which paired with the free trial offer made it a no-brainer for me. I also found a range of self published titles, craft books, and other fun fiction.
2. Once the free trial is up, it's currently 8.99 a month (with apparently some discounts if you commit to a year up front). That's about the cost of a paperback, less than a hardback. So, if you tend to read about one purchased book a month or more, and Scribd has books you want to read, there is some value. If you read less than that, then it probably isn't a great deal, unless some of the other perks would make reading more accessible to you.
3. All the books are being read on or at Scribd, so phone, tablet, laptop, etc. You can download books to be read offline, but that will be in the Scribd app. (None of this was hard to do, but if you've been sticking to eink or paper due to glare or other concerns, this won't help much.
4. I am still buying books and getting books out of the library. Scribd however provides access to books - some that are harder to find, or that I just am not sure are my thing, and so on. If a few chapters in I know I've made a horrible mistake, I feel better about bailing. (Weird but true.) I've also read things that I knew were totally my cup of tea, but not things I was going to want to read over and over again.
5. So far, I've finished three books, started quite a few more (most of which I plan to finish).
