Kindle Unlimited is now Kindle+. Where German editions stand.

Amazon renamed Kindle Unlimited this week. It announced the new name, Kindle+, on 21 October, and the German press reported the change live on 22 October. Existing subscribers are switched over automatically. It stays separate from Prime.

The bigger change is audio. Audiobooks now sit inside the subscription, but only in the US for now. Amazon says more marketplaces will follow. It gives no timeline.

What changed

• Virtual Voice audiobooks (Amazon's AI narration for KDP books) are included automatically when the ebook is in KDP Select.
• Eligible ACX audiobooks can be enrolled in KDP Select through the KDP Bookshelf. Royalty Share titles are not eligible at launch.
• Audiobook listening is paid from the KDP Select Global Fund, page-based like ebooks.
• Audio in Kindle+ is US-only at launch.

What I don't know yet: the German subscription price, the payout per format, whether Virtual Voice can narrate German, and when audio reaches Germany. I'm leaving those out rather than guessing.

What I counted on Amazon.de

On 23 October I went back to Amazon.de. I took the 651 self-published English-language authors from Issue 1 who already publish German editions, and drew a fresh random sample of 150. Under their names I found 2,300 German-language ebook listings.

The rename has already reached the German store. Not one listing still carries the old label. The other 474 listings (20.6%) are not in the subscription at all.

By author, 79 of the 150 (52.7%) have every German title in Kindle+. 48 (32.0%) have some in and some out. 23 (15.3%) have none.

Then formats. I read the product pages of the first three German titles per author, 435 pages in all. Print is common: 93 of 150 authors (62.0%) have a paperback or hardcover there. Audio is close to empty. Only 17 authors (11.3%) have a German audiobook among those titles.

Questions worth weighing

• If Kindle+ audio reaches Germany, your books in KDP Select are the ones it would touch. Do you know which of your German titles those are?
• In the US, Virtual Voice audiobooks join the subscription automatically when the ebook is in KDP Select. Whether Virtual Voice can narrate German is not known. Would you want it on your German editions?
• KDP Select means ebook exclusivity to Amazon in 90-day terms. In Germany that rules out Tolino, the ebook alliance behind Thalia, Hugendubel, Weltbild and other German booksellers. Does a possible audio side change how that trade looks to you?
• German audio is nearly empty among these authors. Is it on your list at all, and does this news move it?

If you're weighing the exclusivity side: Kindle Unlimited in Germany: KDP Select and what you give up on Tolino and Going wide vs going deep.

How I counted. Population: 651 self-published English-language indie authors who already publish German editions themselves (or a mix), out of the 1,776 established indie authors I screened for Issue 1 (series of 4+ books, 500+ Amazon ratings, no trade publisher on the English editions). Random sample of 150, a different sample from Issue 1. Counted on Amazon.de on 23 October 2026. I checked up to three search pages per author, so big catalogues are undercounted. Formats come from the first three German titles per author only. An audiobook not linked to the ebook page is missed, so the audiobook share is a floor. Issue 1 found 84.6% of 2,192 German listings in Kindle Unlimited, in a different sample. The two figures are not a trend and should not be read as one.