Kindle Unlimited is often discussed as a reach-versus-control choice, which is tidy but a bit too neat. The more awkward question is whether a book stays there long enough to start behaving like a subscription item: always available, lightly sampled, easy to skim past, hard to imagine paying full price for elsewhere.

That can suit some books very well. It can also train readers to treat them as part of the buffet.

Wide isn’t automatically nobler, either. It just makes the trade-offs less hidden.