For Kindle users - Amazon's new reading challenge

I signed up because I figured I have nothing to lose. I'm not sure if this is international or US only.
https://www.amazon.com/kindlechallenge/

Sorry, you're not eligible for this offer.

>2 Bookmarque: Do you use a Kindle at all? I suspect using one is a requirement.

I have the app on my iPad and use it regularly. Maybe it's a dedicated device thing.

I don't read fast enough to make their challenge worth it to me. :(

>3 clamairy: Ditto.

I suspect for me it is being in the wrong region.

>4 Bookmarque: & >6 -pilgrim-: Looks like it's a limited roll-out. I should have checked before I started the thread. My apologies. But at least some of you must be eligible.

>1 clamairy: I suspect US only - there's nothing on the UK site.

>1 clamairy: This is interesting, thanks for posting it! Collecting badges isn't really a motivator for me, but it's still nice to know about it and I hadn't heard about it through any other channels. The link worked fine for me. I see 5 badges I definitely won't get, but should get the other 8 just through normal activities.

It looks like you don't actually have to sign up for anything, unless you want to get notified of your progress. It tracks regardless. Even though I hadn't signed up for anything, it already gave me the "Series Starter" badge. What I find bizarre is that I haven't started a series this month. On Dec 31 I started the 3rd book in a trilogy and, as far as I can remember, I haven't opened any other book on any device since then. Maybe series starter doesn't mean what I think it means. :)

>5 gilroy: Not sure reading speed has much to do with it. But since it looks like it's just for badges and not prizes or account credits or anything, they don't have much value in any case. :)

It gives you badges for reading 7 days, 15 days, and 30 days in January -- I think all you really have to do is open a book in your Kindle that many days to get those, it doesn't matter how much you read. There's only one badge that requires you to actually finish a book. The others are for doing various things, some of which I wouldn't ever do like follow an author, set a reading goal, join Kindle Unlimited, or activate Night Owl since none of my devices have that feature.

I was able to sign up for it. Not sure what else it does yet.

I signed up. We'll see what happens.

I signed up. We'll see what happens. It already gave me credit for reading one day.

>10 YouKneeK: "... it looks like it's just for badges and not prizes or account credits..."

At the top of the page, it says, "Earn a $5 eBook credit for completing the Kindle Challenge in January."

Only the diamond badges count though so the five hexagon badges won't get you any nearer the $5.00 credit. Also, two of the diamond badges involve spending money w/Amazon, (either by making an e-book purchase or by signing up for Kindle Unlimited).

When I visited the page, I too had the 'Series Starter' award. Not exactly sure why tho...?

I just assumed I got the series starter badge for The Curse of Chalion! Maybe not! LOL The ebooks can be borrowed from your local library, just as long as you download them from Amazon.

>10 YouKneeK: We must be seeing a somewhat different page, because there isn't anything like that at the top of my page.

At the top of my page it says: "Earn badges for reading and completing quests in January during the Kindle Challenge. Subscribe to our email list for weekly updates on your progress."

Then further down, under "How it works":
1) Find your Kindle Challenge quests below
2) Earn badges for completing quests
3) Enjoy bragging rights and settle in for a year of great reading

Nothing about a $5 credit. I guess I'm not eligible for that part of it. Even though I didn't want the weekly updates, I clicked "subscribe" to see if it would change what the page says, but it doesn't -- just changes the button to show I'm subscribed. And now I'm unsubscribing. :) It can give me badges if it wants, but I don't want to be e-mailed about it.

>15 clamairy: Oh, that must be why... I currently have Perdido Street Station on loan from Overdrive but had sort of assumed that library borrows wouldn't count.

EtA: >16 YouKneeK: It would not surprise me to find out that Amazon is offering different pages to people. Here is what I'm seeing...

Yes, $5 for me too, or I probably wouldn't have bothered. I think I signed up just by following the link to the page that they emailed me.

>17 ScoLgo: Yeah, the place where you're seeing the credit message is where I'm seeing the "Earn badges" message. I know sometimes they have the spend $X get $Y in credit offers that are only available to some people, so I guess this is like that. Maybe I'll get my chance in February. ;)

>19 YouKneeK: This is probably a dumb question but... Are you logged in to your Amazon account when viewing the page?

>20 ScoLgo: It's a good question but yes, I am.

>21 YouKneeK: Welp, that's all I got... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A little more info:

https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/amazon-launches-kindle-challenge-award-syste...

I had changed my mind and signed up to do it back on the fourth anyway. I just know I'm not going to get all the badges. (Not going Unlimited, don't do prime reading, and not going to follow an author, which also kills the last one.)

Thanks, I got the bronze badge, though it is almost too late in the month to get the silver. I might have to start reading The Simarillion, which I already had downloaded on my Kindle.

>24 gilroy: I have been following a small handful of authors, (less than 5), on Amazon for at least a couple of years now. I have never been spammed or contacted as a result - even when those authors have released a new title - so I'm not really sure what good it does me to follow anyone. Still, if my experience is anything to go by, following an author is likely not going to do you any harm - and will get you one badge closer to that sweet, sweet $5 credit, (if offered).

Since I wasn’t offered the credit, I’m not bothering with anything I wouldn’t do anyway. If they ever offer me the credit in a future month, and if the badges are the same, I might do some of the free things if they’re enough to get me the credit without doing anything I don’t want to do. I’d be willing to follow an author in that case. I assume I could always unfollow them again after I got the credit if I wanted to.

So I have:

• Bronze Reader (7 days)
  
• Silver Reader (15 days)
  
• Book-in-Hand (bought a book)
  
• Series Starter (the mysterious badge that you seem to get just for existing)
  
• Quitters Day (read on Jan 19th)
  
• Finisher (finish a book)

And that should be it except that I'll probably get the Gold Reader (30 days). That assumes I don’t have another work catastrophe and a 50-hour work “day” like I did in December. :)

>27 YouKneeK: I have the same badges so far with the addition of I'm a Fan! I was not planning on getting the Book-in-Hand but then Again, Dangerous Visions showed up for $1.99 on the Book Gorilla daily mailer and I just happened to have $2.00 in shipping credits sitting around sooo... ;-)

>26 ScoLgo: Oh, it's not that I have a problem following an author. It's that I already follow all the authors I care to follow at this point. Don't see the point in adding another.

So far I have Bronze Reader, Silver Reader, Goal Setter, I'm a Fan, Book in Hand*, Prime Reader, Series Starter, Quitter's Day and Finisher.

*I didn't buy anything I wouldn't have normally snagged. I snagged the first in The Witcher series, and The Hidden Life of Trees when they were on sale.