BookLending

Four matchmaking services for e-book borrowing and lending

I've griped about e-book prices many times before, and I remain steadfast in my belief that publishers charge way too much for a product that requires no printing, consumables, shipping, storage (in the traditional sense), or other typical print-book expenses.

Fortunately, there's a way to squeeze a bit more value out of the e-books you do buy: lend them to someone else, then get other loaned books in return.

This is possible thanks to the publishers that allow e-book lending. Not all do, and the terms are pretty limited--each book can be loaned out only once, and for … Read more

Quelle surprise: Free e-books at Amazon are popular!

Amazon's "Kindle Owners' Lending Library" has gotten off to a smashing start, the e-retail giant announced today.

The company said that Kindle owners borrowed 295,000 Kindle Direct Publishing Select titles last month alone. Amazon had $500,000 in its December fund to compensate authors for the free rentals, and said that the writers earned $1.70 per borrow. Amazon said that authors who made their books available to borrow saw purchases grow, as well.

"KDP Select appears to be earning authors more money in two ways," Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content, said … Read more

Amazon stymies Lendle e-book lending service

It may be game, set, and match for Lendle. No, not Ivan Lendl, the former tennis great. Lendle, the newly hatched e-book lending service.

Lendle first reported the news via Twitter: "Amazon has revoked Lendle's API access. This is why the site is down. It's sad and unfortunate that Amazon is shutting down lending sites...According to Amazon, Lendle does not 'serve the principal purpose of driving sales of products and services on the Amazon site.'"

Reached by CNET, Lendle co-founder Jeff Croft, who's based in Seattle, had this to say:

They [Amazon] shut the API access off, and without it, our site is mostly useless. So, we went ahead and pulled it down. Could we build a lending site without their API? Yes. But it wouldn't be the quality of product we expect from ourselves.

Kindle book lending now available

Several weeks ago Amazon said that Kindle book lending would arrive by the "end of the year," and true to its word, it's here.

The terms are the same as what Barnes & Noble has been offering for a while with its Nook e-readers. On its site Amazon says that, "Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle--Kindle books can also be read using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are … Read more

Lending coming to the Kindle

In a forum post today, Amazon made a couple of small but significant Kindle announcements. First, it's soon going to make Kindle newspapers and magazines readable on any Kindle app, "so you can always read Kindle periodicals even if you don't have your Kindle with you or don't yet own a Kindle."

Second, the company said that later this year a lending feature will come to the Kindle, though it has the same restrictions as the current lending feature on the Barnes & Noble Nook.

"In the coming weeks, many newspapers and magazines will … Read more