Best way to gift Kindle books in the UK?

murraypaul · 12-13-2010, 05:38 AM

My brother is getting a Kindle for Christmas, and I'd like to be able to get him some books for it, but the UK Amazon store does not offer gifting of books, unlike the US store.
Can anyone suggest a workaround?
How does the Kindle device handle multiple accounts being logged in and out? One thought I had was to create a new Amazon account, buy the books on that, and give him the email address and password. He could then authorise the Kindle to that account, download all the books, then authorise to his normal account. I know that this would work with the Kindle apps, but unsure how it would work for an actual device?

TheKindleWorm · 12-13-2010, 09:09 AM

It's a shame that Amazon haven't yet enabled gifting ebooks in the UK - I suspect they wanted to test it all out in the US first and iron out any problems before enabling it in the UK as well.

If it were me - I would just buy an Amazon gift card and perhaps suggest some ebooks that could be purchased.

Whatever account you choose to use to purchase ebooks - the books will be tied to that account so do bear that in mind.

Yes you can download the said books onto the Kindle then basically unregister (is that even a word?) the Kindle from say account 1 and register it to account 2. You will still be able to read the books that have been downloaded from Account 1 on the Kindle which is now registered to account 2 which is good. But there are downsides because now the books will basically lose the ability for things like whispersync where your notes/highlights/bookmarks are transported across all Kindle devices like Kindle for PC, Kindle for android, iphone, ipad etc. You will still get notes/highlights/bookmarks on your Kindle but this info will not be synced up with any other Kindle app you use. This may or may not be an issue.

Sorry if it sounds convoluted - I'm sure someone else can explain it better!

I personally could not be bothered to start messing about registering the Kindle to one account and then perhaps back to another. But I am generally lazy like that. Perhaps someone with patience wouldn't mind!

12-13-2010, 05:38 AM	#1
murraypaul Interested Bystander Posts: 3,726 Karma: 19728152 Join Date: Jun 2008 Device: Note 4, Kobo One	Best way to gift Kindle books in the UK? My brother is getting a Kindle for Christmas, and I'd like to be able to get him some books for it, but the UK Amazon store does not offer gifting of books, unlike the US store. Can anyone suggest a workaround? How does the Kindle device handle multiple accounts being logged in and out? One thought I had was to create a new Amazon account, buy the books on that, and give him the email address and password. He could then authorise the Kindle to that account, download all the books, then authorise to his normal account. I know that this would work with the Kindle apps, but unsure how it would work for an actual device?

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12-13-2010, 09:09 AM	#2
TheKindleWorm Guru Posts: 860 Karma: 177868 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: East Anglia UK Device: Kindle 3G, iPhone 3G, iPod 4G, PB 360, Sony 600 sold, Kindle 2i sold	It's a shame that Amazon haven't yet enabled gifting ebooks in the UK - I suspect they wanted to test it all out in the US first and iron out any problems before enabling it in the UK as well. If it were me - I would just buy an Amazon gift card and perhaps suggest some ebooks that could be purchased. Whatever account you choose to use to purchase ebooks - the books will be tied to that account so do bear that in mind. Yes you can download the said books onto the Kindle then basically unregister (is that even a word?) the Kindle from say account 1 and register it to account 2. You will still be able to read the books that have been downloaded from Account 1 on the Kindle which is now registered to account 2 which is good. But there are downsides because now the books will basically lose the ability for things like whispersync where your notes/highlights/bookmarks are transported across all Kindle devices like Kindle for PC, Kindle for android, iphone, ipad etc. You will still get notes/highlights/bookmarks on your Kindle but this info will not be synced up with any other Kindle app you use. This may or may not be an issue. Sorry if it sounds convoluted - I'm sure someone else can explain it better! I personally could not be bothered to start messing about registering the Kindle to one account and then perhaps back to another. But I am generally lazy like that. Perhaps someone with patience wouldn't mind!

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