Kindle book loaning now live - Page 2

OtterBooks · 12-30-2010, 07:53 PM

Quote:

It's a nice step but it's still too restrictive i.e. the time limit and only being able to lend a book once. If ebooks and ebook readers are supposed to mimic the experience with physical books then an owner should at least be able to lend their ebooks for an unlimited number of times and for any length of time. Just like with physical books

I don't think they're comparable. You can't teleport your paper book to a dozen people around the world and get it back in flawless condition.

Trini · 12-30-2010, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

I don't think they're comparable. You can't teleport your paper book to a dozen people around the world and get it back in flawless condition.

I know it's not exactly comparable. However one of the attractions of ebooks is that it's supposed to improve on the experience of reading physical books, in addition to being more eco-friendly etc. That's how the industry is advertised. Therefore we as consumers should expect an improvement, not less functionality as is mostly evident in this case.

The only improvement Amazon's book lending has is as you indicated that you can lend the book to someone miles away freely and that's it. The rest of the feature is a step backwards to me. We should be able to either choose how long we wish to lend the book to someone (for those of us that "forgets" to read and return in a timely manner

), lend it multiple times etc. It appears to me that Amazon is meeting consumer demand on this issue at a bare minimum. Maybe because of publisher restrictions their hands are tied on some of the features. I don't know. Only time will tell.

ProfCrash · 12-30-2010, 08:42 PM

Ideally that would be the case. Amazon has the same program as BN. It is not perfect, in fact it is pretty close to useless, but it is better then nothing. It is a starting point.

Trini · 12-30-2010, 08:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Ideally that would be the case. Amazon has the same program as BN. It is not perfect, in fact it is pretty close to useless, but it is better then nothing. It is a starting point.

Agreed

OtterBooks · 12-30-2010, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Maybe because of publisher restrictions their hands are tied on some of the features. I don't know. Only time will tell.

If I understand it correctly, Amazon is completely at the whim of publishers on this one. In fact considering how Amazon makes little or no money on ebooks, or even takes a loss on many, they probably couldn't care less what we do with the books. (could be wrong, here)

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Ideally that would be the case. Amazon has the same program as BN. It is not perfect, in fact it is pretty close to useless, but it is better then nothing. It is a starting point.

I can read most books within 2 weeks, and rarely re-read books. Now if there's a book me and a friend want to read and were willing to buy, we can split the cost or take turns paying. An ebook has practically zero material value so I don't care who "keeps" it and there's no value lost in lending it, like wear and tear etc. This means the publisher and author just lost a sale. On the other hand, me and my friend may wind up buying more books because of it.

Gotta be honest and say I can see where publishers are coming from on this, though. And believe me, I am no champion of big business, so it takes a lot for me to say that, ha.

ProfCrash · 12-30-2010, 11:54 PM

Most the folks I will lend to are people I would happily share an account with. If the lending doesn't work I can register them, add the book, and deregister them.

rsullivan · 12-30-2010, 11:57 PM

I was surprised that this came in with no pre-announcement etc. As someone whose husband sells a lot of kindles (10,000 this month alone) I went "eep" thinking it would really hurt his sales - but then I looked into it and it is only a single loan so no problems there.

Overall I think we'll see more and more of this kind of thing in the future. - Not sure exactly what it will mean to those people who publish on ebooks.

ProfCrash · 12-31-2010, 12:00 AM

This was announced ages ago. Sometime in October I think.

bhartman36 · 12-31-2010, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsullivan

I was surprised that this came in with no pre-announcement etc. As someone whose husband sells a lot of kindles (10,000 this month alone) I went "eep" thinking it would really hurt his sales - but then I looked into it and it is only a single loan so no problems there.

Overall I think we'll see more and more of this kind of thing in the future. - Not sure exactly what it will mean to those people who publish on ebooks.

I think it depends on what kind of material you're releasing on Kindle. I imagine that someone who writes a novella isn't going to be very happy at the potential prospect of two people reading their book for every single sale they make. At the other end of the spectrum, I don't think reference book publishers are going to be affected much at all. How many reference works are you going to want to hold on to for only two weeks? Travel guides might suffer from the lending, but I think that will be the worst of it, for reference.

wallcraft · 12-31-2010, 01:31 AM

There are about 275,000 books published in the US every year (Bowker - 2008). The 1st problem authors have to overcome is to get an audience. Lending ebooks is the best sort of word of mouth - the kind that gets you new readers. If the borrowers like one of your ebooks, they might actually buy others. The real problem with this program is that an evangelist who really likes your ebook can only lend it once. On the other hand it was a minor miracle that B&N was able to get publishers to agree to any lending.

abookreader · 12-31-2010, 09:12 AM

site I listed a few of my books on yesterday. I know they have a similar nook site already. I've borrowed one book and loaned out two already.

http://www.booksformykindle.com/

Not many of my books in my archives seem to have it turned on and many of those that do were freebies anyway. I would especially be much more willing to shell out $12.99 for a title if I knew I could lend it at least once.... like for instance, Jayne Krentz's In Too Deep which was released this week and I haven't bought.

But maybe Lending will develop into something decent over time if and when the Publishers ever get the heads out of their asses.

HarryT · 12-31-2010, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsullivan

I was surprised that this came in with no pre-announcement etc. As someone whose husband sells a lot of kindles (10,000 this month alone) I went "eep" thinking it would really hurt his sales - but then I looked into it and it is only a single loan so no problems there.

Overall I think we'll see more and more of this kind of thing in the future. - Not sure exactly what it will mean to those people who publish on ebooks.

What do you mean "no pre-announcement"? It was announced months ago. 22nd October to be exact. See the Amazon announcement here.

E. Stublefield · 12-31-2010, 11:11 AM

It would be great if it worked. Unfortunatly most books are not on the approved lending list. The book has to be approved by the publisher/author. If it does not have a little box below the book area, that says something to the effect, "lending enabled" or "lending approved" not sure which. It will not be able to be lent. I haven't found a book that I have purchased that is approved yet. Good Luck everyone else.

jasonkchapman · 12-31-2010, 12:03 PM

It works as well as the rights holders will allow it to. All of the pros and cons being mentioned are the same ones that were mentioned when B&N started LendMe. I assume Amazon just matched B&N's feature, as opposed to improving on it, because the publishers were simply extending the same rights to another platform.

One thing that Amazon's lending program demonstrates is that competition is good. B&N innovates with LendMe, Amazon matches it. Now that Amazon has come up with the brilliant "give a book" feature, I don't doubt that B&N will match it in relatively short order. Little by little, we, the consumers, benefit from the attempts to different the various platforms.

J. Strnad · 01-01-2011, 01:36 PM

As the author of a non-DRMed book, this doesn't really effect me. But if I were with a publisher who DRMed me, I'd welcome a lending feature.

12-31-2010, 11:11 AM	#28
E. Stublefield Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: amazon Kindle	Lending Kindle Books It would be great if it worked. Unfortunatly most books are not on the approved lending list. The book has to be approved by the publisher/author. If it does not have a little box below the book area, that says something to the effect, "lending enabled" or "lending approved" not sure which. It will not be able to be lent. I haven't found a book that I have purchased that is approved yet. Good Luck everyone else.

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12-30-2010, 08:42 PM	#18
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	Ideally that would be the case. Amazon has the same program as BN. It is not perfect, in fact it is pretty close to useless, but it is better then nothing. It is a starting point.

12-30-2010, 11:54 PM	#21
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	Most the folks I will lend to are people I would happily share an account with. If the lending doesn't work I can register them, add the book, and deregister them.

12-30-2010, 11:57 PM	#22
rsullivan Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Fairfax VA Device: iphone	I was surprised that this came in with no pre-announcement etc. As someone whose husband sells a lot of kindles (10,000 this month alone) I went "eep" thinking it would really hurt his sales - but then I looked into it and it is only a single loan so no problems there. Overall I think we'll see more and more of this kind of thing in the future. - Not sure exactly what it will mean to those people who publish on ebooks.

12-31-2010, 12:00 AM	#23
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	This was announced ages ago. Sometime in October I think.

12-31-2010, 01:31 AM	#25
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,977 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	There are about 275,000 books published in the US every year (Bowker - 2008). The 1st problem authors have to overcome is to get an audience. Lending ebooks is the best sort of word of mouth - the kind that gets you new readers. If the borrowers like one of your ebooks, they might actually buy others. The real problem with this program is that an evangelist who really likes your ebook can only lend it once. On the other hand it was a minor miracle that B&N was able to get publishers to agree to any lending.

12-31-2010, 09:12 AM	#26
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	site I listed a few of my books on yesterday. I know they have a similar nook site already. I've borrowed one book and loaned out two already. http://www.booksformykindle.com/ Not many of my books in my archives seem to have it turned on and many of those that do were freebies anyway. I would especially be much more willing to shell out $12.99 for a title if I knew I could lend it at least once.... like for instance, Jayne Krentz's In Too Deep which was released this week and I haven't bought. But maybe Lending will develop into something decent over time if and when the Publishers ever get the heads out of their asses.

12-31-2010, 12:03 PM	#29
jasonkchapman Guru Posts: 767 Karma: 2347 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: NYC Device: Sony Reader, nook, Droid, nookColor, nookTablet	It works as well as the rights holders will allow it to. All of the pros and cons being mentioned are the same ones that were mentioned when B&N started LendMe. I assume Amazon just matched B&N's feature, as opposed to improving on it, because the publishers were simply extending the same rights to another platform. One thing that Amazon's lending program demonstrates is that competition is good. B&N innovates with LendMe, Amazon matches it. Now that Amazon has come up with the brilliant "give a book" feature, I don't doubt that B&N will match it in relatively short order. Little by little, we, the consumers, benefit from the attempts to different the various platforms.

01-01-2011, 01:36 PM	#30
J. Strnad Guru Posts: 915 Karma: 3537194 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo, Kindle 3, Paperwhite	As the author of a non-DRMed book, this doesn't really effect me. But if I were with a publisher who DRMed me, I'd welcome a lending feature.

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