Amazon Initiates Kindle Book Loaning Program - Sort Of

Fighting the eBook trend is probably as smart as laughing at the idea of every home having a computer. Even though I am now the proud owner of a Kindle and my wife enjoy's her Nook, both of us prefer paper books (though I will admit it was nice to be able to read five books and not have to carry them on my trip to Delaware, Philadelphia and New York with my basketball team this past week).

One of the advantages, or so I thought, of paper books over Kindle books was the ability to lend books to your friends. Now, to some extent, even that advantage is gone. I received the following message explaining the new lend a book feature for Kindle books from Amazon in an e-mail:

Dear Publisher,

We are excited to announce Kindle book lending (http://www.amazon.com/kindle-lending). The Kindle Book Lending feature allows users to lend digital books they have purchased through the Kindle Store to their friends and family. Each book may be lent once for a duration of 14 days and will not be readable by the lender during the loan period.

All DTP titles are enrolled in lending by default. For titles in the 35% royalty option, you may choose to opt out of lending by deselecting the checkbox under "Kindle Book Lending," in the "Rights and Pricing" section of the title upload/edit process. You may not choose to opt out a title if it is included in the lending program of another sales or distribution channel. For more details, see section 5.2.2 of the Term and Conditions.

For more info on how Kindle Book Lending works, see our FAQ here: http://forums.digitaltextplatform.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=581

Sincerely,
 
Amazon Digital Text Platform