Kindle Owners' Lending Library!

[Beatriz]

Apparently it's so.  The Wall St Journal reporting it:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204621904577014273003626952.html

This is big.  In one of our discussions of Prime, some members said they would get Prime if it meant they could borrow books..

Betsy

Thanks for this Betsy but maybe you can explain to me the following.  I had one borrow on reports (A Different Journey) and the next time I looked it was gone.  What happened?

[Ann in Arlington]

Thanks for this Betsy but maybe you can explain to me the following.  I had one borrow on reports (A Different Journey) and the next time I looked it was gone.  What happened?

Beatriz, you quoted Betsy's post from over 2 months ago. . .that was when the whole Prime Lending thing was just announced. . . .

If you have questions about how authors or publishers get reports and what they mean, that would be best discussed in the Writer's Cafe. . . .

[purplesmurf]

Not sure if anyone will know the answer to this but. . . my husband has prime on his amazon account and it is shared with my account but I do not get the option to borrow books for free. It is clearly stated in my account that I have prime until December. . .any ideas on why I can't use the lending library?

[Ann in Arlington]

Smurf, is the kindle registered to his account. The 'master' prime account has to be the same one where the kindle is registered. So, for example, my son gets prime shipping via my account, but his kindle is registered to his account, so no free books to borrow.

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[Betsy the Quilter]

Purplesmurf, if you have Prime on your account as a result of "sharing" the Prime membership that your husband has on his account, you are not eligible for the Prime Lending Library.  Here's what Amazon says (italics and underlining mine):

Sharing Amazon Prime Benefits
Prime members under a free trial or paid subscription can share their shipping benefits with up to 4 additional family members living in the same household, or up to 4 coworkers to shop for the related account. Other Prime membership benefits such as Prime instant video and the Kindle Owners' Lending Library can't be shared.

[purplesmurf]

Smurf, is the kindle registered to his account. The 'master' prime account has to be the same one where the kindle is registered. So, for example, my son gets prime shipping via my account, but his kindle is registered to his account, so no free books to borrow.

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Thanks Anne and Betsy, that's kind of what I figured but never actually saw it written anywhere.

Any ideas then on how to combine kindle/amazon accounts without either A) losing my books by transferring the kindle account to the other amazon account, or B)canceling the prime membership and re-upping it on the other account?

[Betsy the Quilter]

Thanks Anne and Betsy, that's kind of what I figured but never actually saw it written anywhere.

Any ideas then on how to combine kindle/amazon accounts without either A) losing my books by transferring the kindle account to the other amazon account, or B)canceling the prime membership and re-upping it on the other account?

I'm not sure there's a way to do that, but if there is, it would involve contacting Kindle CS (Inside the United States: 1-866-321-8851, Outside the United States: 1-206-266-0927.

Betsy

[Andra]

At our house, the Prime membership is in DH's name but since I get most of the benefits, I don't want to pay for a 2nd Prime membership for me.  So I registered one of my older Kindles to his account so I can read my book a month on Amazon...

If you have more books than he does, I would definitely call Amazon to see if you can cancel the Prime on his account and put it on yours instead.

[purplesmurf]

We currently share a kindle so all the books we have are under my account. I'm adding calling them to see if it can be switched to tomorrow's "to do" list.

[mooshie78]

I finally got my own Prime account (had been on my parents for just the shipping).  They added the video streaming to the Playstation 3, so I finally have an easy way to get that on my TV.  With that, and a book a month through the lending library, I decided it was worthwhile to pay for my own Prime account.

[jhartz]

So this is a one-a-month thing?  Someone told me about it and I read somewhere else it was five.  I do have Amazon Prime, but I did not see any free books.

[mooshie78]

Yes, it's one book a month.

If you have a main prime account (not a shared one) you can browse the Lending Library books on the Kindle by going to the Kindle store, clicking "see all categories" and then "Kindle Prime Lending Library."

On the website on a computer, you can do a search in the Kindle book store section,and the select "Amazon Prime Eligible" from the check boxes in the right panel and browse.  Or you can just search for books while logged into your account and see if any you're interested in have the borrow option on their product page.

[Andra]

And that's one book per calendar month, regardless of the date it was borrowed.  A borrowed book must be returned before you can borrow the next one.

[cork_dork_mom]

wondering of maybe this would be the final (& best?) reason to sign up with Prime...

[Ann in Arlington]

wondering of maybe this would be the final (& best?) reason to sign up with Prime...

I don't think 12 books a year is worth the $79 cost. For me the borrowing is icing on the cake. I mostly have it for free shipping. But the books are a nice extra as are videos.

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[Betsy the Quilter]

As a Prime member for years, the shipping is sufficient reason for me.  If I weren't a Prime member, the free instant videos + the shipping would be the true value of Prime.  The 12 books a year would not be sufficient in themselves, but I guess they might tip me over if I were on the fence. 

Betsy

[mooshie78]

The Playstation 3 getting an Amazon Video app put me over the edge to getting my own Prime account.  I'd had Prime for shipping for a couple years, but just as a guest on my parent's account so I couldn't use the video or lending library.

I'd ditched Netflix streaming when they started charging separately for it as I didn't use it enough (mainly watched my disc rentals) to pay $7.99 a month for it.  But once I could easily get Amazon streaming on my TV--that and the Kindle lending library was enough for me to pay the $79 for my own Prime account.

The books alone weren't enough for me to sign up.  But it is a nice perk as every book you borrow that is something you would have bought basically knocks some money off the Prime subscription price by saving you money.

[Geoffrey]

It was the Free TV series and the monthly book that tipped me into Prime.  The shipping by itself wasn't enough to warrant the $79 but with the other things .....

[HMart]

The Playstation 3 getting an Amazon Video app put me over the edge to getting my own Prime account.  I'd had Prime for shipping for a couple years, but just as a guest on my parent's account so I couldn't use the video or lending library.

I'd ditched Netflix streaming when they started charging separately for it as I didn't use it enough (mainly watched my disc rentals) to pay $7.99 a month for it.  But once I could easily get Amazon streaming on my TV--that and the Kindle lending library was enough for me to pay the $79 for my own Prime account.

The books alone weren't enough for me to sign up.  But it is a nice perk as every book you borrow that is something you would have bought basically knocks some money off the Prime subscription price by saving you money.

And who said competition was a bad thing

My guess is there are a number of targeted demographic angles that are yet to follow.