Amazon.com Lending Library (MERGED)

[Shaun Jeffrey]

I just saw this on Amazon.com's front page:


"Dear Customers,

Today we're announcing a new benefit for Kindle owners with an Amazon Prime membership: the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free, including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers — as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. No other e-reader or ebook store offers such a service.

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library features a wide array of popular titles, including Water for Elephants, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, and Fast Food Nation – plus award-winning novels such as The Finkler Question, motivational books like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, biographies and memoirs including Kitchen Confidential, and Pulitzer Prize-winning books like Guns, Germs, and Steel.

We’re adding the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to Prime membership at no extra cost — Amazon Prime remains just $79 a year, which gives you free two-day shipping on millions of products, plus unlimited instant streaming of almost 13,000 movies and TV shows.
"

[KCHawkings]

Do you know if authors have the option of excluding their books from the lending library?

[Shaun Jeffrey]

I don't know much about how it works, but here is a news report about it: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/chi-amazon-launching-lending-library-for-ebooks-20111103,0,3817773.story

[Betsy the Quilter]

From a reader's point of view, one book a month isn't going to affect my purchasing patterns much....just sayin'.  And I'll probably use it to read books I wouldn't have bought otherwise due to price.

Note that at this point, there are only about 5000 books available, so it appears to be an "opt in" program.

But, given the efforts authors go to here to have books offereed for free, I think this would have the same impact, and would be desireable to have a book in the program.  I did notice at least one KB author in there...Lee Goldberg.

Betsy

[Shaun Jeffrey]

But for someone who doesn't read much, I imagine their quota could easily be fulfilled via this.

[Betsy the Quilter]

I dunno, there really aren't that many books available.  Easily doesn't come to mind when I was trying to find the books available under the program last night. 

Betsy

[Shaun Jeffrey]

Yes, for those included in the program it's a good thing if they get paid. And yes, many authors here want to make their work free. Whether it will have an impact on anyone long term will need to be seen (although I doubt that anyone would really know for sure).

[jimbronyaur]

It's another change, but as a Prime Member, I don't care.  When they released their streaming, etc. I didn't care either.  I have a NetFlix membership and a prime membership.  I'm not going to scour to find a book to download for free for a month...

Then again, I'm also an author, so who knows.

This is why we have to keep our writing flowing, we have to keep publishing, and we can't forget our other vendors... B&N, Smashwords, etc. 

I know that through our publishing company, last month we uploaded some of the "hot and steamy" stuff we started publishing at other sites (like All Romance eBooks) and sold a lot of books there. 

Amazon will keep changing, we just need to keep adapting, and preparing.

-jb

[Doomed Muse]

I don't care much about it. Those books are still up paid also. It's not that different from a library, only this library I pay for with Amazon Prime instead of taxes. Free books for lending have been available for a very long time. It hasn't stopped people from making tons of money with their writing. Again, not to beat this old drum, but the publishing industry is a multi-billion dollar one. Having books out there available for free isn't going to hurt anyone in all likelihood and might even help turn people into hungry readers.

I don't see a downside or anything worth worrying about for the moment.  It would be nice if indies could opt into this, especially if we get paid something per loan, but either way, I just don't see anything here worth panicking about.

Write good books. Make them available in as many formats as you can. Write more good books. Repeat. These things don't change. 

[jimbronyaur]

Is it a bad thing?

excerpt from my blog:

1.As of this writing, the big six aren’t involved.  They have stated they worry about a full lending program as it can and will hurt the bottom line.  I agree with this, and I believe in some light this proves that we and the big guys are sometimes on the same page.
2.The lending is optional.  That means Amazon isn’t going to grab your book and give it away.  I haven’t looked into how you would sign up, etc., because I personally don’t care.  I have no interest in this right now.
3.The lending is one book at a time.  A person gets a book and does what they want… keep it for months, but if they try to get a new one, the old one goes away.  Okay, not too bad… and in fact, it kind of makes the lending look dumb.  One at a time.
4.The lending is ONLY for Kindle… NO APPS.  That means you have to do it via your Kindle or Kindle library online.  The idea, which is stated in the WSJ article I read, is to get people to buy more ebooks.
5.The lending is only for Prime Members.  And that is the nail in the coffin.  Why?  Because Amazon is working to make Prime look better and better.  Prime costs $79 a year which gives you free two day shipping.  Amazon has added videos, and now lending.  Whoop-de-do.  I have a Prime account but I don’t watch videos via Amazon.  I have no interest in it.  I use Prime for shipping.  Now, a customer has to spend $79 a year to get the lending… that comes to $6.58/month.  They get one book to read.  My ebooks max out at $3.99… so it’s cheaper to just buy my ebook than go for the Prime membership for the lending option… just saying.


http://jimthewriterb.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/amazon-allows-kindle-lending/

-jb

[Betsy the Quilter]

Hi, I've merged this with an existing thread on the same topic, and will continue to do so with new threads.    This thread is for discussion of the program from the author's point of view.  If you want to discuss it from a reader point of view, there is a thread in Let's Talk Kindle!

Thanks.

Betsy
KB Moderator

[Mr Toons]

What I would like to know is are they going to reimburse me money I am losing when someone reads my book without paying me for it? I think this sucks for authors, especially cartoon books where you can read it pretty much in an hour or less.

[Bethany B.]

Really glad to see no one's freaking out about this. I'm with Betsy, this really changes nothing for me. My library offers more online than what Amazon is carrying and between my husband and I, we buy between 10-30 books a month.

I wonder why Amazon even bothered really. It hardly seems worth it. I'd love see their reasons.

[Mr Toons]

This is akin to Barnes and Noble letting Nookies read anything they wish for an hour in their stores. My book can be read in under a half hour and as such a sale goes by the wayside. They aren't paying me any portion of that privilege to it's customers, I am in effect a librarian, which isn't bad if you're getting paid a wage to do it like my wife. Here however I end up getting nothing out of it. If it encourages people to buy my other books when they are here eventually (and they will be) it could be a plus. Until then I am not a big fan of it.

[Tommie Lyn]

This is akin to Barnes and Noble letting Nookies read anything they wish for an hour in their stores. My book can be read in under a half hour and as such a sale goes by the wayside. They aren't paying me any portion of that privilege to it's customers, I am in effect a librarian, which isn't bad if you're getting paid a wage to do it like my wife. Here however I end up getting nothing out of it. If it encourages people to buy my other books when they are here eventually (and they will be) it could be a plus. Until then I am not a big fan of it.

I can't speak to the Barnes & Noble situation, since I don't upload to them through Pubit, but I do know that when you upload your book to Amazon, you can choose to allow or disallow lending. I haven't read anything that says this new lending library overrides a choice not to lend, so I would assume that if you've chosen not to allow lending, your book wouldn't be included in the library. But...I'm just making an assumption about that based on my limited knowledge and admittedly faulty logic.

[Asher MacDonald]

I see that Eisler's new book is one of the books listed. I wonder if Amazon is going to offer all their in-house books through Prime?

One book enough isn't enough to make me get Prime, but it's a perk.

[flanneryohello]

What I would like to know is are they going to reimburse me money I am losing when someone reads my book without paying me for it? I think this sucks for authors, especially cartoon books where you can read it pretty much in an hour or less.

You do realize that people have been lending books to each other for years, right? The concept of lending is nothing new. The only difference between this lending library and two friends passing paperbacks back and forth is that the Amazon program actually enforces limits. I can borrow 12 books per year from Amazon, yet the only limit I have when scouring my best friend's book collection is my own reading time.

Do you honestly believe that in most cases, the person being lent a book would have otherwise bought it? In my experience, I'm usually lent books that a friend has enjoyed and wants me to read. These are not usually books I would have otherwise purchased. Sometimes I enjoy a book I'm lent so much that I become a fan of the author...and buy subsequent books. I'm sure many "lendees" fall into this category.

I agree with others who don't feel this will have much impact. Only Prime members are eligible. You can only borrow one book at a time. You're limited to one book a month. So the most you can borrow per year is 12 books. And that's from the incredibly limited selection available. I'm not too worried that the reading needs of avid readers will be sated by this program, to the point where they opt out of buying the books they would have normally purchased.

Generally, I think it serves authors well to remember that programs like this--which enforce limits--aren't going to make or break their writing career. I honestly believe it will be a minority of people who actively use this service (borrowing all 12 allotted books per year), and speaking only for myself, as a Prime member, I have no real interest in ignoring the books I would've otherwise purchased in favor of a narrow selection of "free" books, to be read one at a time.

[modwitch]

I'm excited about this as a Prime member - it's a nice perk to a service I already find very valuable.

As an author, my biggest concern is that they won't include us.  I'd be ecstatic to be included.  Prime members spend a lot of time on Amazon, and it would be awesome if they'd look for my books.  There are 1500 fiction books in the lending library right now - the visibility of being one of those books would be *huge*.  So those of you who don't want in - if Amazon comes calling, my email addy is deborageary@gmail.com.  Thanks  .

[Asher MacDonald]

The article in the Tribune said most of the writers/publishers are being paid a flat fee to be in the lending library, but some are being paid a wholesale rate per borrow. So for some lucky authors they will be paid each time someone downloads their free book. That sounds absolutely awesome to me.

This wouldn't be enough to make me pay for Prime, but as Deborah says for people already members it's a nice perk.

[modwitch]

So for some lucky authors they will be paid each time someone downloads their free book. That sounds absolutely awesome to me.

I'd take money, but they could have A Modern Witch for free.

[Mr Toons]

I uploaded to all the formats at once with my aggregator and it had no choice to allow or disallow on Amazon for shares. Been trying to locate any sort of choice on Amazon's site but no luck. You're right about traditional book sharing and with that the authors lose on it too obviously. Print books just had to live with it. DRM for ebooks is supposed to take care of massive sharing but that is circumvented in this case.  Hopefully if enough authors complain they will make this an option for the book.

[Mr Toons]

I would be happy to get that flat fee or a per book. Will have to learn more before I decide whether I like this or not. I'm not one of those take my work for free kind of authors. Food costs money where I live.

[Ann in Arlington]

Mr Toons, you don't have to worry as your book is not currently offered for lending either via customer to customer or via the Prime Lending Library.

[Mr Toons]

I thought my listing said 'lending enabled'.  Here's a blog entry about it I found.http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/?p=7854

[Terrence OBrien]

"Now, a customer has to spend $79 a year to get the lending… that comes to $6.58/month.  They get one book to read."

I'd agree that someone who joins Prime only to get the books pays $6.58, but we have to look at the other situations of Prime members. Anyone who is already a member pays no incremental charge for the books. They could say they pay zero. This can be very attractive for existing Prime members who also buy books.

Who might that be? Me. I buy so much stuff on Amazon the shipping benefit alone easily justifies my $79. I joined Prime when that was the only benefit, and I have yet to take advantage of any other benefit. It made sense for me when shipping was the only benefit. I'd keep Prime if they dropped all the video and book benefits.

I also buy lots of Kindle books. So if I find eBooks on Prime that I like, it will definitely reduce the amount of money I spend on eBooks. They are offering a new feature that I consider a personal benefit.

My eyeball time won't change, and the amount of reading I do won't change, but the number of books I pay for will. It will be one less book per month. (All this presumes Amazon will make it easy for me to get the Prime book. If I have to jump through a bunch of hoops, no deal.)

Do I represent all consumers? No.
Are there people who will behave in a different manner? Yes.
Am I a surrogate for the market? No.
Am I representative of a segment of prime members? Yes.