Woah

[quivo]

Apparently, you can loan some Kindle books now:

From an Amazon Help page:
Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle -- Kindle books can also be read using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are lendable -- it is up to the publisher or rights holder to determine which titles are eligible for lending. The lender will not be able to read the book during the loan period.

And there are directions on that page for doing this. Anyone feel like testing this feature and giving us a trip report?

Edit: Okay, I found a couple books that had the "Loan This Book" button, and it looks like anything that can be loaned will use the Nook model. I.e. lend it once for 14 days, and that's it. This included a book that I know that the author published on his own through Amazon, which makes me think that the feature is more or less an item they're putting in so that Barnes and Noble can't say they're the only ones that do it.

I do wonder if self-publishers will eventually be able to make it so their book can be loaned more than once, but I also doubt that Amazon has made provisions for that straight off.

Comments

[elf]

Like the Nook version, I suspect it's something that the Big 6 publishers won't allow. And, gaah, there is NO REASON to limit it to once, or to 14 days; the fact that you can't read it while it's out should be enough.

But most publishers don't want to allow open lending, don't want people to use ebooks like they do pbooks--they're enjoying the concept of being able to insist that 1 purchase = 1 reader. They seem to think that this will mean more purchases in the long run, rather than less readers. If they controlled all the digital books, that might be true; since the digital market, unlike bookstores, doesn't have space constraints on the variety of titles it carries, the fact that some books come with more permissions will eventually be a selling point.

[nashira]

But most publishers don't want to allow open lending, don't want people to use ebooks like they do pbooks--they're enjoying the concept of being able to insist that 1 purchase = 1 reader.

I agree, except I think it'll make more DRM cracking savvy people and more pirates rather than less readers. People who want to read enough, pretty much do. Publishers and their needs be damned.

This is why I don't like DRM, and so won't buy from the publishers I normally would. Plenty of interesting stuff elsewhere.

[elf]

I think it'll do both. There'll be a solid ebook filesharing community (or rather, several of them), *and* less non-geeky readers who can't be bothered to figure out DRM cracking or torrenting and will just decide that ebooks, like MMORPGs, are a computer-geek thing that they're not interested in. The people who don't download free music because they're worried that IT IS A CRIME won't download ebooks either.

Except that many of those people will be slowly drawn into the free-classics sites as they decide they'd like to re-read Dickens or Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes books, and discover that the non-DRM'd stuff is easy to find & use, and their first bad experience with a purchase will convince them that ebooks aren't worth paying for.

(Harlequin's ebook site says you need to download the MS reader for .lit books--they *don't* say you need to use IE to make the purchases.)

[nashira]

I know ways that don't even require torrents, but I put that down to having been on the internet since I was 11, which is nearly nine years come the right date this month. :D Certainly not as long as many, but long enough and young enough that finding things online sort of became part of my thought process vs a weird, tricky task.

Though of course I also live in a town where things inexplicably "fall off the back of a truck" fairly often. Ahem. Can I blame England for putting a lot of convicts over here? (I'm Australian....)

I think the classics sites will be a good draw for anyone interested in more than the modern popular titles, in fact I think they'll get read far more because they're easy and free to get. I get a lot of stuff from Smashwords, free and paid for. Of course it depends on ones willingness to filter for themselves to go that route but I've found enjoyable books even if they aren't perfect. Truth is half the DTB's I have have typos riddled through them and less than stellar grammar..

But I am hoping that either publishers (unlikely) or Authors (slightly more likely) will realise that treating people like criminals isn't going to help them so much. I mean lots of people still pirate music, but lots of people also just find it easy to grab it off itunes for a dollar (1.69 here, but still) or from Amazon MP3's. Books will likely remain more expensive than a song in most cases (like music videos and tv shows/movies on iTunes, would be the equivalent I guess?) but it's not so bad to swallow if you know you'll be able to format shift if (when) the time comes, at least to me.

I might be rambling, sorry. But my point was if they make things more accessable, people will be happier. I've seen the argument on MR a lot that kindle will win and their users will always be happy/have their books and not to worry about it (or things along that sentiment) but people read on all sorts of devices obviously, and should be able to read their books as they like.
(OT, but your icon always makes me smile. I didn't realise you were elfwreck until a few days ago and I went "OH SHE'S ON MR!" ahem. Duh, self.)

[elf]

Small, indie publishers & authors will realize that treating customers like criminals is bad for business. Big publishers aren't used to thinking about book *readers* at all; for decades, their customers have been distributors, not end users.

For most of that time, big publishers have ignored little publishers--niche genre presses couldn't get space in mainstream bookstores, so they sold to markets that big publishers couldn't be bothered to research enough to find out what they wanted. (Scifi, romance & erotica, LGBT...) It's fascinating to watch them not admit that they're suddenly in direct competition with lines of books they never wanted to acknowledge existed.

(OT: There's a link to my DW in my MR sig. Which, as far as I know, nobody's ever followed. I switched my default userpic to this one after starting an ebook review comm for the MR crowd; it's currently got absolutely nothing in it 'cos none of us can figure out how to start.)

[nashira]

Which is a shame about the big houses, really, because without readers of some variety, they simply wouldn't exist. Authors would be writing to themselves. Hell I don't even think $15 for an ebook is that bad, but then here DTB's even paper backs are often $20-$50 - an expensive habit, if one buys new often.

I love the little houses, though. And I've discovered a lot of the people who run them are excellent, decent people. And I've stopped reading as much from "mainstream" publishers as I might have before. There's more variety, more writing voices that aren't all the same and I can often afford a whole series at a time if I like it. To me, this is brilliant even though I have to read them on my laptop or iPod (saving for a 650. Ugh. Money.) they're just as enjoyable, sometimes more than a paperbook - for one they don't keep letting the bookmarks fall out, like the most recent paper book I was reading did. -.-

(OT: I think I actually have clicked it, but New Years and Christmas drained me and it took the icon to make me go OH RIGHT. Braindead am I. I also saw that when I was flicking through MR this morning, I wish I was better at reviewing stuff or I'd pitch in. Some reason I can rec fanfics, but working out how to write a book review makes me go '...Erm.')

[nashira]

Seems like they're just playing catch up with the Nook, really. The time limit isn't so bad but the once only is, frankly, stupid. It's not like you can read it too while it's "out".

[elf]

But you could if you cracked it first! And besides, if they allowed unlimited lending, then when people were done with the ebook, they'd set up internet share-a-book sites and NOBODY WOULD EVER PAY FOR THAT BOOK AGAIN!!! because everyone would know where to find those bookshare sites and offer their email addresses to strangers and be willing to wait for the book to be available.

THAT'S WHY NOBODY EVER BUYS BOOKS THAT THEIR LIBRARY CARRIES.

You *know* that the ability to loan paper books innumerable times has destroyed the publishing industry!

[nashira]

...BRB collapsing from laughter.

[quivo]

HEXACTLY my good friend. Unlimited lending would doom us all!!

On a more serious note, I think what will probably happen depends on how long publishers cling to using DRM. If they ever decide to let go and stop trying to control what readers do with the books they've bought, the whole lend-a-book nonsense will just stop being a problem, seeing as you don't NEED the publisher's permission to lend out a non-drmed title. Then again, since pigs will fly before that, I can only hope that someone looks at the way ebook libraries work, and draws the right conclusions from the fact that they are not destroying ebook sales.