Amazon.com Inc. has developed a new way to encourage consumers to ditch their paperbacks in favor of digital books.
The company has launched an e-book library, which will enable Kindle owners with the company’s Amazon Prime subscription to borrow books up to month for a flat annual fee.
Subscribers to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library will have access to “free” books, according to its media release announcement. The global online retail giant considers its new service to be like “no other e-reader or e-bookstore.”
“Owning a Kindle just got even better. Today, we’re introducing a new Prime benefit built for Kindle: The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO in a statement. “Prime members now have exclusive access to a huge library of books to read on any Kindle device at no additional cost and with no due dates.”
Prime membership costs $80 a year, and provides access to over 5,000 books, including more than “100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers.”
The new program is compatible with the $199 Kindle Fire device, as well as other Kindle e-readers, however it is not operational with Kindle applications that operate on platforms such as Apple’s iPad, iPhone, or smartphones running Google Android.
The Seattle-based Amazon has obviously come up with an arrangement behind the scenes with publishers, but its press release does indicate that there are some reservations about this radical step to provide such access to the public.
“Titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library come from a range of publishers under a variety of terms,” Amazon says. “For the vast majority of titles, Amazon has reached agreement with publishers to include titles for a fixed fee. In some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader under standard wholesale terms as a no-risk trial to demonstrate to publishers the incremental growth and revenue opportunity that this new service presents.”
