If you fancy the idea of getting more value from your ebook purchases, then ebook lending might be right for you. But how does it work? And where do you go? This article aims to answer both of these questions and get you going in the right direction.
There are several sites now that allow and facilitate ebook lending including Lendle, Book Lending and eBook Fling. These three sites all allow the process of sharing and lending out your Kindle books, except that eBook Fling also accepts Nook ebooks as well. So if you purchase a set of digital books on your Kindle and you now wish to lend them out, so you can receive new books for free, sign up at one of the above sites.
Let’s take a look at how it works. Essentially you sign up for a free account at any of the above mentioned sites and then list the ebooks you wish to make available for sharing/lending. When another member eyes a title you have listed, he or she will contact you via the system put in place by the respective site and you either accept the request or reject the request. Since the
transaction is done electronically via email, you will want to set up a separate special email address just for the purposes of ebook lending. This is also what eBook Fling recommends that you do, to keep the transaction – simple, safe and separate from your Kindle or Nook account.
This could potentially be a great way to get access to dozens of books without paying a dime, since each time you lend one out, you get points in return to grab one from a member. It’s a new and smart ecosystem built by tech savvy entrepreneurs who know there’s demand for this service.
Each site has its own set of rules and or guidelines on how to lend a book and how to set up an account, but they all work in a similar way, as far as the end result. By default the Kindle only allows one ebook to be lent at any one time and for only 14 days, as such – the sites above are limited to this rule as well. The book that is currently on loan, can’t be lent again till this period is up. However it can be returned early and then the lender will have access to it again.
Lendle is the only one of the three (as of this writing) that pays for lending out a book at fifty cents a pop. Also of note with Lendle you don’t necessarily need a Kindle device to loan or share, you just need one of the Kindle apps, either for your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, iPad or PC.
Ebook lending and or sharing is a fun way to meet new authors, read new titles, even mix and mingle with book lovers as some of the sites have discussion boards around lendable books. It’s an interesting and multi-faceted new dimension in the ever changing world of ebook readers.
This guest article was written by Greg who runs the eBook Reader Geek blog. His most popular article at the moment is on the top Kindle 3 Covers found on the web. When he’s not writing for the web, he loves to surf, bike, kayak and whitewater rafting.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, great article, just thought I’d point out that, unfortunatly the lending service only works with US customers.
Hey, Travis:
Thanks for letting me guest post on your lovely blog. The guest article looks great.
Cheers,
Greg