Kindle Book Lending is here!

Dzmitry49

Without much of an announcement, Amazon has rolled out the Kindle feature that many people has been waiting for since it was announced two months ago. Kindle books can now be lent and borrowed for a period of 14 days. The feature is only available for some of the books. Here’s official Amazon help page about eBook loan feature.

At the moment it is not integrated into Kindle device software so you have to visit amazon.com website to loan and borrow books. You can do it either via “Manage Your Kindle” page or by visiting product pages of the books that you’ve already purchased. Either way you will see one of these links.

After clicking on this link, you will be prompted to enter recipient email address, name and a personal message. They will then receive an email with the link to accept book on a loan if they wish.

The whole thing is relatively simple and straightforward. It is up to publishers to enable to disable this feature. Since I didn’t explicitly enable it for my dictionary books and they are available for lending, I guess that it’s enabled by default. Read how to open QFX file.

What percentage of books is lendable is hard to say at the moment. I did a quick check of my Kindle library and it roughly seems 50/50. В Typically it’s either free out-of-copyright books that have lending disabled or popular bestsellers like “Lord of the Rings” or Gunslinger series by Stephen King. Read how to open PSD file.

To get a feel for how this new feature works, I’m going to loan out all of the lendable books in my collection. If you like anything from the list below, just drop me a comment and I’ll loan you the book. If enough people would get interested, I would set up a book loaning exchange website, where people can list Kindle books they are willing to loan and people who would like to borrow can find them.

Enjoy!

49 thoughts on “Kindle Book Lending is here!”

  2. Kevin says:

    Hello Andrei! I would be certainly interested in reading Freedom by J. Franzen if you are willing to lend it! Also, you can count me in as one who’d be interested in the potential exchange site.

  3. Robert says:

    Wow, this is great news. I’m rather new to Kindle (since October 2010) and have not had time to amass a large collection of books yet. So far, none of the books I’ve purchased are lendable, but hopefully that changes and more books soon become eligible.

    “White House Diary” has been on my “to read” list, and I’d love to give the lending feature a try.

  5. Robert says:

    Andrei, many thanks! The process is extremely straightforward. From the moment I received the lending notification e-mail to the moment I began reading the book took no longer than 90 seconds. That includes clicking the “Get your loaned book now” button in the e-mail, which took me straight away to the “Accept Your Loaned Kindle Book” page for the title you lent. From there I simply clicked an “Accept loaned book” download button and, like most downloads from Amazon via Whispernet, the thing began downloading immediately. Very smooth!

  7. Bob says:

    I cannot believe anybody thinks Amazon’s lending policy is a good thing.
    I can lend SOME books FOURTEEN days to somebody ONCE.
    It is so horrible and unfair.
    I have made it my new policy to remove the DRM from all Amazon books so I can lone them normally.
    If they had a reasonable policy such as: I can lone a book to one person for as long as needed and when that person is done, the book is returned to me, I would never had messed with removing DRM.
    Too bad for Amazon.

  11. Victor says:

    Thanks Andrei,

    This is a great feature. Every time I’ve lent someone a physical book it seems to have been permanent. I’m looking for a new house this year and would like to borrow Home Buying for Dummies.

  16. randomscrub says:

    I’ve been meaning to read Saberhagen’s Empire of the East for a while. Care to make it happen? Thanks!

  18. WS64 says:

    Thanks, works perfect!
    I’ll buy that one

    Can I ask for one more, The Ultimate Science Fiction Collection: Volume Two (30+ Books)

    Many Thanks!

  20. Robin says:

    I just got a kindle as a gift and I love it. I am looking to borrow The Help by Katheryn Stockett. Thank you

  21. Suzanne says:

    I am happy to lend or join a lending group. I agree 14 days is a short loan. I would love to see kindle loans become easier I can see potential in the workplace too!

  22. Suzanne says:

    I have just been through my library of free and purchased books but NONE of them are lend able. I am very disappointed, I may even return my kindle and all of the books I have purchased. This was one of my reasons to purchase a kindle.

  23. Ian says:

    This Amazon policy stinks – I could understand lending a book to one person at a time, but for 14 days only and once only and to allow the publisher to disallow – how stupid. What about newspapers? Why can’t I lend a newspaper to someone on the train, I can with the physical copy. I can even leave it there if I want to for anyone to read. A great reason to go back to paper. I’m seriously disappointed.

  24. Paul says:

    You can lend your Kindle instead of paper book. But do not forger to deregister it if you do not rely on the person. Deregistering does not erase information from Kindle.

  25. Henri says:

    If I buy a paper book, I own it, I can give it away, burn it or whatever. I do not see why the public is willing to buy a product like this where you have no ‘rights’ with the item you purchased. It is your ebook, you paid for it, you should be able to give it a friend or trade it…. This dumb policy is only good for Amazon and the publisher’s wallet not yours….

  26. Amanda says:

    hello andrei! unfortunately i did not see any books in your collection that i would like to borrow. but would you happen to know if anyone is able/interested in loaning the Hunger Game?

  32. kara says:

    Is it true that you can only loan a book one tine? Or can you loan out the same book multiple times after its returned back to you? Just confused about this.

  35. Barbara says:

    do you have to belong to kindle prime to loan books on your kindle to other kindle owners? if not, how do you lend?

  36. Kenni says:

    Thanks so much for the help! I’d love to read Empire of the East, if it’s still available for loan.

  37. Jason says:

    Anyone know how I can lend and borrow books on my kindle without actually knowing the owner of a book? I’m really wanting to read Peter Church’s and Stieg Larson’s books, but can’t afford to buy them any time soon.

  39. bill says:

    apparently not available at all in the UK, despite instructions in the UserGuide saying otherwise. thank you Amazon.co.uk for nothing

  41. Glen says:

    Just found out that I can only lend a Kindle book ONCE!!! It’s bad enough that they tell me I can only lend it for 14 days, but then to tell me that I can’t lend it anymore is unacceptable.

    Kindle books should be treated just like a hardcopy. I can loan it to whomever I want; as long as I want; as many times as I want as long as it’s one at a time.

    WE AS AMAZON CUSTOMERS SHOULD NOT PUT UP WITH THIS!! WE SHOULD CONTINUE TO YELL, SCREAM AND COMPLAIN UNTIL THEY CHANGE!!!

    I am seriously rethinking my use of Kindle books for any future purchases.

  42. matthew says:

    Glen,

    I agree with you on most of that, but don’t think the problem rests with Amazon. When it comes to lending, the situation is basically being dictated by the publishers who are anti-eBook and anti-Amazon by and large. You can see a lot of this in Penguin’s recent withdrawal from libraries entirely. They’re the ones you want to send complaints at, as far as this issue.

  43. Kathy says:

    I am new to Kindle–I received one for Christmas. I would be very interested in borrowing Photoshop elements 8 for Dummies. We are snowbirding and I thought I would learn this program while we are here but I am lost!!

  44. Amy says:

    Thank you for this post and your generous offer! May I please borrow Robert Jordan’s “The Eye of the World”?!

  47. Shannon says:

    This all makes me wish I wouldn’t have purchased a kindle…..something that could b so simple is so complicating…. this is ridiculous…. everything is always about money….wow….reallly????

  48. David Larkin says:

    We have a book library at work where people leave books when they have read them. I will continue to borrow from there or buy books and donate them when I have finished them. Kindle is nice for travelling as I don’t have to take anything extra as I can use my phone. I only buy books on offer or free though, not going to pay full price for something I don’t own!

  49. Crystal says:

    Can you lend me Photoshop Elements 8 For Dummies? I’m trying the lending process for the first time. THANKS!!

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