Yes, apparently, you can LOAN your Kindle ebooks. At least, some of them. I find this awesome because it allows you to say, “Hey, I think you’re going to love this author. Give this book a try!”
My nephew and I are finding that our reading preferences cross in strange places. So, we’re a little excited to recommend books to each other. Our new deal? I’ll read Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Side of the Moon if he reads Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Unfortunately, neither of us have these books on the Kindle, so we can’t use the loan feature this time. (Of course, we have paper copies because they’re faves). But, I’m just so excited to share books with friends. Even friends who live far away. I’ve talked at least two people into a Kindle since Christmas.
So, how does it work?
Go to www.amazon.com/myk.
You’ll see a list of books you’ve purchased (or sampled). Click on the plus icon beside the book you want to loan.
Click the “Loan this book” button, beside the cover.
Here’s what comes up:
Fill out the fields and that’s it! You’ve loaned your ebook!
The Fine Print
- Not all publishers allow you to loan books. Boo to them, I say. Lending reaches more readers which means more purchases later!
- The book must be downloaded within 7 days or it is no longer available to your lendee.
- Your lendee can keep the book for 14 days. Presumably, Amazon removes the book at that point–finished or not.
- You can’t read your book for the 14 days it’s being loaned out. Which makes sense. If you loaned a real book, you couldn’t read it, either.
- Most books I’ve explored can only be loaned once. Not quite the same as a real book, but I see the need for limits (since this is so easy) and I can live with that.
P.S. I swear this is not becoming the pimpmykindle site. It’s just… topical and interesting to me. And, oddly, I like writing about those things. Enjoy!