Cover via AmazonE-Book Lending Takes OffNew Online Clubs That Let Readers Share Have Drawbacks but Worry Publishers
Electronic-book lending isn't just for friends anymore.
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In the past few months, online clubs with such names as BookLending.com and Lendle.me have proliferated. The sites, some of which have gathered thousands of users, allow strangers to borrow and lend e-books for Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook free.(more after the break)
The sites are the latest twist in the industry of e-books, which has disrupted the traditional book-publishing industry and changed that business's economics. Public libraries can't lend e-books in the Kindle format, though they can for other e-reading devices.
Previously, Kindle and Nook readers were largely limited to sharing e-books with friends because two users needed to know each other's email address to initiate a loan. The new sites give e-book readers access to a larger network of people and a larger selection of books.
The lending sites have drawbacks. One is limited selection. Most major book publishers haven't made their e-books lendable, and the books can be lent only once and for only 14 days. That means that with every successful loan, the sites' available library shrinks unless new users with books to lend join.
Some publishers, which are monitoring the sites closely, say they fear that making books available for loan may deter people from buying physical and digital books.
The lending sites' founders say they are helping publishers because their users, after borrowing books, can purchase other books in the same series or by the same author.
"People are saying I borrowed a book and I bought it because I didn't finish it," said Jeff Croft, who created Lendle. "That seems to be happening a lot."
The online lending sites have cropped up as e-book and e-reader sales have soared. Consumers spent $1 billion on e-books in 2010, and that number is expected to triple by 2015, according to Forrester Research. It added there were around 10 million e-readers in circulation in the U.S. at the end of 2010, nearly tripling the 3.7 million at the end of 2009.
BookLending and Lendle opened in the past two months, while eBook Fling plans to start Monday. The sites' creators said they decided to launch the services after Amazon, following Barnes & Noble's lead, introduced the ability to lend Kindle e-books in late December. Analysts estimate that Kindle has about two-thirds of the U.S. market for e-books.
Catherine MacDonald, founder of BookLending, said her site has more than 16,000 registered users, and they have made a total of nearly 20,000 book loans so far.
Lending on the different sites is similar. Users request the title they want to borrow. If would-be lenders approve the loan of, for example, a Kindle book, they are directed to an Amazon page to complete the swap. The borrower gets the book for 14 days, after which it disappears from the borrower's library and the lender gets it back.
BookLending and Lendle users can swap only Kindle titles, while eBook Fling will allow Kindle and Nook borrowing.
All three lending sites are free to users. But if books aren't available for borrowing, the sites refer users to Amazon, and they make a commission if users buy a book there.
The three sites offer incentives for users to make their books available for lending. Lendle requires users to make at least one book available for loan before starting to borrow, and the site has an algorithm that improves users' chances of getting a book they want if they lend frequently. BookLending has a similar algorithm, though it has no requirement to make books available for loan first.
Being able to borrow a book isn't guaranteed, and the process isn't instantaneous. First, a user has to make a book available for loan. If another user asks to borrow it, the would-be lender gets an email request, which can be accepted or rejected.
But that hasn't stopped avid readers like Marilyn Knapp Litt from signing up with BookLending. "I really like the idea of being able to borrow a book the way you might borrow a book from the library," said Ms. Litt, a 58-year-old retiree in San Antonio. She has so far borrowed the first two books of the "Hunger Games" trilogy from BookLending. But she hasn't offered to lend any, she said, because the books in her collection can't be lent.
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