Thursday, March 1, 2012

Kindle Lending Library Hits 100,000 Titles

Seattle-based Amazon.com reported Wednesday that it is now offering over 100,000 titles in its Kindle Owners' Lending Library, the library of electronic books that can be borrowed by Amazon Prime members. The library of free titles allows Amazon customers to borrow books as frequently as one book a month, and does not have any due dates. The library of free titles, which includes a number of best sellers, is an attempt to drive membership to Amazon Prime, and also provide Kindle Owners with the ability to try out new titles for free. Amazon has been also looking to encourage authors to write specifically for the lending library, via its KDP Select program. The lending program--similar to Amazon's program for libraries--encourages Kindle owners to eventually purchase the same titles they have borrowed, which appears to be working for KDP Select authors, who Amazon says have been their paid sales grow "substantially" from involvement in the lending library.