Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library - An Analysis
This morning Amazon introduced a new feature - the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.
Connected to Amazon Prime subscriptions, the new service, available today, allows Kindle and Kindle Fire customers to borrow one (1) book per month from a library of “slightly more than 5,000 titles”. (5,156 to be exact). The reader can keep the book as long as they like - there is no “due date” for a return of the borrowed book. The service is not available for users of Amazon’s Kindle App on non-Kindle devices.
The breakdown by genre is as follows: Non-Fiction: 74% / Fiction: 26%.
Specific category breakdowns are as follows (and noted in the chart, above):
- Lifestyle & home: 19.34%
- Advice and how-to: 14.24%
- Reference: 9%
- Business & investing: 9%
- Religion & spirituality: 9%
- Romance: 6%
- Arts & entertainment: 6%
- Children’s ebooks: 6%
- History: 5%
- Parenting & families: 5%
- Travel: 5%
- Sports: 5%
- Biographies & memoirs: 4%
- Science: 4%
- Humor: 3%
- Mystery & thrillers: 3%
- Politics & current events: 2%
- Literary fiction: 2%
- Science fiction: 1%
- Fantasy: 1%
- Computers & internet: 1%
(Note: Percentages will not equal 100% due to overlapping categorization of titles)
The Kindle Prime subscription service, at a cost of $79.99 per year, includes discounts on physical goods shipping, free unlimited video streaming from Amazon’s Instant Video service and the new Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.
In discussing the terms upon which the new service is built, an Amazon spokesperson stated:
“Titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library come from a range of publishers under a variety of terms. For the vast majority of titles, Amazon has reached agreement with publishers to include titles for a fixed fee. In some cases, Amazon is purchasing a title each time it is borrowed by a reader under standard wholesale terms as a no-risk trial to demonstrate to publishers the incremental growth and revenue opportunity that this new service presents”
The “big six” publishers have abstained from participation in this program at this time citing concerns over cannibalization of back-list title sales.
The initial incarnation of the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library is just that - an initial incarnation. It should be anticipated (expected, really) that Amazon will rapidly expand this service offering in the same way it has expanded its Instant Video offering (in advance of the Kindle Fire launch). It should also be expected that Kindle Owner’s Lending Library will ultimately be offered in a tiered fashion with a “premium” Amazon Prime service that includes a wider selection of front list titles.
