Amazon aims for book rental service, report says

If this comes to pass, it will be interesting to see how the ebooks offered compare to what local libraries carry . It certainly promises to make the $79/year Amazon Prime service more valuable.

Amazon’s proposal would reportedly offer limited book rentals to Amazon Prime customers. (BLOOMBERG) Would you pay to have limited, monthly access to a library of books for your e-reader? According to report from the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is hoping you would.

The online retailer is reportedly thinking about making a subscription library service available to Amazon Prime members, adding book rentals to the $79 per month [sic] service that now offers online video and an unlimited deal on two-day shipping. The rental subscription, described in the report as a Netflix-like service for books, would offer older titles, and the company would limit the amount of books users could read for free every month.

According to Journal sources “familiar with the matter,” Amazon is trying to sell the idea to publishers, who may be wary about the effect that that kind of service would have on the value of books and their partnerships with bookstores.

via washingtonpost.com

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