Amazon Prime book lending: your FAQs answered

PC World - Amazon Prime subscribers can now read more than 5,000 Kindle e-book titles for free thanks to a new service called Kindle Owners' Lending Library, but only if you own a Kindle device. The new Prime feature lets you borrow one book per month and read it on your Kindle device for as long as you want with no specific due date when your access to the book expires. Amazon lending library books cannot be read using Amazon's smartphone apps.

The new library adds even more value to Prime, the online retailer's membership program that offers free and reduced shipping rates on all your Amazon orders for one year. The $79 per year program not only gives you free shipping and a free library of books, but also access to a free video streaming service with a catalog of more than 10,000 movies and television episodes.

Rumors of Amazon's book borrowing feature surfaced in September, billed by The Wall Street Journal as a Netflix-like service for digital books. At the time, publishers were reportedly hesitant to sign on to Amazon's plan, worrying the effort could devalue books in the eyes of consumers.

Amazon said it paid a fixed fee to publishers for most of the titles in its new library. For some of the books, however, Amazon will purchase the title from the publisher at wholesale rates whenever a Prime member borrows the book. The idea is to offer publishers a "no-risk trial" to show the new lending library will actually help them.

"We expect three immediate results [from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library]," said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon's vice president of Kindle content. "Kindle owners will read even more, publisher revenues will grow, and authors will see larger royalty checks."

But if publishers already have cold feet, you have to wonder how long Amazon's new lending library will last.

Nevertheless, you can borrow books from Amazon right now, so here's what you need to know about borrowing books with your Kindle device.

On which devices can I read borrowed books?

Amazon will let you read the books on the Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Keyboard and Kindle Fire. You can read the book on all physical Kindle devices connected to your Amazon account.

What about Kindle apps for smartphones and desktops?

The new lending library does not work with smartphone or PC apps such as Kindle for iOS or Kindle for PC.

How many books are being offered?

There are more than 5,000 titles available to borrow, including 100 books that are current and former New York Times bestsellers. Amazon did not explain how many current bestsellers are part of that 100.