Comments on: Will Publishers Kill Nook’s Lending Feature? Should They?

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:05:45 +0000

Let me add something. Any publisher that chooses not to have their books availabel in nook format will be losing out. The nook is a wonderful product that I couldn’t be happier with, and it will be the only source of book purchasing & reading for myself and many others. I have already purchased 6 books on my nook since I received it mid December. That’s far more books than I’ve ever read & purchased in only 2 weeks time ever before. It’s so enjoyable to read on & to take with me everywhere, & extremely convenient for me to immediately buy a new book when I finish one.

I’m reading more, & buying more books.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:59:26 +0000

Absolutely ridiculous article by switch11. You’re such an alarmist. Shame on you.

First of all, I can buy a book at the store and then loan any book I own to others any time I choose to do so. With the nook, I can only lend a book out to one person at a time also, so what is the difference?

Secondly, do you really believe anyone is going to lend a book out to 1,000 people? That’s nuts.

By: switch11

switch11 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:18:51 +0000

The only problem is – If the ideal situation doesn’t come about and Baen’s magic doesn’t replicate for other publishers, publishers are done.

It easy for readers to say – do it because it works for Baen.

It’s Publishers livelihood and earnings and everything else that’s at stake. For readers – it’s next to nothing.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:13:18 +0000

Aah, fuzzy math.

What’s stopping this doomsday you’re predicting from happening today? Baen.com sells their ebooks with no DRM, allowing you to make unlimited simultaneous “lends” and those people can do the same. How does Baen sell more than 1 of any of their ebooks?

They also give away hundreds of their ebooks for free! The end times are here! Oh no! Astonishingly, they see very good ebook sales numbers, and their free books increase paper sales for those and others of that authors books.

Your “worst case” scenario is already available, and it hasn’t resulted in the implosion of those books sales. I really doubt the nook would change that if they allowed unlimited lending.

By: Publishers killing Nook Lending BEFORE launch « Kindle Review – Kindle 2 Review, Books

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:53 +0000

[...] view of the Nook Sharing feature was that there is no way it makes sense for [...]

By: CJ

CJ — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:31:11 +0000

I’m also concerned for B&N about the LendMe feature. Not all Kindle books are shareable, despite one of Kindle’s features being the ability to share books on devices attached to the same account. This ability to share books with users that are a) not attached to the same account, and b) potentially not even Nook owners, is probably not going to sit well with publishers.

It will be interesting to see just how many books have the LendMe function activated upon Nook’s launch.

By: A little rain on the LendMe parade « Netly: The Third Screen

A little rain on the LendMe parade « Netly: The Third Screen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:14:29 +0000

[...] in LendMe. They’re thinking how do we do this without killing revenues and ourselves? One Nook reviewer outlines a few different lending scenarios book publishers might consider. Everyone’s [...]

By: Al

Al — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:38:48 +0000

This is really bizarre math. Not all people who buy the book are going to lend it to someone else. First, how many Nook owners do you know? How many does the second guy know, who can’t lend the book because he didn’t buy it. When the 2 weeks is up it reverts to the original buyer. If this feature caused the buyer to buy the book in the first place knowing that he can share it with another, then the seller has gained a sale, not lost a sale. I think this scenario is way overblown. MOST buyers will never share the book with anybody. I have over a thousand books on my computer. Many of those are legally lendable. I have not lent any, because I don’t know anyone who reads the same stuff that I do. My mate and I do share books occasionally. Those are not lost sales, they are gained sales. They are books that I would not have purchased for myself but which I bought for her as a gift and then later read for myself just because they were there. Same as a hard cover book, except I can change the font to a Large Print Book. If libraries did not exist, many authors would be left in obscurity because they spread the word. We don’t buy on the recommendation of some pundit writing a review, we buy on the recommendation of an enthusiastic friend… one that probably doesn’t have the same device that I do.