The publishing landscape has changed. You already know that. E-readers (Kindle, Nook, Kobo) and their apps (for phones and tablets), along with self-publishing are becoming more and more of a force to be reckoned with. We now have ready access to more books than ever before in history, literally at our fingertips.

I’m going to focus on Kindle books for this post. Right now, you may have dozens, if not HUNDREDS of Kindle books in your Amazon library. Good for you. Your continued support, and willingness to read our stories, is one of the reasons we do this.

Whether you bought the Kindle version, downloaded it for free through Amazon, or it was gifted, when you finished the book it’s just taking up storage space now. It will remain there until you get in the mood to read it again.

In the old “Physical book” days, you might have taken a pile of books to the used books store to trade for more. Kindle books don’t exactly work like that. Or, like me, you might have loaned a few out to friends that like the same genres. Cool. After the first few of those, you took it for granted that you were never going to get them back.

And the truth of a physical books “Trail of owners” was that the author got paid once, and each subsequent read was “Free”. Not saying good or bad. Everybody accepted that as the norm.

But what about Kindle Books? Unless you strip them of their DRM (the coding that keeps people from copying and distributing them for free) and illegally send them to someone (Don’t do that) they just sit there. Or do they?

Here is where it gets interesting. When I published, I could keep my work exclusive to Amazon. That allowed me to offer my books through Kindle Unlimited, the subscription service that lets folks download numerous books for one fee and read to their hearts content.

At the same time, I was also given the option of making the book available to the “Kindle Lending Library”. THE WHAT?! The Kindle Lending library. This next part is where YOU play an integral part in OUR success.

You, as a purchaser (even if free) of a Kindle book that is in this program can LEND it to a friend for two weeks. They get to read it, then it comes back into your library. You can now discuss it and maybe find more similar books you like…to share. LEGALLY.

Why do you care? Well, by doing the lending, YOUR favorite author gets another bite at the royalty apple. The Kindle Lending Library “Pages read” are tied to the larger Kindle Unlimited fund, so every additional page read, while it is on loan, earns us a little extra. (Like $0.004 per page…but that adds up).

Not every book has these options, but it’s easy to check. YOU are a big part of spreading the word about our books and you can now “hand” a copy for fellow genre fans for them to read. And that helps ALL of us.

Here are the steps to do that.

Go into your Amazon account page:

1) Look for “Digital Content and devices”.
2) Click the link below that for “Content and devices”

3) The next screen opens up to “Manage Your content and Devices”

4) Choose the book you want to LEND.

5) Use the “three dot” drop down and, if available,  select “Loan this Title”

6) Now type in the persons email address to whom you’re loaning the book. It should be the address they use with their Amazon account (others MAY work, but I’ve issues in the past).

7) Click “Send Now”

Keep in mind, that for the next two weeks (Or until they return the book earlier) you don’t have access to the book. You’ve LENT the file to them.

I hope you use this feature and your friends loan you other books as well.

Ride Safe, Ride Often.

PiR8