Amazon Announces Kindle Textbook Rental Program
On Monday, Amazon.com announced a program that might help students defray their textbook costs: Kindle Textbook Rental.
According to Amazon.com, students can save as much as 80 percent off the purchase price of a textbook. The rental can be as short as 30 days, or as long as 360, and the rental period can easily be extended in increments as small as one day. The renter can also choose to purchase the book they are renting at any time, if they so desire.
Those who have used a Kindle know that users can make comments and annotations in a Kindle e-book; in the case of a rental textbook, those annotations will be stored in a user's account and restored if the customer ever rents the book again or buys it in the future.
Naturally, due to Amazon.com's "read everywhere" policy, renters can access the rentals not just via a Kindle, but through Kindle reading apps on PCs, Macs, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows phones as well.
Amazon has stated that tens of thousands of textbooks are available from publishers that include John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis.
To rent a textbook, users can:
According to Amazon.com, students can save as much as 80 percent off the purchase price of a textbook. The rental can be as short as 30 days, or as long as 360, and the rental period can easily be extended in increments as small as one day. The renter can also choose to purchase the book they are renting at any time, if they so desire.
Those who have used a Kindle know that users can make comments and annotations in a Kindle e-book; in the case of a rental textbook, those annotations will be stored in a user's account and restored if the customer ever rents the book again or buys it in the future.
Naturally, due to Amazon.com's "read everywhere" policy, renters can access the rentals not just via a Kindle, but through Kindle reading apps on PCs, Macs, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows phones as well.
Amazon has stated that tens of thousands of textbooks are available from publishers that include John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis.
To rent a textbook, users can:
- Search for a textbook in the Textbooks Store or from the search bar. If a Kindle edition is available for rent, a user will see an option in the Formats section on the textbook page. Select this option.
- On the Kindle textbook page select the rental end date. Kindle textbooks can typically be rented for any length between 30 to 360 days – users pay only for the time they need and can extend or buy anytime.
- Click on "Rent now with 1-click" button to place the rental order.
