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Get cozy. Amazon has expanded the shelves of its digital library to include enough books to let you borrow for a lifetime.
The Kindle Owner’s Lending Library now sports more than 100,000 titles, including one third of the top 20 Kindle best-sellers, all free for the borrowing, Amazon announced Wednesday.
Launched late last year, the Lending Library is a delightful little Kindle perk for Amazon Prime customers who pay a $79 annual fee for two-day shipping and unlimited video streaming — and now free book-borrowing. Prime customers can borrow one book a month to read on their Kindles, and there are no due dates.
The library’s selection has already grown 20 fold in its short lifespan, with readers showing a collective appreciation for self-published titles. Readers checked out more than 1 million books from independent authors, Amazon said. Altogether, the independent authors participating in the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select service have earned more than $1.8 million in royalty fees from the Lending Library books borrowed by Kindle owners.
Not all authors and publishers are keen on the expanding library, however. Right after launch, The Authors Guild, which represents more than 8,000 U.S. writers, said the Lending Library constituted a breach of contract.
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