BookSwim announced the launch of eBookFling.com on Wednesday. The free service creates a social network of eBook customers who can loan and borrow eBooks.
Using a credit system as currency, members can borrow and loan books, creating a circle of eBook lending. Lenders are notified when the borrower selects their book, and the transaction is completed through Barnes & Noble or Amazon, using their existing book loan service. Lenders earn one credit for every five books they list as available for lend and one credit earned for each successfully lent book.
The borrower may read the book for 14 days on the device they’ve downloaded to, for example, Kindle, Nook, Nook and Kindle apps on smart phones or apps on PC and Macs — upon which the book disappears from the borrower and is “returned” to the lender’s device, phone, or computer. Apple’s iBooks is not supported.
The service is initially free, and an eBook Fling representative told TMO that they plan to make money via both advertising and, in the future, selling credits to borrow books.
More information is available at their website.
[UPDATE: the founder, George Burke, contacted TMO to clarify: “Need to let everyone know that ALL B&N Nook books and Amazon Kindle books have DRM applied, including the Nook/Kindle books that will be swapped at eBook Fling. Publishers have allowed certain books to be borrowed for a 14-day period through Amazon’s and B&N’s lending functionality. This is a feature of the DRM used by Nook/Kindle books, but turning on/off book lending is entirely up to the publisher to decide.]
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John, George from eBook Fling here. Need to let everyone know that ALL B&N Nook books and Amazon Kindle books have DRM applied, including the Nook/Kindle books that will be swapped at eBook Fling.
Publishers have allowed certain books to be borrowed for a 14-day period through Amazon’s and B&N’s lending functionality. This is a feature of the DRM used by Nook/Kindle books, but turning on/off book lending is entirely up to the publisher to decide.
In fact, DRM-free PDFs or other documents WILL NOT be able to be swapped through our service.
We’re creating a similar website, Booklends, that will make it easy for Kindle and Nook users to lend and borrow books easily. Visit http://www.booklends.com to sign up for our mailing list, and we’ll let you know when our site is finished (probably within a week or so)
Your continued research into this topic is an excellent community service. Many thanks. Will check out both sites.
I’m really disappointed that you can’t share .pdf books through this. I use a Sony e-Reader, and I’m not able to use it.
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