New Orleans No Longer Has A Daily Newspaper
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Amazon To Create Netflix For Books?

Posted 9/12/2011 7:30 am by

Amazon Prime customers may be getting free books, too!

The death of the book is vastly exaggerated, if you are to believe the folks at Amazon.  Amazon, who created the ebook market when they launched the Kindle, is looking to head back into the literature game, but in a different capacity.  According to rumors, Amazon is trying to start a paid library service.  That’s right, Amazon wants to charge you a monthly fee to rent you books via their service, akin to a Netflix for books.

The hard part of this business, aside from getting approval from publishers, is actually making a dent in the library markets.  Libraries can be found everywhere, from unused phone booths to staircases and vending machines, and most of the time, those libraries are free.  Amazon’s for-pay library will be bundled for free with Amazon Prime if you’re a customer, but if you’re not, a paid rental service may be right down your alley if you live too far from your local library, or if their selection is lacking.

Here’s the other thing that might make this library successful:  digital books.  If Amazon can figure out a way to make an ebook that lasts 30 days (or whatever their rental period might be) before deleting itself or becoming unreadable, then I think they’ll really have something worth paying money to use.  After all, the worst thing about the Kindle is that you can’t borrow books for it from the library, and this would definitely solve that issue…

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