Get Library Books on Your Kindle!

Fantastic news for Kindle users. Amazon announced Wednesday that you will soon be able to borrow books from public libraries. Amazon is working with OverDrive, which manages ebook lending for most public libraries. The deal means Kindle users will soon have access to thousands of ebooks thanks to OverDrive’s 11,000 public library partners.

For me as a Kindle user, the inability to check out library books on my device has been a real drag. Especially since library ebook loans have been available for the Sony Reader, Nook,  iPad and smartphones. So kudos to Amazon for making this invaluable public resource available to Kindle users.

According to Amazon, library ebooks will be available for all generations of Kindle devices. The ebook’s soaring popularity is evident at the library. Overdrive reports a 200 percent jump in library ebook checkouts over 2009.

Amazon says the Kindle Lending Library will launch later this year but has not released an exact date. I can’t wait!

Read the full Publishers Weekly article here.

Ebooks, Pricing & Discovering a New Author

I recently discovered a new author whose work I absolutely love. Of course, that’s nothing new, we’ve all done that before. It is how I discovered Margaret Mallory that is new in this evolving ebook universe.

In February, I saw it posted somewhere online that the first book in her All the King’s Men series was being offered for $1.99. I was not familiar with Mallory but – since I can’t resist a good deal – I went straight to Amazon and downloaded Knight of Desire.

It was a thoroughly entertaining read – fast paced, well written, passionate and sexy with very appealing lead and secondary characters. I finished it quickly and was anxious to read the two remaining books in the series. But I was busy at work and with the kids and had plenty of other unread books on my nightside table so I put any new purchases out of my mind for the moment.

This month Mallory tweeted that the second book in the series, Knight of Pleasure, was now $1.99. I jumped on it and devoured the second book quickly. It was possibly even better than the first.

Now the third book in the series is calling my name. It is still listed at regular price – but what can I say – I’m hooked! Even if Knight of Passion (I do love the titles in this trilogy) never goes on sale, I know I am going to pony up and pay full price.  

The thing is I probably would not have even sampled Margaret Mallory’s work at all if it had not been for the great deals which enticed me to give her novels a try. Now I’ll probably read everything she writes.

Thanks to savvy ebook pricing and marketing, social networking and captivating storytelling, everybody wins.

And it’s not only Knight of Passion that I’ve got my eye on. Mallory has a new book, The Guardian, coming out on May 1. There is no doubt that I will read it.

The only question is whether or not I’ll pre-order it.