Amazon.com Launches Kindle Textbook Rental Program

From Amazon.com:

Today, Amazon.com announced the launch of Kindle Textbook Rental—now students can save up to 80% off textbook list prices by renting from the Kindle Store. Tens of thousands of textbooks are available for the 2011 school year from leading textbook publishers such as John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. Students can find details about the program at www.amazon.com/kindletextbooks. Kindle Textbook Rental offers the ability to customize rental periods to any length between 30 and 360 days, so students only pay for the specific amount of time they need a book. Students can also easily extend any rental period in increments as small as one day or choose to purchase the book they are renting at any time. “We’ve done a little something extra we think students will enjoy,” continued [Dave] Limp, vice president, Amazon Kindle,] “Normally, when you sell your print textbook at the end of the semester you lose all the margin notes and highlights you made as you were studying. [Our Emphasis] We’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you get to keep and access all of your notes and highlighted content in the Amazon Cloud, available anytime, anywhere – even after a rental expires. If you choose to rent again or buy at a later time, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

Read the Complete Announcement

Hat Tip/Thanks: Jill O’Neill

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Elsevier, Publishing