Interested in borrowing an ebook? Check our comparison of BookLending and eBookFling

As ebook lending becomes a growing trend, we see more websites that fulfill the role of marketplace, matching ebook lenders and borrowers.

But who are these websites? And what they offer those of you who want to take advantage of the feature allowing Kindle and Nook users to swap ebooks with each others? We decided to provide you with a comparison of the three websites that seems to lead the ebook lending market - eBookFling, BookLending and Lendle.

At least that was our initial intention. We contacted the owners of these 3 websites and asked them to answer couple of questions, but only Catherine MacDonald of BookLending and George Burke of eBookFling got back to us. Although we wrote couple of times to Jeff Croft of Lendle, we didn't hear back from him. Therefore it's going to be a comparison between BookLending and eBookFling.

We hope you will find it useful and if you have any information or experiences with one of these websites you would like to add, feel free to add a comment!

First, a short video from each of the two websites and then a comparison between the two:







1. Who created the website?
BookLending (BL): Catherine MacDonald
eBookFling (EF): BookSwim

2. Lending Length
BL: 14 days
EF: 14 days

3. Where you're located?
BL: We are Canadians who are currently traveling abroad
EF: New Jersey

4. How many users you have? Are you serving also non-US users?
BL: We have over 19,000 users and we do serve non-US users.
EF: We crossed the 10,000 user mark in less than a week after launching. We've been growing steadily. These are all US-based members with plans to expand as soon as Amazon/B&N open up lending overseas.

5. Is it only available to both Kindle and Nook users?
BL: Yes, only Kindle users.
EF: Available to both Kindle and Nook users

6. Is it a free service?
BL: Yes. You don't need to pay anything to borrow ebooks, no matter if you make e-books available for loan or not.
EF: Yes, but only if other users borrow books from you. You get one credit point for every book you lend which can be used to borrow another ebook. But if you don't earn credit points (i.e. no one wants to borrow your books..), you will need buy credits for $1.99 per credit.

7. Do you need to loan books to others to be able to borrow?
BL: No. There's no such requirement.
EF: No, but then you'll need to pay $1.99 for every ebook you want to borrow.

8. What's your best user-friendly feature?
BL: Members love our Browse by Genre and "Read It Today" features.
EF: eBookFling.com allows members to manage notifications on books in their wishlist so they're not inundated with "this book is now available" emails for books they're not yet ready to read. Similarly, we send out loan requests one at a time, rather than blast all lenders every time someone asks to borrow a book.

9. How many people operate your business?
BL: Right now, we have a core group of two plus our wonderful development team.
EF: 4 of BookSwim's team initially founded the eBookFling.com service and we're expanding. We just hired a social media manager and are on the lookout for an ad-sales person.

10. What Is your business model?
BL: Commission and display advertising based.
EF: Revenue from credits, commission on ebook sales and in the future selling ad space and providing other services (acting as marketing tool for authors and publishers for example)

11. In one sentence - What differentiate you from the other websites?
BL: We're not just a free, fair and easy-to-use platform, but also a community of Kindle book enthusiasts.
EF: A. We manage the entire lend process by masking a book requester's email address which keeps the privacy of all our members while also allowing us to track when a book has been successfully delivered and reaching out to others if the loan never came through. B. Our use of credits as a swapping currency ensures that there is never any deficit of available books to borrow. C. As far as I'm aware, eBookFling.com is the only service with Nook and Kindle titles, allowing for more availability of books.

For more information visit eBookFling at http://ebookfling.com/ and BookLending at http://www.booklending.com/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

On the future of ebook rental - An interview with George Burke, CEO of eBook Fling

Last week eBook Fling was finally launched, offering one of the most interesting marketplaces in a new emerging area - e-book rental.

What is eBook Fling? Here's their description:
A free service where readers across the nation can swap ebooks by simply utilizing the lending capability of the Kindle & Nook books they already own. Wow. How does it work? Anyone with access to the Kindle & Nook apps can borrow and read an unlimited amount of ebooks for free, as long as they're contributing their own Nook or Kindle books. Those without ebooks to lend can purchase a $1.99 credit to borrow any book from an ebookflinger. Lenders earn credits to then borrow other books.

In other words, if you have a Nook or Kindle and you want to take advantage of their option to borrow (and lend) ebooks, but you don't know where you can find other people you can swap ebooks with, this is your place. They're not the first one to offer this service and of course you have many libraries that now offer the option to borrow ebooks, but still it looks like this is the most serious attempt so far to build an efficient ebook rental marketplace. Therefore it has a great potential to shape the future of an interesting part of the ebook market.

The people behind eBook Fling are our good friends from BookSwim with whom we partnered many times in the past. We wanted to learn more about the new venture and asked George Burke, the founder and CEO of BookSwim to join us for a short interview, and here it is:

Hi George. What's your vision for eBook Fling in five years? Do you see it as a complementary service to BookSwim or one that intends to replace BookSwim eventually when ereading will dominate the book marketplace?
I do believe lateral growth can happen world wide, assuming B&N and Amazon release the service in other countries. I also see other popular ebook platforms (like Apple's iBooks and Google Books) launching with lending capabilities, making the service available to more readers.

I truly see this type of service as a testing ground for authors and publishers, perhaps become a paid marketing outlet to reach readers directly. How (or if) to integrate with BookSwim is currently up-in-the-air.

Did you receive any feedback from authors or publishers? Are they for or against a rental service of ebooks?
Honestly, I haven't heard much from authors about what they think. It's a great opportunity for a try-before-you-buy, which actually benefits both readers and (good) authors.by allowing readers to try out something new they wouldn't otherwise have purchased. The author gets a type of exposure that was never possible previously. It's gotta be better than the ridiculous ebook promotion that simply gives away the book for free; not a loan, not a rental, not temporary, but a totally free ebook. This doesn't sound sustainable.

What are the main benefits for readers that will use eBook Fling?

It's a great opportunity for a try-before-you-buy, which actually benefits both readers and (good) authors.

What is your goal from a business point of view (in terms of users and revenue)?
Good question... I don't have much insight into what the ceiling could be. Still only 10% of avid readers even own an e-reading device. This whole model is risky because publishers could take a stand against Kindle and Nook lending all together. But if they begin embrace it as a result of sales from lending, this is going to be one exciting ride.

By the way, what do you think on the new restrictions of HarperCollins on the number of times their ebooks can be checked out in librarians?

I was never too familiar on how the system worked, but had assumed there were licensing limitations and was surprised that something like the 26-lend limit wasn't already in place. I'm told the reason for implementing this was to mimic the lifespan of a physical book, however I'm told that libraries RARELY throw out inventory due to damage and can easily squeeze 50 turns out of 1 copy.

I wouldn't think the 26-lend limit would be so bad, except a librarian friend of mine said the 26 lends must be shared with all sister libraries in the network, so in cases like this, I can see where the limitation can be burdensome to a library (or library network for that matter).

Thank you George and good luck! For more information on eBookFling visit http://ebookfling.com/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!