The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Q. I just finished reading a fantastic book, it’s one of my new favorites and I want to lend it to a friend of mine. I know she’d love to read it, but the problem is that I bought an ebook instead of a printed book.
Is there any way I can lend an ebook to a friend? If I can’t, well then maybe I should give up on ebooks and go back to buying printed books (though I’d really miss the convenience of ebooks).
Please let me know if and how I can lend an ebook to a friend.
A. Good news, you don’t have to give up on ebooks. Lending an ebook to a friend may be possible, depending on the friend and the ebook.
Unlike printed books, that may be passed around from friend to friend until the pages fall out of the binding, ebooks are digital files that have restrictions on whether and how they can be shared.
You may have lending options, depending on the ebook. Even if you can’t lend the ebook to your friend, your friend may still be able to read it for free.
Lending Kindle Books
Amazon allows people to lend their Kindle books, provided the publisher has agreed to allow lending. A Kindle book can only be lent one time, so choose carefully which friend you want to lend a Kindle book to.
Kindle books can be lent to another reader for up to 14 days, with no option for extension. During that time, the book will be unavailable in your Kindle library.
[tip] The other reader does not need to own a Kindle ereader to read a Kindle book.
=> See, How to Read a Kindle Book on a Computer [/tip]
How to Lend a Kindle Book
Go to the Amazon Page for Manage My Content and Devices. There you will see a list of the books you have in your Kindle Library. Click on the box with the three dots in the Actions column next to the book you want to lend.
You will see a pop-up window appear. Look for the option that says Loan this title.
[note]If you don’t see Loan this title, then lending is not available for that Kindle book. [/note]
Click on Loan this title to open a page where you will fill out the email address where you want to send the book. You can also include a personal message.
The lender has up to seven days to accept the loan. If the loan isn’t accepted, then the book will return to your Kindle library.
Before you purchase a Kindle book you can check whether lending is available. Scroll down to the Product Details section to see whether lending is enabled.
Sharing Apple iBooks
Apples ebooks, also known as iBooks, can be shared with your family members through Family Sharing. You must first add these family members to your Family Sharing account. See, Setting Up Family Sharing at Apple’s website.
Members of your Family Sharing group can download an iBook on up to 10 devices, five of which can be computers. Note that in addition to iBooks, you can use Family Sharing to share purchases from iTunes and the App Store.
iBooks cannot currently be lent outside of Family Sharing.
Sending Free Audible Audiobooks to Your Friends
Audible has a new program that lets you send audiobooks in your Audible library to your friends for free. You can send audiobooks to up to 1000 friends who can redeem them and then send it to 1000 of their friends. Even if you don’t have 1000 friends (yet), you can still send Audible audiobooks for free.
You can send a free Audible book to someone who already is a member of Audible and has a library full of Audible books and/or to someone who is new to Audible.
Each person can only redeem one free Audible audiobook that is sent to them. So if someone gets sent multiple free Audible books, they can only download one for free.
There is no expiration date for redeeming a free Audible audiobook, but you must be in the United States and have an Amazon/Audible account (that’s because Amazon owns Audible).
How to Send a Free Audible Book to a Friend
To send a free Audible book to a friend, open the Audible app on your mobile device, find the book in your library and tap the three dots.
A menu will open with Send this Book as an option.
The Audible book can be sent via email, text message or Facebook Messenger. The audiobook stays in your Audible library after you’ve send it to your friends.
Other Ways to Borrow Ebooks for Free
Even if you can’t lend your new favorite ebook to your friend, she may have other ways to borrow an ebook for free. Other tech tools give readers free access to ebooks.
OverDrive
You may be able to use OverDrive to read your favorite books for free. OverDrive is a service many libraries use to lend ebooks, audiobooks and more to their cardholders. The service is available in over 30,000 libraries in 40 countries around the world.
=> Check out OverDrive: Get Free Ebooks and Audiobooks 24/7 to learn about borrowing ebooks using OverDrive.
Kindle Owners Lending Library
Amazon Prime members can borrow a book for free each month with the Kindle Owners Lending Library program.
Note that you must own a Kindle ereader or Fire tablet to use the Kindle Lending Library.
=> See, Kindle Owners Lending Library – Free Kindle Books! for more details.
Project Guttenberg
Project Guttenberg is a site filled with free ebooks to download. Find out more at How to Use iBooks to Enrich Your Ebook Library.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever wanted to lend or borrow an ebook? Do you wish it were easier to borrow an ebook? Which ebook would you like to share?
Tell us what you think in the Comments section below!
* Ebooks image (edited) courtesy of Alexander Pfeiffenberger via Flickr and Creative Commons
What a coincidence; I just lent an Audible book to my daughter yesterday! I finished listening to All The Light We Cannot See and then she asked about WWII films or books, so I told her she must listen to this one, as she is on a cross country driving trip right now! So I figured out how to lend on my own, but this is very timely! Thanks, will share!
Hi Kathy, Yes, Audible just started this new feature in May. You can give any book in your Audible library to up to 1000 of your best friends. Each person can only accept one Audible book, but they get to keep it forever.
I hope your daughter enjoys that book and has a safe trip! Nothing like listening to a great audiobook on a road trip.
I’m really glad I stumbled on this post! I’m a Prime member, but I really only use it for streaming movies and the 2-day shipping. We have a Kindle Fire that we purchased several years ago for my son, but nobody uses it anymore. Looks like it will get a second life as an e-reader! I had no idea about the free book each month, so thank you again!
Hello John, Yes, you can borrow a new Kindle book every 30 days as a Prime member. You can also find many free Kindle books at Amazon.
Definitely put that Kindle ereader to good use. You may even enjoy using it in the sunlight outside for some summer reading!
What a great resource about sharing ebooks. I love to learn new things! Thanks for sharing
Hi Frashen, I’m glad you enjoy learning new things. You’re in the right place. The Wonder of Tech is all about helping people learn about tech that can help them in their daily lives.
I hope you find many interesting books to borrow and lend.
Hey Carolyn,
I was not sure if I can lend any book from Amazon or any other place. It’s awesome to know about it.
You can lend an ebook for your friend only if you know about that. I mean what’s the use of lending a book if you don’t even have an idea about it.
Thanks for letting me know.
Enjoy the weekend.:)
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, You’re exactly right. Many people assume they can’t lend ebooks so they don’t even think about looking for how to do it. I am very grateful to The Wonder of Tech reader who asked the question as she ended up helping many people with the inspiration for this article.
Hi Carolyn,
I was not knowing that we could lend ebooks through kindle. You have really done a really job.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Robin, I’m glad this was helpful to you. I hope you and your friends are able to exchange ebooks and audiobooks now.
You must have read my mind, Carolyn. I just told my friend I want to loan her a book from kindle, but had to figure it out….now i know!! so easy. Thanks
Hi Pamela, Yes, the reader who asked this question had a great idea for an article. I truly appreciate Wonder of Tech readers who ask questions. They give the best ideas for future topics!
I’m so glad this helped you. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I hope your friend enjoys the book!
Hi Carolyn,
It was a very helpful and new post.
It has happened to me that my friend had one eBook on his Smartphone. He said it was amazing to read that book but the problem with eBook is that it can’t be shared. Also he can’t give his Smartphone to me.
This is the problem I am sure many of us have faced.
It was amazing to read from your post that even E-book can be lend to friend for free. It will help enjoying the benefit of reading the book as well as saving the cost.
Thanks so much for sharing with us.
With regards,
Saurav
Hi Saurav, I hope that you are able to borrow that ebook from your friend, Saurav. You’re right, you can’t borrow his phone to read the book, but you may be able to borrow the book from him anyway.
Happy reading!
Hi Carolyn,
To be honest, I wasn’t aware that one can lend books via Kindle! I do own a kindle, however I prefer holding a physical book in my hand and reading it. Dunno, but I feel more engrossed that way.
But yes, this post is excellent for people who want to share ebooks with friends and family. Thanks for sharing Carolyn and you have a wonderful day ahead!
Arpit Roy
Hi Arpit, Yes, some people prefer printed books while others prefer ebooks. But if lending books is important to you, then it’s good to know that it may be an option with ebooks.
Thank you for your comment. Have a wonderful week ahead, Arpit!
hi Carolyn Nicander Mohr!
I was not knowing that we could lend ebooks through kindle. You have really done a really job.
apple store have free ebook store for you
thanks and good luck! Carolyn
Hi Nick, I’m glad you enjoyed this article. I hope you enjoy lending and borrowing ebooks with your friends.
Hi Carolyn,
This is a good option, but I hadn’t yet seen any Kindle e-books having this option. Must be because Amazon hid it.
This being a digital book, I dislike Amazon removing it from our library for those 14 days.
I do have a hack to send Kindle e-books to a friend, for indefinite lending, though. Don’t want to share it here. 😛
One question about Kindle Unlimited. I borrowed ten ebooks from Amazon a few months ago when I had this account. I didn’t extend it to the next month and so could not get any more ebooks. But, the ebooks I got are still in my library to this day. How is that?
Hi Raspal, Yes, 14 days isn’t a long time but I bet that Amazon had to have a short time limit to sell this concept to the publishers. After all, they may be losing a sale if their ebooks are borrowed. Perhaps the idea is to lend them for 14 days, long enough for someone to get started with the book and then have to buy it if they haven’t finished reading it in that time? If I were working for Amazon, that’s how I would try to persuade the publishers, by pointing out that they may actually increase their sales of ebooks with this program.
As far as Kindle Unlimited, you should have lost access to those books you borrowed during the trial period. See, Manage Your Kindle Unlimited Membership page. Make sure that your account was truly canceled and you’re not being charged for this next month because those books should have disappeared.
I was charged for the first month, so it wasn’t a trial, but I canceled the membership after the first month, and made sure it got canceled.
The 10 books I borrowed during the time are available for download on all my devices. Maybe I was just lucky.
Well, you got lucky then. According to Amazon, those books should have been removed from your device. Happy reading, Raspal!