Daily Archives: December 24, 2015

Daily Deals: Romances and Holiday ebook Deals

Posted on by

nowhereIn order to accommodate new device owners, most e-tailers offer great discount on ebooks on Christmas eve and Christmas Day. Lots of bargains to be found! 🙂

For today, December 24, 2015:

Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deal is offering 80 Popular Romances, with prices starting at 99 cents and up. These seem to be part of a publisher promotion form Harlequin.* There are also over 1100 titles in all genres priced at up to 85% off in a special Year-End deals promotion.

If you still like actual paper magazines, Amazon is running a special Gold Box Deal on print magazine subscriptions. Prices range from $5 to $9.

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie, part of the Grantchester Mysteries for $2.99. The Romance Daily Find is Christmas Ladies: 3 Full-Length Holiday Regencies, a collection from Grace Burrowes’ Windham series for $2.99. There is also a selection of Nook Bundles at prices up to 70% off. Prices start at 99 cents.

Kobo has a religious-themed Daily Deal. The NRSV Daily Bible: Read, Meditate, and Pray Through the Entire Bible in 365 Days from Harper Bibles is $1.99. Kobo is also offering a large list of titles from all genres for up to 80% off in their Holiday Sale. The sale also includes some ebook bundles like The Hathaways Complete Series (5 book collection) by Lisa Kleypas for $9.99.

*Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.

(Note: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.)

Prime Perks for Kindle and Fire Owners

Posted on by

paperwhiteThis year,  my son finally asked for a e-ink Kindle. So, for Christmas, I bought him a Kindle Paperwhite and one of the $50 fire tablets.  Since he is already a Prime Member (another gift from mom and dad), I wanted to fill him in on a couple of Prime benefits that only applied to device owners. Since this is the time of year when many people get Kindles for the first time, I thought I would share these with everyone.

Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) allows Prime members to borrow one (1) book per month for free.

  • Works on Kindle e-reader, Fire tablet, or Fire phone.
  • Only available for device owners with memberships to Amazon Prime.
  • Borrowed KOLL titles may also be shared with another adult in your household through Amazon Household and Family Library with select Prime memberships.
  • Eligible books display the Prime logo. There are over 500,000 books in the lending library.
  • Complete instructions with video are here.

A couple of important points here:  First, there is no master “list” of book available to lend (the books actually change all the time). Secondly, you are not able to pick books from the web or the Kindle app. You also can only browse the Kindle store from your device to see which books are available to borrow. This tends to be a source of frustration for a lot of people, but it is the way the program works.

Kindle First is a program that offers customers early access to new Kindle books across popular genres from Amazon Publishing.

  • Every month Prime members can choose one (1) of the books selected by Amazon’s editors for FREE.
  • There are generally four to six books to choose from. These are books that will be released the following month.
  •  Kindle First books can be read on any Kindle device or free Kindle reading app and become part of customers’ permanent libraries.
  • Prime invitees are not eligible for free downloads.
  • Prime members can sign up to receive a monthly e-mail newsletter announcing new Kindle First picks.
  • Kindle First on Amazon.com is available to US customers only.
  • Complete instructions are here.

Unlike the Kindle Owners Lending Library, these titles can not be shared with other household members. Non-Prime members can usually purchase one of these titles for $1.99.

Over the years, these programs have been one of my favorite features for Kindle owners. I have read entire series that I would not ordinarily have bought. I have also read books that inspired me to go out an buy the entire series after reading the first book. It can be a great discovery tool.

The Kindle Owner’s Lending Library and the Kindle First programs are not meant to be a substitute for subscription services like Kindle Unlimited or Scribd. Rather, they should be thought of as an added Prime membership perk alongside the free shipping, video and music offered with the program.