LEND ME on NOOK - False Advertising

[SomaVit]

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my nook, and I like the lend me feature that is offered. However, you should know, which I found to my dismay, that once you lend someone a book, you can't lend the same book to someone else. This sucks because I enjoy reading a lot, and if I find a book that I know two or three friends would enjoy and I want to lend it to them, I can't do it. B & N doesn't make this clear (LendME) and I think they should allow us to lend books as many times as possible!

Also, does anyone know if the Borrow Books feature from friends is exclusive to NookColor alone?

[swan480]

Actually, I disagree.  They are very clear about it.  I've never even used this feature, and I already knew you could only lend a book once.  You can easily find this information if you click on the "How It Works" link on the item page of a lendable book.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Lend Me has always been like that.  This is the FAQ page, accessible from NOOK product pages; Lend Me is explained in the first question: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-support-managing-your-library/379002489/?cds2Pid=35611

At this time, the Borrow feature is exclusive to NOOKcolor.

[Tubby]

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At this time, the Borrow feature is exclusive to NOOKcolor.

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So that is giving us hope that it will eventually be in the Nook as well.  Correct?  Is it going to be in next week's update?

[Pink_Maiden]

I disagree Tubby, the lendme feature is NOT exclusive to NookColor.  I don't even have a nook and can use the lendme feature straight from "my nook library" and on my ipod. It also works on other nooks, ipod... check it out.

Pinky

[swan480]

LendMe is available on all devices.  Borrow is available only on NookColor.  Two different features.  (Borrow allows you to view friends' bookshelves and request a title you are interested in.)

[Pink_Maiden]

I'm sorry, I stand corrected.  I beg your pardon Swan480.  I didn't realize that they were two different features.  How cool is that?  It is a shame however that you can only lend/borrow a book once.  Can you only lend once with the borrow feature or is it once per friend?  I do really like to keep my facts straight, lol.

Thanks for the info Swan480,

Pinky

[swan480]

Oh, I'm sorry if my response came across as snotty!  I was afraid from your "beg your pardon" comment that you might have been offended.  I was just in a hurry when I wrote it.    Unfortunately, I suspect you can still only lend each book once, even if a friend requests it via the Borrow feature.  It is too bad -- I think allowing you to lend a book something like 2 or 3 times would be more appropriate.  But I suspect they made it only once as a concession to publishers, to get them to get on board with the idea.

[bklvr896]

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swan480 wrote:

Oh, I'm sorry if my response came across as snotty!  I was afraid from your "beg your pardon" comment that you might have been offended.  I was just in a hurry when I wrote it.    Unfortunately, I suspect you can still only lend each book once, even if a friend requests it via the Borrow feature.  It is too bad -- I think allowing you to lend a book something like 2 or 3 times would be more appropriate.  But I suspect they made it only once as a concession to publishers, to get them to get on board with the idea.

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I suspect it is more the publishers saying, we'll agree to it for some books, but only if it is limited to once.  And many publishers don't seem to want to agree with it at all, which is why not all books are lendable.  Note that Amazon has announced they are adding this feature sometime in the future, and it will have the same limitations as the Nook.  One time lending.

[Pink_Maiden]

Oh my swan480, not at all, I was just being polite.  I didn't want to offend you, lol.

Thank you very much for the information.  It really helps to have correct info when trying to help others out on the boards and blogs.

Thanks again,

Pinky

[Ya_Ya]

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bklvr896 wrote:

 Note that Amazon has announced they are adding this feature sometime in the future, and it will have the same limitations as the Nook.  One time lending.

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I've never lent or borrowed a NOOKbook to/from another NOOK, but the option is appealing.

I'm hopeful that Amazon might be able to convince publishers to make the feature more robust; with the bulk of the market share, they might have more influence.

[bklvr896]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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bklvr896 wrote:

 Note that Amazon has announced they are adding this feature sometime in the future, and it will have the same limitations as the Nook.  One time lending.

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I've never lent or borrowed a NOOKbook to/from another NOOK, but the option is appealing.

I'm hopeful that Amazon might be able to convince publishers to make the feature more robust; with the bulk of the market share, they might have more influence.

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Well, according to all the press releases, the terms will be the same as for the Nook and, as with the Nook, whether or not a book is lendable is up to the rights holder or the publisher.

[Ya_Ya]

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bklvr896 wrote:

Well, according to all the press releases, the terms will be the same as for the Nook and, as with the Nook, whether or not a book is lendable is up to the rights holder or the publisher.

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I understand that - I just meant that Amazon may be more able to influence the publishers that allowing more robust lending means more future sales than B&N is.  They have more users and can show more use of the service.  Right now it's the same; maybe they will be able to convince the publishers to allow it to become more robust.  And once it's done for Kindle, it would follow that they'd do it for NOOK as well.

I realize it's probably false hope - but a girl can dream, right?

[Doug_Pardee Distinguished Bibliophile]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

They have more users and can show more use of the service.

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It's more likely that the publishers will be turned off by the added lending. They're not in the business of not selling e-books.

[Ya_Ya]

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Doug_Pardee wrote:

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Ya_Ya wrote:

They have more users and can show more use of the service.

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It's more likely that the publishers will be turned off by the added lending. They're not in the business of not selling e-books.

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A lot of us reread.  I often buy books I've already read.  I wouldn't be surprised if they see an increase in sales of lendable books.  You lend me a book.  I love it, I buy it.  If I never knew it existed, I wouldn't have bought it and won't now buy it.

Although your logic sounds more like the approach the publishers are likely to take based on what they've already done.

I said it was probably false hope, but you know, it doesn't hurt to hope.  

[bklvr896]

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Ya_Ya wrote:

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Doug_Pardee wrote:

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Ya_Ya wrote:

They have more users and can show more use of the service.

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It's more likely that the publishers will be turned off by the added lending. They're not in the business of not selling e-books.

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A lot of us reread.  I often buy books I've already read.  I wouldn't be surprised if they see an increase in sales of lendable books.  You lend me a book.  I love it, I buy it.  If I never knew it existed, I wouldn't have bought it and won't now buy it.

Although your logic sounds more like the approach the publishers are likely to take based on what they've already done.

I said it was probably false hope, but you know, it doesn't hurt to hope.  

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It's also, to some extent, not really in the retailer's best interest, because, again, they are in the business of selling books.  For some, yes, it may cause them to buy the book, but a lot of people are not rereaders, so they'll read the book and move on.  It might help with introducing someone to a new series.  But I'm not sure you'll ever get publishers to see it that way.  And, Amazon had no success in trying to stop the agency model, so at least for a while, the publishers are entrenched in their current thinking I wouldn't expect it to change.  But, as you said, one can always hope, although I've never used the lending feature anyway.

[SomaVit]

Thanks for clearing that up Swan. and I agree, i do wish you could lend a book at least 3 times,, and the feature to 'borrow' someone elses book could be moved to the 'old' nook.

we can only hope!

[wordsandmelodi…]

I might be the only one to feel this way, but...

I'm a huge fan of Lending.  I've always loaned books to friends, and borrowed them, too.  Lending works for me -- "Hey, I have this book I think you'd like to read.  Want to borrow it?"

But, unless we are allowed to choose which books of ours are on a "public" bookshelf that our friends and relations can see, it actually makes me a little uncomfortable.  I read things that my mother doesn't need to know about.  We can include my little sister in that category, too.

If I can initiate that transaction, fabulous.  But the other way around... no, thanks.

[bklvr896]

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wordsandmelodies wrote:

I might be the only one to feel this way, but...

I'm a huge fan of Lending.  I've always loaned books to friends, and borrowed them, too.  Lending works for me -- "Hey, I have this book I think you'd like to read.  Want to borrow it?"

But, unless we are allowed to choose which books of ours are on a "public" bookshelf that our friends and relations can see, it actually makes me a little uncomfortable.  I read things that my mother doesn't need to know about.  We can include my little sister in that category, too.

If I can initiate that transaction, fabulous.  But the other way around... no, thanks.

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No, you're not the only one.  I feel that way too, there are books I read that my mom simply doesn't need to know about.  So lending to me is ok (not that I've actually lent anything) but letting someone browse my bookshelf without the ability to mark books as private, no thanks.

it is one of my biggest complaints with Goodreads, is that I can't set a book or a bookshelf to private.  Because I read so many books I need a place to keep track of all my books, and one that I can access when away from home.  I've been playing with Goodreads, Shelfari and Librarything. There are things I like about each one, and things I don't.

[pamiata]

The way the Borrow feature is implemented on the Nook Color, you first have to open up your library for your friends to even view your lendable shelf. In addition, you can specify which books are visible/not visible on your shelf to your borrowing friends.

They did a nice job of considering that this could be a sensitive issue.

~Pam