Amazon has announced the launch of Kindle Textbook Rental, a program that offers up to 80% off textbook list prices when customers rent titles from the Kindle Store. Tens of thousands of textbooks are available for the 2011 school year from textbook publishers like John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier and Taylor & Francis. Students can find details about the program at www.amazon.com/kindletextbooks.
"Students tell us that they enjoy the low prices we offer on new and used print textbooks. Now we’re excited to offer students an option to rent Kindle textbooks and only pay for the time they need—with savings up to 80% off the print list price on a 30-day rental," said Dave Limp, v-p, Amazon Kindle.
Kindle Textbook Rental offers the ability to customize rental periods to any length between 30 and 360 days, allowing students to 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 Limp. "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. 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."
