This topic may have been discussed previously, but I don't remember where...

I have loads of Kindle books, most of them lendable, and I'd love to try out one of the e-book lending sites. I really don't want to delete any of them without at least trying to share them- it seems like a waste. Do any of you belong to them? (And if so, can you have "friends" on the site like you can here?) Which lending site is the best? 

I've used a few in the past, and settled on Lendle.me,  I don't use it anymore, since joining Kindle Unlimited, but I might re-list my lendables when I get a chance. No use letting them go to waste for someone else. 

Booklending.com

I also use Lendle.me.

I listed quite a few books at the start, nearly all gotten as free books.  That earned me quite a few credits to borrow with.

I rarely actually lend any out.  When they get a request in, they send an email out to everyone with a copy listed.  Only the first to respond lends the book.  But all who respond earn another credit.  So if there are copies listed, you usually get a quick lend coming your way.  Once loaned to you, you'll get an Amazon email with the link to download the book.

I've got plenty of credits now, so I haven't been actively listing new books for quite a while.

I also  use booklending.com

i took a look at both lendle.me and booklending.com tonight, as i'm also somewhat interested.  since i was only browsing without registering, i don't know how much of what i saw is what i'll really see if i register.  both had some bits i liked, so i'm curious about a couple of things.

lendle.me questions:

1. i couldn't see a search, so i couldn't see if certain books or authors were available (and browsing by genre isn't all that likely to show you exactly what you want.)  is there a search after you register, so you can see what you might like to borrow?
2. how do you add the books you own?
3. is this site still pretty active?  i noticed it only says copyright 2011-2012, and the 'authors promote your book' part is significantly out of date.

booklending questions:

1. for each book, all i see is the orange or green button, you don't even get a description unless you click the link that takes you to amazon, or click the discuss this book link.  do you see more information if you're registered, most importantly things like if the book is currently available to borrow, how many people want to borrow it, or how many copies are available?  if not, when you request a book that isn't available at the moment, what happens?
2. looking at the search results right now, i can't click on the author in any way to see what else by that author might be in the system.  does that change if i'm registered, or do i just have to do a search using the author name?

Booklending.com- they assume you know about the book you want to lend/borrow, so if you're not familiar, the title screen does open up over at Amazon. Booklending works on the "you have to give to get" theory. There is no way to buy your way in. You list the books you have to lend. You make a wishlist of the books you want to borrow. The computer does the rest. When I offer a book, it will pop up a box with three people who request it. They are usually the ones wanting that book who have lent the most to other readers. There are likely many, many more behind them but preference goes to those who have given the most. Other times it will be some travel book that only one person is looking for. I haven't purchased an ebook in over a year and I still get offers made to me about once a month. You do a copy/paste of the Amazon ASIN or use the search feature to enter a title or author and borrow request away and then lend your stuff. Make sure to mark the box in your profile of how many max you want to be lended each week as well.

Lendle- I use this very rarely, because for free users, it is cumbersome. Lendle works just like PBS- you list your books and when someone borrows one, you get a credit to spend on someone else's book. Problem is, when you request a book that has 100 copies listed, all 100 get an email asking for the loan and everyone who responds after the first guy still gets a fraction of a lend point. Sounds great, until the site has more points than books. Also, back in the early days of the site, you could set up a wishlist for free. Now you have to pay a patron fee to do that, so the old school users and the pay-to-play users can wishlist books and get offered them first. The rest of us have to check each and every book day by day to see if one became available.

I prefer the Booklending (above) as it's less hassle. I just get a surprise random email telling me "Mandy has loaned you a book". It's like my birthday LOL. And I lend out every book I can to anyone who asks, because the publishers can and do pull that feature randomly. I'd rather pay it forward and let someone else also enjoy the book than sit on it and have the feature become disabled later on.

Great questions, Ellen. I had many of the same ones after checking out the sites yesterday.

Thanks so much for the explanations, Nancy! I think I'm going to try out the Booklending site. I'm more interested in loaning at this point than I am in borrowing anyways. (I have so much to read as it is!) I just feel like not at least trying to share my finished e-books with someone is such a waste if the function is available. I'm just wondering when my Kindle is going to give me a great big burb and tell me, "I'm full... No more books until you delete something." Lol. I doubt it'll happen too soon, but it will eventually...

Do you guys delete once you've read a book and then loaned it out? It seems harder for me to do than mailing out a book, for some reason. (Maybe because I only have to find space for the Kindle, instead of a physical pile of books.) Maybe after loaning it out, I can feel better about deleting it- as if I'd mailed it. 

ETA: One other question I had was:  Did you bother setting up an email account specifically for use with the booklending site, or did you just use your personal email? I know some people are more leery about releasing info, and I don't know if the potential for spam bombing exists if I use my regular email. Has anyone had problems with someone from one of these sites using email addresses for other purposes?

Booklending works on the "you have to give to get" theory. There is no way to buy your way in.

it's interesting you say that, because i assumed the opposite based on the bit in the FAQ that said if you weren't in the US, you could borrow with the site, but you couldn't lend due to amazon restrictions.  so how do they get to borrow if they can't earn credits lending?

Dear Debbie,

here is my e-mail address.  Please loan me all your kindle books.  Thanks, Cynd

Seriously, if you are concerned about giving them your personal e-mail address set up another e-mail account just for these situations.  You can always change your account e-mail contact at a later time.  Also, you can delete books off your kindle device but they will still be in your amazon library so you can re-load them at a later time if you want to re-read them.  I would be interested in what you have to loan .... hint, hint.

Ellen, you are correct, international users can borrow, but they only get books offered when there are no US users waiting. The give to get works like this:

I offer up a lend of the new Cherise Sinclair "Edge of the Enforcer" (looking to borrow that BTW hint hint). I get a pop up box with three member names listed and choose one to send it to. There might be 70 people who have that book on their wish list, but those 3 people are the three of the 70 who have lent the most books to other users. As the demand goes down, those who have not lent as many get offered lends. I haven't bought an ebook on Amazon in about a year as I got carried away at Kobo and the library is great, so I don't lend very many right now. I maintain my wishlist though, and about once a month, I get an email telling me that someone has loaned me a book, so you can still receive even if you don't loan out many. You just won't get the popular stuff right away.

I was thinking, since I know I probably still have a ton of lendable books, and making a list is a PITA since it's hard to see if any particular books is lendable, maybe people could do the opposite. Post what they want and the rest of us could check our lists as requests come up?

I don't mind checking people's lists against what I have, I just don't look forward to going through all my books one by one and posting a huge list of books no one is interested in borrowing. 

Even a genre to look up would be easier.

There is a "kindle lending" topic here in the eBook Readers discussion forum where members are posting links to their loanable kindle ebooks.  You might check it out.

Yeah, but I was the last to post there, in June. So it's not getting much use. : ) I don't want a place to post the books I have available, since I don't have a list worked up. But I'd check my Amazon account for anything specific someone is looking for.

Since you asked- here's what's on my lendme wish list by author.; If anyone has any of them to lend, much thanks!

Lexi Blake- Dungeon Royale, Dungeon Games

Christine d'Abo- Dom for Sale

Suzanne Halliday- Broken Justice, Fixing Justice

Marie Harte- A Major Attraction, A Major Distraction, A Major Seduction

Cat Johnson- A Cowboy for Christmas, Champion, Crossing the Line, Thrown

Annabel Joseph- Disciplining the Duchess

Katie Porter- Bare Knuckle, Hard Way, Inside Bet

Cherise Sinclair- Edge of the Enforcer, Show Me Baby

Harper Sloan- Axel, Cage, Cooper, Locke

V.K. Sykes- Curveball

Charlene Teglia- Adventure Lover, Dangerous Lover

I just checked, Nancy. I have two Marie Hart books to lend if you don't have them. (Talson's Wait and Rachels' Totem.) That's as close as I could get for you. 

Just PM if the two I have are of interest to you.

I had no idea such sites existed. I have been just buying mine or borrowing my sister's Kindle.

I will have to look into this, and check my Kindle for titles. I have dozens, but so many were free or cheap to begin with.

Tracy

I have a Kindle copy of Gone Girl which isn't available in paperback on the PBS site. I don't see an option on Amazon for lending the book, but I can gift it to someone who would want it. If anyone is interested, please send me a message with your email address in it.

Marie

I used to use those sites, but I find online libraries so much better for getting the books I want in a timely manner (most of the time).  And I just came across a new one I am coming to post...

Introducing the Baen Free Library

by Eric Flint

Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed. )

http://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012