The new Kindle Paperwhite and the new Kindle HDX lines are already prominent sellers, but the new Matchbook service from Amazon makes owning one even sweeter. Amazon has kicked off the new MatchBook program, an initiative that allows customers to but digital, kindle-versions of select books that were bought in the past from Amazon with a gigantic discount.
The new service officially launched today (Tuesday) but was officially announced back in September. Although buying a book that you already may own sounds strange, there are a few instances that it really makes the service perfect for readers. The first is the most obvious, you may have a favorite book from long ago and have misplaced it or lent it another reader, now you can have that book available anytime you want it. The second involves gifts. Ever buy a book for someone but never bought it for yourself? Well cash it in, you bought that book on Amazon and now you can get the digital version at a fraction of the price.
As of right now there are more than 70,000 books available with this option, a number that increases each week it seems in folds. Amazon is asking that all authors and publishers enroll their work and open the digital content to Kinlde users so that more digital versions can be sold. Depending on how well the rollout goes, you can expect that every publisher will jump at the chance to increase their sales.
Some of the digital versions are free, others can be purchased for just $2.99. The program was announced on September 3 with over 10,000 titles. Since then, thousands of popular books like Heaven is for Real, The Things They Carried and The Way of Kings have been added from major publishers such as HarperCollins, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Amazon Publishing, Wiley, Chronicle Books, and Marvel, as well as thousands of titles from Kindle Direct Publishing authors like The Walk by Lee Goldberg and Falling Into You by Jasinda Wilder.
“It’s been great to see the positive response to MatchBook from both readers and publishers,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. “MatchBook enrollment has grown from 10,000 to 70,000 titles in just a few weeks and we expect it will keep expanding rapidly in the months ahead.”
amazon.com/paperwhite
