Minnesota, USA -September 13, 2011 - Recent speculations state that Amazon is attempting to start a book rental service -similar to the movie rental service of Netflix - in order to capture a greater audience for e-books and satisfy its Kindle users; however, publishers are hesitant to jump on board since it could decrease their book sales dramatically. It is suggested that the rental service may only feature older books, which should not affect author/publisher revenue since many of the authors are either deceased or the book sales are already down.

The service would be just like Netflix where there is a membership fee; it would be a yearly membership fee with Amazon unlike the monthly fee that Netflix offers. If the service only features older books, it is uncertain on how it could capture a large audience; after all, older e-book prices tend to be dramatically lower than other e-books. Then again, Amazon may convince publishers to include some new e-books to add to the service in order to get Kindle and Kindle app users to sign up for the service.

There are sites already established online, such as freeebooksforkindle.org, that offer e-books for free -some of the books are very old while others are new and written by a new author. Other popular services are based on lending and borrowing in equal amounts, such as the services at ebook fling. It is expected that libraries across the U.S. will soon offer e-books that are capable with the Kindle. How will Amazon's new service compete with all of these options available to consumers

Certainly Amazon will have the upper hand in business since users went to its site to obtain the Kindle, so it is more likely that users will browse the site prior to going elsewhere; however, consumers are accustomed to 'shopping around'. We are constantly comparing prices of products and services to judge which would be best for us in the long-run. Perhaps consumers will not think that it is a good deal for the price -expected price was not released yet.

Amazon features a list of e-books that it offers for free. Since it already features free e-books, it is questionable on whether the selection for this new service would encompass much at all. Specific details were not released on the service were not released such as possible limits to how many e-books could be rented at one time or each month. If publishers get on board with Amazon, we will certainly hear specific plans.