The announcement was made in form of an open letter printed on image of an antique scroll posted on the site, which greeted site visitors, “Dear Muggles,…” Muggles is the term used in the Harry Potter books to mean people without any magical powers.
“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore. This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners,” said Bezos in the letter.
He also noted that the availability of books such as these in the lending library allows the Amazon Prime Member to access over $79 worth of books, an amount that is greater than either the cost of a Kindle or a Prime membership.
Bezos added that one advantage of borrowing from a digital library such as this is that titles come at an unlimited supply. “You never get put on a waiting list.”
The Kindle Owner’s Lending Library (KOLL) is a program that allows Amazon Prime members to borrow e-books to be read on their Amazon Kindle device. This borrowing/lending program is available exclusively to Amazon Kindle owners. It is not available to non-Kindle users, even if they have Amazon Prime membership.
The KOLL list currently includes around 145,000 titles.
Originally, Amazon Prime was marketed as a $79-per-year product that gave Amazon users the privilege of “free” two-day shipping for any amount of Amazon orders. For Amazon, the program works out well because it, in effect, allows Amazon to charge an advance shipping fee, and it encourages people to maximize their investment by making more Amazon purchases as well.
At first, Amazon Prime offered unlimited TV and video streaming to its members. Last year, it began allowing members to borrow one e-book per month as well.
The Harry Potter books in the KOLL will be available to in five languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, and German.
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