Amazon is offering customers free or discounted eBook versions of physical books, as the online retailer looks to encourage more people to use its Kindle devices and apps. The new Matchbook scheme is scheduled to go live in the US in October, with no formal plans for international versions announced. The program will allow customers […]
Amazon is offering customers free or discounted eBook versions of physical books, as the online retailer looks to encourage more people to use its Kindle devices and apps.
The new Matchbook scheme is scheduled to go live in the US in October, with no formal plans for international versions announced.
The program will allow customers to purchase ebook versions of their Amazon print purchases for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free.
Similar to its music-based service AutoRip, launched earlier this year, the Matchbook scheme will apply retrospectively to any title bought from the store since it opened in 1995.
Publishers must enroll specific books in Matchbook for the discounted digital option to become available.
“If you logged onto your CompuServe account during the Clinton administration and bought a book like Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus from Amazon,” wrote VP of Kindle content Russ Grandinetti in a statement, “Kindle MatchBook now makes it possible for that purchase – 18 years later – to be added to your Kindle library at a very low cost.”
Amazon says more than 10,000 books are already enrolled in Matchbook, including works by Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, Blake Crouch, James Rollins, Jodi Picoult, Neil Gaiman, Marcus Sakey, Wally Lamb, Jo Nesbo, Neal Stephenson, and J.A. Jance, among others.
In addition, Amazon will enroll all of the books released via its own Amazon Publishing imprint, and independent authors who publish their works through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program can enroll their own books via the program’s website.
Read more about Matchbook here
