Banyan Branch

Written by Karianne Stinson

On Thursday, July 21, the national bookstore chain, Borders, closed its doors. The company has acknowledged that a move to online retailers and away from brick and mortar stores hurt the chain. They have also cited the rise of e-readers as another downfall for the company.

At the end of 2010, there were about 10 million e-readers in circulation in the United States, up from 3.7 million at the end of 2009. According to Forrester Research, consumers spent $1 billion on e-books in 2010, and that number is expected to triple by 2015. As the e-book and e-reader market continues to grow, several e-book sharing sites have started.

 Infographic on how e-book lending works from the Wall Street Journal

The three top e-book sharing sites are BookLending.com, eBook Fling and Lendle. All of these sites have thousands of users, tens of thousands of e-books available to borrow and are driving a lot of online conversations.

Online Conversations about Top e-Book Lending Sites during July

Lendle is definitely driving the most conversation with about 500 mentions in the last month. One reason Lendle might be getting more mentions is because the site has a strong social focus. Let’s take a look at how each site works and how each engages socially.

BookLending.com

BookLending.com is a community for lending and borrowing Kindle e-books with more than 25,000 members. BookLending.com has links to both their Facebook and Twitter accounts listed on the website. BookLending.com is active on Facebook with nearly 30,000 fans. They manage two separate Twitter accounts: @BookLending with 1,421 followers and another @BLFeed, which is essentially an RSS of available and wanted e-books. New users can sign up by filling in their information or connect through Facebook. The site lets users borrow and lend e-books easily. Each member has a profile page where it lists e-books available to lend and borrow requests; however it doesn’t seem that you can share your profile page. In fact, there doesn’t appear to be any way for members to connect with one another.

eBook Fling

On eBook Fling members can lend and borrow e-books for the Kindle and the Nook. eBook Fling doesn’t have links to any of their social media accounts on their website. However, they do have a Twitter account at @eBookFling with 936 followers. eBook Fling’s Facebook account has 2,684 fans. The only way to sign up for eBook Fling is by entering your email and information. The lending and borrowing is similar to the other sites. The most notable difference is that eBook Fling allows members to buy credits for $2.99 each to use to borrow books. On the other sites, users can only borrow as many books as they lend. On eBook Fling users don’t have a profile page and there is no way for members to connect.

Lendle

Lendle is a social community for borrowing and lending Kindle e-books. Both the Twitter and Facebook accounts are listed on the homepage, however they are in the bottom menu and can be easy to miss. The site also has a button so you can “like” the application on Facebook right from the main website. On Facebook, Lendle has 3,313 fans. Lendle has 872 followers on Twitter at @LendleApp. The site allows users to connect with Facebook, Twitter or sign up with their personal information. Each user has a profile and there is an activity feed that shows recent lends, borrows, and interactions with other users. Users can find and follow their friends and even make new friends. Lendle has added gamification elements by adding special achievements users can earn through activity on the site. When users lend, borrow or request a book, they have the option to push a message out on Facebook and/or Twitter. Each book also has a page where users can see activity about the book, offer a short 100-character review, and see similar books. Lendle is also the only site to pay their users for lending books.

BookLending.com has the most Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Even though they have the least Twitter followers, Lendle has generated the most online mentions. While all three sites offer an easy way to loan and borrow e-books, Lendle is setting themselves apart as more of a social network. As a reader, I find that exciting because it will make reading more of a social experience. Not only can users connect with current friends and see what they’re reading, but users can make new friends. Users can meet new people that have similar interests in books and follow them to see what else they are reading. Through friends and Lendle’s suggestions users can find other books they might enjoy. Each of these sites started during 2011, so it will be interesting to see how they each grow. Also, I suspect there will be similar site that start, given the current growth of the e-reader market. It will be interesting to see if socialization of the site will help it be more successful in the long run.

Have you loaned or borrowed an e-book? How was your experience?                                                                                                                                                               

Karianne Stinson is a contributing author to the Banyan Branch blog. She is currently a social media and public relations consultant. You can connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.