Digital bookseller Bilbary launched last year with an ebook sales platform, making over 800,000 titles available for sale to customers across the UK and other markets. Now, Bilbary has announced that its ebook rental service will hopefully launch before the end of the year.
Unlike rental platforms that tried with limited success to create a Netflix-like subscription based concept, Bilbary allows users to rent an individual title without the commitment of a subscription. Moreover, the current model will allow readers to borrow books based on a pre-determined time period, with the pay rate adjusting for the length of time. This may become especially important for the renting of academic texts, which can be needed for an entire semester, whereas a user can opt to rent a novel for as little as five days.
While many major publishers list their ebooks for sale with the company, Taylor & Francis is one of the first publishers to sign with Bilbary to make many of its titles available for rental. As an academic publisher, it may be more invested in textbook rental.
Amy Riach spoke to Good e-Reader in London today on behalf of Bilbary and shared some of the features of this upcoming launch.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
