I literally just ran around the house skipping and saying ‘OMG OMG OMG YAY:’ You can now give a Kindle book to anyone with an email address. No Kindle required.
To give a Kindle Book as a gift, customers simply choose a book in the Kindle Store, select “Give as a Gift” and send their gift to anyone with an email address. Notifications of Kindle Books gifts are delivered instantly via e-mail and the recipient redeems the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.
So now, when you read a book you want to give as a gift to someone who is a digital reader, and not give a gift card or merchandise credit, you can buy that specific book for someone else. I LOVE THIS. I cannot tell you how much I love this. There will be some digital gift giving in my world come Hanukkah, let me tell you.
Of course the Amazon list of suggested giftable books in the press release is not so much with the romance. So tell me: what romance novel, digital or paper, would you give as a gift this year and to whom?
ETA: First, thanks to @has_bookpushers I know that you can’t gift Kindle books to people outside the geographic restriction zone for that book. BOOOO.
Also, when I gifted a book to Angela James to test the purchase sequence, which is supremely easy, I was charged tax on my purchase.
Exciting! I would give “danann frost falls from grace” by Joanne Valiukas to everyone! It’s a beautiful paranormal romance and has become my new all time favorite book!
I just noticed this as well and did a little happy dance. 🙂
I would have gifted Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen to my mom, except I couldn’t wait til 1) she got her own kindle and 2) gifting became allowed, so I got her the book in paper.
beautiful southern magical realism book – and I say that who doesn’t like southern culture or magical realism.
Realistically, I’d probably give my own book (s) but in the spirit of this post, I’d send The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs to my daughter, whose husband is leaving for Afghanistan in the too-near future.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist—of Mystery
My gift would be Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh. That way my sister could start a great series at the beginning. All those happy hours to discover the Psy/Changelings.
Due to a high level of trust, I have my best friend’s Amazon login (and she has mine). So I already gave a romance this week by logging onto her account, switching the payment to my card, purshasing The Iron Duke, then resetting her card information. Obviously this process sucked and I’m crazy excited that I won’t need to do it again.
I wonder if Kindle would have done this if Kobo hadn’t launched their own ebook gift cards and ebook gifting program two days ago – http://kobobooks.com/giftguide Seems. a little too coincidental to me that Amazon has been around so much longer, but only came out with a gifting option after a competitor made their announcement. It is good to know, though, that people who read on ePub devices and on Kindles can now gift ebooks. 🙂
I think I’ll be giving The Iron Duke to one of my good friends. Hopefully he’ll appreciate it, though first I need to sneakily find out if he has it already. xD
Update: the great gifting experiment by @moirarogersbree and @has_bookpushers did work after changing the location under Manage Your Kindle and providing a US address.
Another gifting experiment (gifting to a US peep outside the US at present) was successful…but the receiver was charged for VAT & delivery on Whispernet.
D’aww, it sounds as if this system is coming with a few not-so-happy issues. But I applaud the idea of it with the excited glee that should probably be reserved for tiny little girls finding a live unicorn under their tree on Christmas morning. Which is to say, a lot.
Color me hopelessly stuck on the wrong side of the digital age—BUT—can I buy an ebook and read it on my laptop? I don’t have and can’t afford smartass phones and spendy service to connect to the universe, but I do have broadband, and would just as soon read an ebook as a print one for the greenness of pixels v paper. And, as my sisters are also big readers, we could do the gifty thing too!
@JoAnnarama this should answer your question; (even if it is the DREADED AMAZON) http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311
There may be other readers out there? Savvy SmartBitches will be sure to know.
@Suzanna Medeiros, Amazon announced a long time ago that this was coming and that we should see it in time for the holidays. What Kobo may have done is pushed them into announcing it earlier than they had planned.
@JoAnnarama, Yes. Amazon, B&N, Borders, Sony and Kobo all offer desktop software for both Windows and Mac (no Linux AFAIK) and there is also desktop software (Adobe Digital Editions, Mobipocket, eReader, MS Reader) that allows you to read DRM’s books from independent shops like Books on Board, All Romance/Omni Lit, Diesel and Direct eBooks.
So excited about this. I share a kindle acct with a good friend, but there’s always money trading hands for the books she buys on my credit card, and this should totally solve that.
Re: taxes on the purchase. I gave an e-book gift to my boyfriend, and was not charged tax. We’re in the US, Virginia to be specific, if that info helps.
Oh, jeez, also super excited that I can go back to adding books to my holiday wishlist.
Spam: there46—there are way more than 46 books on my Kindle wishlist right now.
Neat. Does anyone know if I can put Kindle books on my Amazon wish list? If someone buys one of them for me for Christmas, will it automatically go to my Kindle?
I’d give the latest Shannon Stacey book, Undeniably Yours. Made me smile from beginning to end.
I heard somewhere (probably DA or here, lol) that publishers have to pay tax if they have a ‘presence’ in a state.
I wasn’t aware that any publishers had a ‘presence’ in Alabama, but I’ve noticed with some ebooks tax is added. I know for sure one of the publishers is Penquin, but I can’t put a name to any others. I need to start keeping a list.
Thing is, you don’t know until you’ve bought the book. I have a Kindle, so it’s a one click deal. Ignorance reigns unless you check your Account or notice a different total has been debited to your bank account.
I don’t buy Penquin if I can get around it.
So, I don’t think it’s the state, but the publisher.
I forgot to say, I’d gift The Iron Duke to my BFF. ?
I am soooo thrilled that this is possible!! I was the first of my sisters to get a kindle, and now I know what I’ll be getting them for Christmas!!
You can put Kindle books on your wish list. I already have a few there. Now that this service is available, I’ll be adding a few more!!
I would give a friend either Lora Leigh’s Tempting the Beast (the very first novel of her Breed’s series) or Ilona Andrews’ Magic Bites (the first in her Kate Daniels novels). Both are awesome, but for different reasons: Tempting the Beast because of the steamy scenes, including one in the first chapter, and the unique series—Ilona Andrews’ because Kate Daniels snarky comments and life on the edge makes the heart race and the pages fly.
This is nice and all, especially considering the huge Kindle reaction, but I would like to point out that Fictionwise had this feature for years…
This is really exciting! Mom has been giving me Amazon gift cards for the last year and a bit – since I got my Kindle. Now she’ll be able to just give me the books. Amazon gift cards disappear with One-Click, no matter if you’re buying music OR books. And I buy both way too often. Fairly certain I wouldn’t receive the delivery in the UK while I’m there for Christmas, though, as I don’t have one of those fancy International Kindles.
Can’t choose just one:
Cut & Run by Urban and Roux
Lyin Eyes by Amy Atwell
Irish Warrior by Kris Kennedy
Hill County Holdup by Angi Morgan
I’d give it to Elizabeth or @ryuden, as they are the only 2 people I know with e-readers, but which book is more challenging. Maybe one of Victoria Dahl’s contemporaries.
I can’t tell you the romance novels I’m giving as holiday gifts because some of the recipients also peruse your site. However, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to mention Loretta Chase, Zoe Archer, and Caroline Linden at this point – just in case their publishers are giving you the cut you deserve for promoting them!
How long does it take for the kindle gift book to show up in the recipient’s inbox? If I’m buying it for a Christmas gift, for example, and I wait until the 24th, will it show up that day or the next day?
(No romance novels for Dad – unless Louis L’Amour counts!)