So, Amazon has this new program where you publish one of your titles exclusively with them and they let people "borrow" your book.  You can still sell your book, but you're pretty much limited to the Kindle.  You can't even sell your book on your own blog, website, or through Smashwords or through Barnes and Noble.  Your royalties are based on how many people "borrow" your book during a set period of time.  Amazon puts forth a big pot of money, and then your percentage of total books borrowed is taken from this pot.  It sounds exciting at first, especially with all those big numbers, but...

For authors who aren't famous and do not yet have a fan base, this isn't all that appealing.  You need as many ways to get as many customers as possible.  Every little bit counts.  Sure, Amazon has the largest market share by far.  I sell probably 90% of my e-books through Amazon.  However, I wouldn't want to close down my own website, remove my books from my blog, and not sell on the Nook just to take part in this program.  If very few people know and trust me as an author, there is little chance they would borrow my book.  I looked at what books they have and I see nothing but big name authors and really famous works.  I've done decently with my Go books (I've sold about 3,000 so far), but I'm not ready to go toe-to-toe with "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."  That's not happening in the near future.  I've heard some arguments that this program might be good for new authors to get someone to read their work when they otherwise might not spring for it.  If that is the case, I could give my book away free and get promotion that way; I don't really see the difference.  The exclusivity is the downside for me. 

I also feels that this unnecessarily disadvantages people who don't have Kindles.  I don't own an e-book reader, but there are a lot of them, and I wouldn't want someone not to be able to read my book because of their preference in devices.  There are probably plenty of reasons why people do not buy Kindles, and I don't want to disadvantage them when I'm trying to get a fan base going.  For me, the program is rather unappealing.  I can see if you're Michael Lewis or Richard Dawkins that this program would be up your alley.  It essentially lets people who already know of your book to finally give you a try, especially if they've been meaning to but haven't got around to it.  For those of us who are still in the background, trying to shine brighter than say, Stephen Covey, is not going to happen without a lot of luck.  I'd like to hear other people's opinions on this program.  Maybe it would be a good way to get one's foot in the door with new readers?  What do you think?