I’m sure many of you have eBook lovers on your holiday gift list, and you might not be sure how to go about giving eBooks as gifts. Fortunately, it’s easy, and there’s even a new option to mention this year.
First, though, the obvious way, buying someone a gift card from their favorite site and suggesting the card is for eBooks. That’s a good approach if you don’t know exactly what the recipient likes or what he or she already owns.
But perhaps there is a specific book you’d like to gift. You can do that as well. Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords allow giving individual eBooks as gifts. I couldn’t find an option to do so through Kobo, but perhaps Joanna can correct me since she uses that site more than I do.
The option is fairly obvious on all the sites. Navigate to the book you want to give and find the “give eBook as gift” button. Here are screenshots from the three sites I mentioned above.
So there it is on three of the major eBook retail sites. Some of the niche or genre sites probably have similar options.
If you are an author, is it tacky to gift a copy of your own book? I guess it depends on the relationship you have with the potential receiver. Note that, at least from Amazon, the gift comes as credit which the receiver could use for another book if he or she so desires.
What about that new option I hinted at above? I received an email from Oyster informing me that I could give subscriptions as a gift. Now, as you know, I prefer Scribd to Oyster, but if someone on your list loves Oyster or might want to try out a subscription, why not give it to them as a gift? Here’s the price breakdown from their site.
I hope to hear a similar announcement from Scribd soon. And if I do, you know what I’ll be asking Santa for!
Now you know how, so go forth and give the gift of ereading this holiday season.
In a day or so, I’ll be posting a guide on the best tablet and ereader options for the season. Stay tuned.
Update:
I’d suspected Scribd had something in the works, and I was right. Yesterday, they introduced subscription options as well. The 1 month option is terrible ($10), but the 3/6/12 months are a slight savings over subscribing month to month. ($25/$50/$100). Happy to accept gift subscriptions of any length. 🙂
I would only recommend it for someone who already has (and uses) an eReader. For someone who is new to the eBook world, it can be very intimidating to navigate through the “get an account, register your device/download software to your computer so you can figure out how to get the book to show up where you want it, set up Adobe IDs or Amazon passwords, etc, etc….” routine just to get at that cool new book.
So for newbies to the eBook world, stick to paper, or go for the whole enchilada – a reader WITH the eBooks waiting to be sent to their account, and a promise of a day or two of your time to set them up. I work at a library, and we informally refer to our eReader tutorial sessions as “my kids gave me a Kindle” classes.
Unless your gift recipient knows exactly how to access the book you’ve just purchased on their behalf, it will either be put aside with the gift cards to places they don’t like, or result in a phone call to you after the customer service folks are through with them.
Helicon Books social DRM solution enables publishers not only give eBooks as gifts but also to add dedication to the receiver.
You’re right, you can’t give a specific book as a gift through the Kobo site. I recently emailed them about it because I thought it was an option in the past.
@Alicia, drat. I was hoping I’d just missed it. They need to make it an option.
Just some notes on gifting from Amazon US-
You can preschedule the email notice of your gift. I like to go this route when I know I won’t be seeing the recipient on the day of the occasion. Like Juli says, they have the option of converting it to a regular card if they like.
You can gift to yourself. I tried this last year when Amazon had some crazy price on a holiday MP3. I didn’t want to take the time to add all the recipients to my address book and confirm payment information. I gifted 10 of the albums to myself and then forwarded the email to nine people. They were able to download the gift to their own accounts from the link in the email. I never did think of a 10th person to gift it to so I converted that one back to regular gift card for my own use.
I did the above again recently for a birthday gift. I didn’t know for sure when I’d be seeing the recipient but I wanted to give it to her in person. I just made up a fancy card with a copy of the book cover, quotes from the book and included the download link. After I gave it to her, I forwarded the download link so that she would have a live link to click on. She was pleased and it’s likely I will do something like this again.
@Anne, some great tips. Thank you. I particularly like what you did with the MP3 gifts!
Hey Juli, thanks for sharing your insights on giving ebooks as gifts. I personally love giving away books as gifts and this is just a more convenient way to share great reads to family and friends.
@John, you are most welcome.
I love the idea of giving ebooks as gifts and have several on my wish list this holiday season. Thanks for the instructions on how to do it, I’ve never sent one myself but you’ve made it really clear! Thanks for the post!
This is a great idea for friends who already like ebooks. I do not know much about them. Do Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords have mutually exclusive sets of ebooks to sell? Or are some ebooks available from more than one supplier and readable on almost any kind of e-reader?
@Virginia, thanks for stopping by. You’ve asked a complicated question. For books from best selling authors you’ve probably heard of, your choices are Amazon and B&N. Smashwords sells mostly books by self-published authors and small presses. The advantage to Smashwords, however, is that the prices are generally low, and most books are readable on all readers. With Amazon and B&N, there’s more restrictions on what devices can be used to read the books.
And yes, long-time readers of this site, I know I’ve drastically over-simplified the situation. 🙂
Thanks for this. I have to admit that the gift-giving landscape is shifting so rapidly I have trouble keeping up. We gave kindles for the holidays a few years back. Would be nice to give them a follow up gift.
@Lorrie, you’re welcome. And at least you know which store to gift from!