The criteria is whether or the publisher feels they can "hook" additional people by letting you lend the book a single time.
They are probably weighing the possibility of the lendee actually reading it through in 14 days vs the possibility they'll only get part way through (hopefully to the juicy parts) and have to buy it themselves to finish. Thus generating extra sales.
Right now, Amazon has left the decision on whether or not books are lendable entirely to the publisher. Since the activity, lending, is something that is happening on the platform AFTER the point of sale I really don't think the publisher should have much any say in it.
I want to know if Amazon conceded this power to the publishers right off the bat or if they thought about enabling the feature completely in the consumers control first.
> Since the activity, lending, is something that is happening on the platform AFTER the point of sale I really don't think the publisher should have much any say in it.
But Amazon isn't selling you the book, right? They're selling you the right to read it on your Kindle, as long as they allow you to.
I checked my Kindle collection a few weeks ago (on the initial lending post here on HN) and today. More of my books are lendable today than before.
Apparently, Amazon is erring/defaulting to benefit the publishers. That is, books are NOT lendable by default. The publisher, more than likely, has to update Amazon to make the book lendable.
The only lendable book I have is Jessica's "Founders at Work" which I don't want to lend cause I haven't finished it. I'm still on the Adobe guy.