I don’t use the Manage Your Content and Devices page at Amazon very often, but I noticed a new note at the top of the screen the other day about gifting ebooks:
Loved reading a book? Now share your happiness with your friends and loved ones by gifting it to them from Manage Your Content and Devices page.
Somehow my brain interpreted that as being able to give away ebooks that you’ve purchased, but that’s not it at all.
What they’ve done is added a link to the actions menu to “gift now”.
Clicking it opens up another page where you can place an order for the ebook and send it to someone (or yourself) via email, along with a personalized message.
It’s no different than the regular gifting method of hitting the “give as a gift” button on an ebook product page.
Like usual, the recipient can opt to exchange the book for an Amazon gift card of equal value if they don’t want the book.
But I like my initial idea better. A give now option would be better than a gift now option. Wouldn’t it be great if you could choose to permanently give your purchased ebooks to someone else just like you can with a paper book?