LibraryThing is poised to gain many new users in the wake of Amazon's purchase of GoodReads. In the interest of enticing new members, they're offering free one-year LibraryThing accounts through Sunday. To be clear, LibraryThing has always been free to join. However, there is a 'pay-what-you-want' annual fee if you want to add more than 200 books (suggested amounts: $10 a year or $25 for lifetime membership). This weekend's special offer means that, for a year, you may add as many books as you want. If you don't pay anything after the year is up, your books won't be deleted, but you won't be able to add more. What's the money for? From the LibraryThing blog:
The money helps pay for the site, and keeps us advertisement-free for members. Also, we believe customers should be customers, with the loyalty and rights of customers, not the thing we sell to our real customers.
You can join the discussion on what the Amazon purchase of GoodReads means for LibraryThing (and ponder broader questions about Amazon's increasing dominance in the publishing/bookselling world) here.
