B&H Publishing Group (B&H) has launched an online book "rental" service that it hopes could help brick-and-mortar stores promote one of their categories.

The Southern Baptist publisher has added a store to the free Web site for its HCSB Study Bible, which offers users access to books for a 24-hour period for 99 cents. The titles are also available for a 30-day period for $4.99 or for an unlimited time for prices from $9.99 up.

Believed to be the first publisher's-loan program of its kind, the service was launched as part of Mystudybible.com's effort to get more people to study the Bible deeply, said Aaron Linne, executive producer of digital marketing for B&H.

Though the academic, reference, devotional and Christian Living titles may be of particular interest to academic and ministry users, Linne said that he believed they would be of interest to general readers, too.

"There are lots of opportunities for us to be partners with brick-and-mortar stores in this program," said Linne. "We are hopeful that there will be people that will say that now that have spent 99 cents and got a taste of the depth of the products they have to get the physical copy."

The new service took note of the way people used study materials. "Unlike a novel where you read from the front to the back, a lot of Bible study materials are where you just dip into it at one point for the detail you need and then come out of it."

Titles available for "hire"—which are not downloadable—are listed in the search results available at the site, which includes all contents of the 2,000-plus-page study edition of the HCSB Study Bible. The free online site went live in September, ahead of the print debut the following month.

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