Amazon's Kindle

Amazon.com already has a special textbook rental service for college students. And now Amazon is said to be readying a Netflix-like service to allow readers to rent electronic novels, biographies and other non-textbook titles.

Amazon’s digital service would allow customers to pay an annual fee to have access to a library of e-books for rent, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, quoting people familiar with the plan. Amazon is reportedly in talks with book publishers. Amazon officials were not available to comment on the report.

News of an e-book rental service comes at a time when it has been widely reported that Amazon -- maker of the popular Kindle e-book reader -- plans to unveil a tablet to compete with Apple’s iPad.

Reports of Amazon’s plans for a rental e-book library quote several unnamed publishers who are cool to the idea, saying it could slash the price of books and upset book publishers’ business dealings with other retailers that sell books.

In July, The e-book giant launched a service called Kindle Textbook Rental that allows students to rent textbooks from the Kindle Store.