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Penguin move causes outrage at ToC
16.02.12 | Gayle Feldman
Penguin’s decision last week to sever its connection with OverDrive and halt e-book lending in US public libraries brought the discussion of how publishers should interact with libraries in the digital age front-and-centre on the first morning of O’Reilly’s Tools of Change Conference in New York.
The Internet Archive’s Peter Brantley, who moderated on “The Library Alternative”, asserted that “libraries are quite angry” about publishers “moving backward”. If publishers “want to target OverDrive because of Amazon”, Brantley added, then “libraries are happy to have an alternative [supplier]” but the one thing they are not willing to be is “collateral damage. We don’t have much sympathy for large foreign-owned media conglomerates,” he said. Reportedly, some libraries are even considering class-action legal remedies in the face of increasing frustration. Penguin’s move sparked the controversy, but with Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette already withholding e-books from library loan, and Harper setting a 26 check-out limit, the topic has been building towards fireworks for a long time.
If timing is everything, Penguin’s seemed particularly bad, for hope had so recently sprung up within the library community that a lending resolution might be on the horizon. Random House had just announced a breakthrough: in return for raising the prices of its e-books sold through library wholesalers, they would allow unlimited check-outs. The price structure itself has not been announced.
Hope had even extended to the prospect that the RH move might presage a similar development with other major publishers, after an American Library Association delegation had called on the Big Six.
On the same panel, The Revson Foundation’s Julie Sandorf called libraries “the last remaining civic public square”. She and others reminded listeners that at a time of declining bricks-and-mortar stores, “libraries have real estate in every community. They can showcase and sell; they could become the new Barnes & Noble front window. Think about the utility of that”.
Meanwhile, in a panel discussion “The Changing Face of Retail Bookselling,” Verso Digital’s Jack McKeown put it another way: only 45% of the US population is now served by an independent store within 10 miles of home or work, and only 55% live or work within 10 miles of a B&N or Books-a-Million.
The New York Public Library’s Micah May reckoned that libraries can help publishers introduce points of effective price discrimination. They can also help publishers connect with users since they have the advantage of information about patrons’ borrowing habits that they could share. May also reminded listeners that “something like 90% of e-book circulation comes from the top 1,000 titles”.
Bilbary’s Tim Coates added: “twice as many books read in the US come from public libraries as come from bookstores. Every year, two billion books are circulated. That is a huge reason why publishers should take an interest.”
Coates expanded upon May’s point, claiming “the publishing industry has become separate from the public library” at a time when the library can provide “a goldmine of information”. No such information goldmine is open to publishers via Amazon. Library Journal’s Barbara Genco had pointed out in her morning session that “the library market—with 169 million users—is one of the largest sleeping giants in the United States”.
The giant is waking up, stretching, and feeling its strength. The take-away was clear. As Coates said: “publishers need libraries more than libraries need publishers. These issues need to be resolved.”
Photo of ToC audience by Pinar Ozger
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All very well pointing to the supposed virtues of this scheme, but what about the one rather important drawback for writers and publishers: if you can borrow an ebook, what possible reason would you have for buying it? Ebook lending could wipe out the publishing industry once and for all.
With that logic, we should just go ahead and get rid of those pesky brick and mortar libraries as well! They've been letting people borrow books for centuries. Couldn't jeopardize your profit now could we?
WorriedAuthor has nothing to worry about. eBooks will bring about a reading renaissance in this country and around the world, reaping revenues for publishers and authors undreamed of before its coming.
That is, if publishers themselves will only quit worrying and get with libraries to bring this about. The story above provides all the ammunition for why this should happen. If it doesn't happen, Amazon will walk off with all the marbles, significantly inhibiting those revenues.
The End of Libraries
http://alltogethernow.org/showtag.php?currid=85
AnnoyedLibrarian needs to appreciate the absolutely fundamental difference between ebook lending and bricks & mortar libraries that offer the loan of a physical book. With the latter, you visit the library, borrow the book, read it and return it. Publishers and authors benefit largely because many readers will go on to buy that author's other works, because the ownership of a book is more convenient, and also a pleasure in itself, quite apart from the pleasure of reading.
With ebooks, there's no physical copy to own, no obvious pleasure or real advantage in permanently keeping a copy on your ereader, and no effort needed to obtain it. We already know that readers are being encouraged by the monstrous Amazon to resent paying more than a pittance for something so ephemeral - ebook lending is therefore the perfect solution. But if it takes off, it's impossible to see how publishers can stay in business, and frankly that ought to worry anyone who claims to love books. Just read a sample of self-published work to see just how truly dreadful a world without professional publishers will look.
We will ALWAYS need libraries. They've been around long before bookstores, and really could become the perfect alliance between publishers and the reader.
Publishers are looking at libraries the wrong way. Case in point, I spent an hour in my library yesterday, holding/touching/flipping through books I WANTED TO BUY! (something I haven't done in about a year) I didn't want to go to B&N and pay full price for them, and my closest B&N is MILES away, while my library is across the street. I just wanted the info, and a cheap used version off amazon.com. I wanted the information LONG TERM....libraries are great --- but essentially they're like trailers to a movie I WANT TO OWN!
Readers don't read a book once and throw it out...not this one, anyway. If I find a book I love at the library, I buy everything else by that author. Libraries also keep books on the shelf long after B&N has pulled it from theirs....can anyone say backlist?
Until publishers stop looking at this with a scarcity mentality and figure out how to recreate a NEW way of doing business with an abundance of great information, working side by side with writers and librarians who will get their books in the hands of THEIR CLIENT, the reader, this is going to be a silly, bloody war.
Library elending works just like physical book lending. The library pays for a copy and people get in line to read it one at a time. Many get impatient at being 45th in line and buy a copy. Worried author is worried about the wrong things.
there are many issues with this article and the comments, but I'll address just one - the assumption that each book circulated by a library equals a lost sale. First let's be clear, libraries PAY for the books they circulate. They pay for a book whether it circulates 50 times or 0. While it is true that bestsellers often circulate many times it is equally true that libraries purchase books that never circulate or only circulate once every couple of years. I don't see publishers (or Mr. Coates) proposing a model to refund the money for the books that fail. Second, there is no guarantee that a person who chooses to check out a book from a library would chose to buy that same book. Period. Rather than seeing a library book as money out of the pocket perhaps publishers should see them as one more book sold that might never have been sold in the first place. There are many reasons people use a public library. One of them is to discover new authors, many people are introduced to new authors through their public library then BUY those books.
I suggest reading this post 9 Reasons Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are The Enemy
So really, as a producer of content what you are asking is: "how do I make it harder to put my product into customers hands?" If nobody knows who you are, nobody can buy your writing. Public libraries bring writing to readers.
Making it harder for potential customers to find your product doesn't sound like a winning business strategy. The future of the printed book looks a lot like the what vinyl records have become: a niche market for nostalgic collectors. In the future, we won't need publishers. We will still need authors and we'll still need writing, but the industry that developed to solve the problems of distributing physical printed books is a dinosaur. We have better ways of solving the problems of getting words to readers than printing presses and warehouses.
At this point, perhaps a better question to ask is: do you want to be on the side of the soon-to-be-obsolete printing industry or do you want to be on the side of the people who connect local communities with the world of information? We want you on our side, but we wont get to the future if we make choices only out of pure nostalgia for the way we used to do things.
I work at a library and we only allow an e-book to be checked out one at a time, its no different than checking a physical book. It not like we are purchasing one copy and allowing many people to check out one copy. If someone checks out an e-book no one else has access until the e-book is returned. There is no reason to be worried, the publishers are creating a situation no different than the Red Scare. All it is is a book in a different form. If you support publishers in this situation you will find yourself severely limited in self-publishing if ever choose to do so.
As a publisher I don't see the problem if it's true that ebooks are loaned out to one person at a time in the same way as a physical book. We would certainly be happy for any library to stock our books in this way. It does perhaps lose some sales, because some libraries let members join from any location in the UK and it's easy for them to check out ebooks. But that wouldn't put us off letting libraries stock our books, and in fact I would like them to.
I think it's a pity libraries can't charge a small fee for lending out ebooks. I know there are some questions about whether or not you can charge for book loans in a library, but audiobooks are rented out, and ebooks are treated as 'electronic services' when sold and taxed accordingly and not as books. So I would have thought libraries could raise funds by putting a small charge on loaning out ebooks. This could enable them to lend out books to more than one person at a time while paying a percentage to publishers/authors and keeping everybody happy.
why would people borrowing E-books be any different than those borrowing physical books? Most E-readers don't have Overdrive installed, so they have to connect it to a computer and get the file on there, sometimes it actually takes some computer knowledge to do it. If you think it's easier to borrow ebooks than to just buy them then you obviously don't own an e-reader.
Are you saying that people who read e-books don't take any pleasure in it? I know that I personally went from spending most of my time with the boob tube to spending it reading... both ebooks and physical ones since I got my e-reader. I get a great deal of pleasure from them. There's nothing like making that new purchase and seeing the new cover in your files and opening it up to the first page... I think the only comparison is... buying a new book (hmm...).
Yes. I love owning books. That is why I bought the e-reader. If I didn't I'd be on next week's episode of hoarders. I used to carry five books around in my bag. Hey, look! Now I can carry several hundred! I get to have the pleasure of not only owning a book, but I can buy it again and have it in e-form. Yay!
I have also spent about $300 this year on Barnes and Noble, not to mention how many books I've asked for as gifts. I had to drive two-and a half hours just to get to a B&N! I have exceeded the most I have ever spent on books this year, and the last time I had that much random money to spend I was in High-school and bought a graphic novel a month. That was only like $200 a year. I have never put so much money into a brick and mortar bookstore... or an online one. I have given money and books to my library, and I still go and borrow the physical books as well as the e-books.
Amazon has nothing to do with people resenting paying more for ebooks. You have the cause backwards. Amazon, unlike your big publishing houses know that they have to cater to what their customers want. I understand that they have the physical materials to pay for in a physical book, but I don't even buy those when they hit more than $10. Why would I pay the same for something that doesn't have the materials cost as it's flesh counterpart? The author is only getting part of the amount after that materials are paid for anyway. The reason so many authors are going to ebooks on indie websites is because they can get the same amount or more than they would if they went with a big publisher and real books.
Your assumption is that people who like ebooks are either cheap or thieves. That's the same feeling that publishers are expressing... and people are running to indie authors. We don't like spending our money and then being told that we didn't want to spend any money or that we steal everything we can. We just spent our money to get a legit copy of something!! Indie authors at least are happy to have us there reading their stuff.
By the way, At least five of the worst books I have read in the last two years were from big publishers, and I have yet to find an indie author I absolutely hated. The only book I have ever returned was from Harper Collins, and the last book I read was also from Harper Collins and had a typo on at least every tenth page. So much for quality in professional publishers. What, Harper couldn't afford a competent copy editor? If only that were the real problem with the book.
I think you aren't worried about books or libraries or the quality of literature. I think you're just worried about how many zeros will be on your check.
I'm an author, I am trying to do things the traditional way, but the last thing I'm going to do is ignore the reality of e-publishing. I want readers not dollars. If I get readers and I respect readers I will get the dollars. I want to give copies to my library... all forms of copies, and I don't care if I ever get a cent from them. Get me readers, get me people to look at my words and I will be happy. let the money fall where it may. I hope the big six decides this is the way to go, but they're made up of businessmen and stockholders, not authors and readers.
As a publisher I find people buy ebooks so long as the price is fair - and ours is a bit less than the price of the printed book. The competition from cheap and free books doesn't seem to stop people buying ebooks at a higher price if it's reasonable. It still costs less than a cup of coffee and a cake. I believe self published authors could charge a little bit more for their ebooks if they wanted to, and they would still sell. I have self published books recommended to me and buy them, even though the authors tell me they're free, as they're usually only free on one Amazon website. I wouldn't be put off reading a book if it costs $2 and has come highly recommended. I might download a book for free so as not to offend and not read it, though.
The other thing that has surprised me is that people prefer buying ebooks although we have print and ebooks. I noticed this with my own novel, and the ebook sales are much higher than the print book. This surprised me. I tried to work out why but then just asked - and the answer I was given was that it's so much easier to buy. People like the 'one click' option on Amazon with credit card details or paypal all set up in advance. People hate fiddly payment options so it's that one click. And it seems to be becoming easier to get the book onto the ereader too. You fancy a book you notice online, one click and you're reading it.
As a publisher I would like our books in the libraries. I know that lending out a book in libraries doesn't stop people buying it - the contrary is true. I put our books on the Kindle Lending Library which is only available in the US and even the people who could have borrowed them chose to buy them instead. Others who could see they were available for loan, but couldn't borrow them, bought them because they wanted them quickly. So that would happen if books were listed in a library and people found they were already out on loan. It all helps draw attention to a book, and also I want people to be able to read the books even if they can't afford to.
But I do believe libraries should be allowed to charge a small fee for lending out an ebook, just as they do with audiobooks. The libraries are at risk of closure and this could help them raise funds, while sweetening the arrangement for publishers and authors. It could be a very small charge, and perhaps then the books could be made available to more than one person at a time.
Most libraries only allow patrons who live in the community area and have library cards do e-lending. This is something that many librarians disagree with but I happen to support e-lending only to library card holders who have adresses in the specific county of that library and not outside of it. This is reasonable request from publishers if the do not want e-lending to go outside of the county library but they are not being reasonable they are not even willing to talk.
As a publisher I would be happy to have our ebooks loaned out in the ways described in this thread. As it's just one loan at a time, that could also be done beyond the county. I help out at Swiss Cottage Library with events and have been contacting them about ebooks - I know they usually let people from all over the UK borrow books in keeping with the regulations for libraries in the London Borough of Barnet. I see no problem with that.
But I do think libraries should be able to charge a small fee to lend out ebooks, both to help them with essential fundraising, and also they could expand their ebook lending service. It wouldn't have to be limited if there could be a fee, even very small. I know I'm repeating this but would like to know why it can't be done, or if people don't want to charge for ebooks in the same way they charge for audiobooks.
Somebody commented on one thread about elderly people particularly wanting to use their new Kindles in libraries and finding they couldn't. I didn't understand way. Is it that the books on loan aren't Kindle, or is it that it's too complicated and they need help, or is it the reluctance of some publishers to make their books available?
Perhaps libraries should stock ebooks by the excellent independent publishers in the UK while they wait for the major publishers to decide. Perhaps we could show them that it's not so terrible in practice.
If you can borrow a paper book, what possible reason would you have for buying it?
Books are often out on loan so people buy them, or they buy them because they want to keep a copy (I do this with my favourite poetry) or they buy them for the convenience of having them delivered to their home rather than having to go out to get them. The same would happen with ebooks when people try to borrow them from a library but find they are already on loan. People just don't want to wait. The cost of a book is also as low as a coffee and cake when you're out, so it's an expense people don't seem to mind. I'm surprised nobody has borrowed our books from the Kindle Lending Library, while my notices to let people know they could borrow them for free led to a big increase in people buying them. So I think publishers would find ebook sales increasing if their books were listed in library ebook catalogues.
I can't tell you how many times I have purchased books based on what I got from the library. I find an author I like, and don't want to wait for books to be returned or for a library to buy the latest, so I buy the author's other titles. I find a book I really like and buy the book, though I have already read the copy I borrowed from the library. I have done the same, many times over, with my ereader and eBooks.
Publishers and authors alike are forgetting how libraries provide free advertising for their works. It continues to sadden me that people, publishers in particular, only see the dollar sign and assume libraries don't help in the publishers riches. The libraries may not have as much money as the publishers do in this battle over econtent, but they and their patrons have a very large voice. Publishers, and evidently some authors, should heed that.
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