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I'm seeing a lot of "damned if they do, damned if they don't." On the one hand, we've got people harumphing loudly about how this is unacceptable because e-books don't wear out so they should never, ever expire and they should certainly cost less than paper books. All kind of foot stamping because the BPHs just "don't get" this new technology and want to try to apply their outmoded thinking to it. They have to embrace the new paradigm and stop thinking like they're selling paper books. Damned.
Then we've got much tsking and tutting because they want to change the way they make their books available. Sell the right to libraries to distribute the book for a certain number of borrowings or a certain time and allow a frictionless borrowing experience to users. How dare they! Damned again.
The industry certainly needs to find new ways to do business. This deal, however, doesn't seem terribly bad. Oh, sure, some changes could be made. Allow libraries to buy multiple copies of bestsellers under this model and, after the book has been out for two years, let them buy a copy that will last 120 borrowings with no expiration date or a 10 year limit or something. There's a constructive idea right there.
Do you know what's not constructive? Screaming "Don't ever buy their books if they cost more than a dollar and have any limits on borrowings or any expiration dates."
Publishing is a business. They want to make money. The services that publishers provide are useful: they wade through slush piles, they provide editorial guidance, they produce and market the material in a saleable form. How much that is worth is certainly under discussion in the world of publishing and should be. However, it is worth something. The value in a paper book is not in the paper. That's worth a couple of bucks. Amazon and other big chains have been discounting paper books so long that many people have come to view it as their right to have every book they want for very little money. Now they want e-books for practically nothing. Fine! You don't want to pay those involved in producing these books, then go pirate them. It's easy enough to do. Just go do it and shut up. Then, when all the publishers have gone bust, and we're all up to our ears in a self-published sea of bad vampire fiction, 50 Shades knock-offs, derivative high-fantasy, and all other manner of crimes against literature, we'll know who to thank.
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