Quote:
Originally Posted by Adele Ward
Ebooks are in their infancy and I don't believe Amazon can keep this position of dominance. We need to be able to sell across more websites, and bookshops actually need to be able to offer online selling of ebooks if they are to survive. So we're all discussing this.
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Now there is a thought. You need a lot of bookshops that sells online, and a lot of people visit. What about libraries?
Most libraries offer their service for free for residents (at least here in the us). There is a lot of people on MR that say they use the library a lot to borrow ebooks. That should be representative for a lot more people than just the ones that frequent MR. The Library should have a deal with publishers that they are allowed to lend the ebooks, but also sell them at a certain publisher set price. If someone does not want to wait for the waitinglist, or simply chooses to buy the book anyway after already having borrowed it before and deciding that it would be nice to have for reading again later. The Library will already have the mechanism set up that is necessary to sell ebooks - accepting payment would not be hard to add.
Now I am not sure if a public library has to operate as non-profit, but the money they make on sales could easily be blown by buying more pbooks for the library or replacing old books with newer editions ....
Edit: Of course the sale should be limited to residents that are allowed to borrow in the first place.