[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Although these imprints (and many others) technically fall under HarperCollins, unless the ebook explicit lists the publisher as "HarperCollins", it usually doesn't follow the same practice.

Some inside info?/Source? It was publicized by Harper when they bought Harlequin (& as a result also Carina) that all of those imprints would go to the 26 checkout model. Avon has used it since Harper introduced it years ago. Same with imprints from other big pubs with similar restrictions.

Not sure about titles big 5's do for other pubs like where Penguin Random House Publisher Services distributes Kensington stuff (Zebra, Kensington, eKensington, Lyrical, etc.). I think Kensington sets their own library terms, but not sure.

There are also vastly more Romances published under non–Big 5 publishers than from the Big 5, and all of those are perpetual licenses.

Absolutely, but the Big 5 have a lot of the really popular stuff that libraries buy in their catalogs. No doubt the Romance genre has more available this way than most/all other genres.

The extra price isn't really a big deal, as those publishers have exactly that same practice for physical books, which will eventually wear out, and the ebook won't.

Libraries generally get paper books at a discount (up to around 40%), although not always, and while there is sometimes a premium over retail (like for library editions) it's not at three to four times the retail list price. While pBooks do wear out libraries also will rebind/repair them where possible. Lots of popular books have anywhere from dozens to over a hundred checkouts and are still on shelves.

Also, most of the non–Big 5 have a much more reasonable price structure.

Absolutely.