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As little as I like it, I can't blame them for trying the experiment. If I was in their position I would certainly want to know what if anything library sales were costing me in terms of lost sales revenue. No doubt there will be a few extra sales from people who just can't wait, and some of these will no doubt choose paper books, especially if those paper books are discounted. Having said that I agree with cfrizz in her above post when she says of ebooks "there are tons of choices with reasonable prices". And then, of course, there is the proverbial elephant in the room. Not all of those who fall into the must read now category are going to pay for a copy. There will certainly be some who, perhaps even with some reluctance, hoist the Jolly Roger, denying the publisher any revenue at all and the author the pittance they would have received in royalties. Some of these lost customers may have even purchased the ebook had it been available at a price they considered reasonable.
I expect the experiment will likely show that early ebook availability in libraries has little impact on initial sales, but this is nothing more than an educated guess on my part. It will be interesting to see what happens, if indeed the results are ultimately shared publicly.
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