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Originally Posted by rkomar
Yes. It's possible that more library loans mean fewer sales. It seems that some publishers are looking at it that way. They must be somewhat conflicted over getting more money from Overdrive and not injecting enough "friction" in the borrowing process. Paying money to get more library loans doesn't strike me as something the publishers would go for.
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True. But perhaps visibility is. If there are huge waiting lists on an ebook there will be a certain percentage of people who decide to buy that ebook or a paper copy of it. It must be a huge temptation to some to have a book you really want to read effectively held up before your eyes every time you visit Overdrive. And if they do get you at a weak moment, a purchase is only a click or two away.
I doubt the publishers concerned really know themselves how library ebooks impact and the optimum strategy. Some are quite obviously experimenting. Amazon seems to be dealing with the matter by simply not making their ebooks available to libraries at all. Amazon also showed no interest in acquiring Overdrive or preventing it being acquired by Rakuten. To me this speaks volumes. Whilst I doubt the larger publishers will abandon libraries, I expect they will seek to profit more from them by limiting the number of lends and/or imposing expiry dates and of course charging very high prices. If, as I expect, Indies become increasingly prominent and libraries look for access to these titles, how will Amazon react? We certainly live in interesting times.