Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Most front line people in the publishing industry (i.e. the people who do the day to day work of working with books and authors, rather than the back office people) are in the industry because they love books. Most don't get paid all that much. I've never really understood the hatred that some here have for publishers.
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I presume that I am one person referred to by the words "some here". Yes, I do dislike the Big 5 for reasons I have gone into in the past. However, I don't think my dislike quite extends to the level of hatred. I don't, of course, extend my dislike to the many wonderful people who work for publishers, who are often exploited almost as much as many of their authors (and their Australian readers).
Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
I think also more fundamentally eBooks and pBooks are not always direct competitors. For some people they are equivalent, but there are those who want to read a pBook, not an eBook, and vice-versa.
Whereas a library eBook and a purchased eBook are direct competitors. It makes very little difference whether you are downloading it from Overdrive or from Amazon.
So it is logical that eBook vs pBook windowing and eBook vs eBook windowing might have different outcomes.
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This is very much the case. For me a pbook is now a last resort. Sadly, I know a number of older people who would really benefit from using an e-reader, but stick to PBooks or just give up reading.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
I strongly sympathize with the libraries, but...
- There's no law that says publishers have to sell to libraries or be nice to them.
- There's no law that days libraries have to buy from all publishers or put up with their every whim.
- Whining about unfair treatment and handwringing has never been a good negotiating tactic.
- There is no shortage of publishers out there and Overdrive has deals to distribute a lot more. Some are even library-friendly. Showing some spine and taking their business elsewhere might be more effective.
Deeds, not words.
$0.02
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You are of course correct, except perhaps for your insistence on Deeds. My concern is, as I posted earlier, that this may in fact play into the publishers hands. As I also posted earlier, I'm simply not convinced that Publishers need or want their books in libraries. The primary reason would, I presume, be sales revenue from libraries. I'm not sure just how significant such sales are. This may well differ from publisher to publisher. Whilst there are no doubt some other benefits for publishers in discovery, promotional opportunities and simply good will, these are nebulous things which I have not seen quantified. They may be hugely valuable or so minimal as to not further justify sales to libraries.
It will come down to cold hard dollars. With windowing, if they pick up significantly more sales during the windowing period and libraries still buy the books, they win. If libraries don't then buy the books, they still win if the sales during the windowing period make up for the loss in library sales. If libraries boycott, it is a straight out question of whether increased sales make up for lost library sales. In all scenarios of course publishers do need to factor in the value of the other benefits from library sales.