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Old 09-17-2019, 06:06 AM   #51
murraypaul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady View Post
And why is there now apparently a special set of rules for e-books? Wouldn't the same logic apply to hardcover books? Why isn't Macmillan telling libraries they can have only one copy of a hardcover for the first eight weeks?
I'm sure if they could, they would.
But with pBooks, a library can just buy the books it wants from any distributor, the same as a bookstore can.
With eBooks, they can't do that, so the publisher has the ability to block purchases.

My take:
a) For any given book, having it available at libraries will (probably, but unprovably) reduce sales for that book, and reduce author and publisher profits.
b) That is true regardless of whether it is a pBook or an eBook.
c) That has always been considered an acceptable trade-off for the public good that libraries provide.
d) Publishers and some authors may disagree with that
e) Publishers now have the ability to block sales to libraries, which didn't exist before.
f) Some/many countries have systems in place to directly pay authors whenever their books are borrowed from libraries, which can provide a small but long-tail income which goes directly to the author. For some authors this may more than offset the lost sales.
g) Whether the availability of books in general at libraries is positive for long-term author and publisher profits, by encouraging more readers, is probably impossible to prove one way or the other.

Last edited by murraypaul; 09-17-2019 at 06:09 AM.
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