Amazon Withholding Books From Libraries

[Paperbackstash]

I follow Amazon publishing houses on my book spreadsheet with other publishing houses

What I have for Amazon Publishing is

47North (Sci-fi, Horror, Fantasy)
Amazon Digital Services is generally exclusive or self-pubbed
Amazon Original Stories is an Amazon feature and usually freebies with KU or other services, so I get not sharing this to libraries
Amazon Publishing (General Fiction)
Amazon Crossing (many of their translated works)
Amazon Encore
Grand Harbor Press (Amazon Inspirational)
Jet City Comics (Amazon's Comic and Graphic novel Line)
Lake Union (Amazon's Book Club and General Fiction Line)
Little A (Amazon Lit Fiction and Nonfiction Line)
Montlake (Amazon's Romance Publishing house line)
SkyScape (Amazon's Teen and YA Line)
Thomas & Mercer (Amazon's mystery and true crime imprint)
Topple Books (Amazon Curator)
Two Lions (Amazon's Children Line)
Waterfall Press ( Amazon Christian Line)


So, some of these imprints do produce fiction which make take off enough for library interest, but stuff produced for KU perks or first reads it makes sense to keep in house only as program subscription incentives

[John F]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

I follow Amazon publishing houses on my book spreadsheet with other publishing houses

What I have for Amazon Publishing is

47North (Sci-fi, Horror, Fantasy)
Amazon Digital Services is generally exclusive or self-pubbed
Amazon Original Stories is an Amazon feature and usually freebies with KU or other services, so I get not sharing this to libraries
Amazon Publishing (General Fiction)
Amazon Crossing (many of their translated works)
Amazon Encore
Grand Harbor Press (Amazon Inspirational)
Jet City Comics (Amazon's Comic and Graphic novel Line)
Lake Union (Amazon's Book Club and General Fiction Line)
Little A (Amazon Lit Fiction and Nonfiction Line)
Montlake (Amazon's Romance Publishing house line)
SkyScape (Amazon's Teen and YA Line)
Thomas & Mercer (Amazon's mystery and true crime imprint)
Topple Books (Amazon Curator)
Two Lions (Amazon's Children Line)
Waterfall Press ( Amazon Christian Line)


So, some of these imprints do produce fiction which make take off enough for library interest, but stuff produced for KU perks or first reads it makes sense to keep in house only as program subscription incentives

How many non-Amazon published books do you have on your list?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

I follow Amazon publishing houses on my book spreadsheet with other publishing houses

What I have for Amazon Publishing is

47North (Sci-fi, Horror, Fantasy)
Amazon Digital Services is generally exclusive or self-pubbed
Amazon Original Stories is an Amazon feature and usually freebies with KU or other services, so I get not sharing this to libraries
Amazon Publishing (General Fiction)
Amazon Crossing (many of their translated works)
Amazon Encore
Grand Harbor Press (Amazon Inspirational)
Jet City Comics (Amazon's Comic and Graphic novel Line)
Lake Union (Amazon's Book Club and General Fiction Line)
Little A (Amazon Lit Fiction and Nonfiction Line)
Montlake (Amazon's Romance Publishing house line)
SkyScape (Amazon's Teen and YA Line)
Thomas & Mercer (Amazon's mystery and true crime imprint)
Topple Books (Amazon Curator)
Two Lions (Amazon's Children Line)
Waterfall Press ( Amazon Christian Line)


So, some of these imprints do produce fiction which make take off enough for library interest, but stuff produced for KU perks or first reads it makes sense to keep in house only as program subscription incentives

Thanks for this list!

I’m not sure you would consider this an imprint, but ‘AmazonClassics’ are editions of Public Domain titles, and they are available in all formats (except ePub).

[hollowpoint]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There is a great way to get back at Amazon and lose Kindle sales in a rather big way. Overdrive can drop Kindle ebooks and just have ePub. That would boost sales for Kobo and B&N and lose sales for Kindle when Kindles no longer work with Overdrive.

I'm in favor of that. I'd love to see Amazon get taken down. Overdrive has helped Amazon in a big way. But Amazon refuses to help Overdrive. So (IMHO), screw you Amazon.

Best idea I've heard this year.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, that's not quite correct. For Readers that supports downloading ePub using the ACSM file you can download eBooks from RBDigitil.

Okay. I have RBDigital at my library, but they only provide magazines here. Overdrive is what they use for the "heavy lifting."

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Well, it's not like you can't go to the library and check out the paper copy. Yea, I know it's so 20th century, but it's a perfectly acceptable solution if you want to read the book. There is an old saying beggers can't be choosers. If you aren't the one paying, then you take what's available.

Yep. My point was that there is still a need for libraries. Not everyone has the ability to just buy books.

[ottdmk]

The interesting thing to me is that Amazon is, in this case, making the Big 5 look good. Although I think their terms for ebook licensing to libraries are largely a joke, the Big 5 will sell ebook licenses to libraries. Amazon, on the other hand, simply will not. As a big believer in libraries making as much reading material available to as many who want to read as possible, this is not something I approve of.

The contrast is fascinating. Amazon, the leader in trying to lower the perceived value of books, can't come to terms with libraries that can, (and do, as they have to) spend outragous prices for what is often a temporary license to loan an ebook.

[Quoth]

No. Amazon isn't "the leader in trying to lower the perceived value of books". They are simply building a monopoly. They have their OWN lending system that on certain KDP royalty settings you can't opt out of.

There are regulations that mysteriously don't get applied to International Corporations, especially ones using the internet, which is simply a modern form of the mail order catalogue, classified pages of the paper or phone up ordering.
AirBnB is simply a rental listing company
Uber is just a taxi company
Deliveroo is simply local deliveries
Amazon is simply mail order.
Google and Facebook are advertising agencies leveraging illegally obtained personal data. The USA passed a law long before the internet forbidding Banks to use the information on Cheques (Checks) other than to pay them. They were going to monetise the metadata and sell it to advertisers. So Google and Facebook are breaking the spirit of that law.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by John F

How many non-Amazon published books do you have on your list?

Sorry, which list? If you mean the publisher list, quite a bit. Amazon has the largest publishing house list tied to one company with how I have it set up, but as you know publishing houses keep getting absorbed and changing, so I'm sure a few of the ones on my list were part of different houses originally. I find it interesting but am behind on keeping up with it. I read a lot of Kindle Unlimited and E-books from Amazon, so keep running into them with these Amazon imprints.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Sorry, which list? If you mean the publisher list, quite a bit. Amazon has the largest publishing house list tied to one company with how I have it set up, but as you know publishing houses keep getting absorbed and changing, so I'm sure a few of the ones on my list were part of different houses originally. I find it interesting but am behind on keeping up with it. I read a lot of Kindle Unlimited and E-books from Amazon, so keep running into them with these Amazon imprints.

I was trying to get at how many Amazon published books you have vs non-Amazon published books.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by John F

I was trying to get at how many Amazon published books you have vs non-Amazon published books.

The main spreadsheet I use tracks all books I read, not to-be-read in general. I do have a TBR spreadsheet but it's far from complete, so cannot tell with all books, but for those as I read and finish them, it's not a very high amount.

I need to brush up on some of the spreadsheet formulas, but zero for all the imprints except -

47North (Sci-fi, Horror, Fantasy) - 5 books
Amazon Digital Services - 39 (can be self published with using the format, not as a publishing imprint)
Amazon Crossing - 2
Lake Union - 1
Thomas & Mercer - 3
Two Lions - 2

So it's low, the total amount where I put something in the publisher category for a book log is out of 1,632 book records. I'd say the percent is under 1%

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm in favor of that. I'd love to see Amazon get taken down. Overdrive has helped Amazon in a big way. But Amazon refuses to help Overdrive. So (IMHO), screw you Amazon.

The problem is that we wouldn't only have "taken down" Amazon. We'd also have hurt millions of people who own Kindles and bought their libraries from Amazon. I probably shouldn't discuss it here, but perhaps going after Amazon's anti-competitive practices would force the company to be more reasonable about library pricing and help Kindle owners in the long run. Once more people are able to leave their houses and resume public life, they can also try boycotting Amazon publicly until the company changes this policy. Libraries are floundering in my state and they certainly need our help.

[CathyA]

Update on Amazon / DPLA agreement: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...libraries.html

DPLA officials said that lending will begin sometime this summer, with Amazon Publishing content to be made available for license via the DPLA Exchange, the DPLA's not-for-profit, "library-centered" platform, and accessible to readers via the SimplyE app, a free, open source library e-reader app developed by the New York Public Library and used by DPLA. Library users will not have to go through their Amazon accounts to access Amazon Publishing titles via the DPLA, and DPLA officials confirmed that, as with other publishers DPLA works with, Amazon will not receive any patron data.
...
The agreement is also a major coup for SimplyE and the Digital Public Library of America’s growing e-book platform, the DPLA Exchange. After all, to license Amazon Publishing titles libraries will need to use the DPLA exchange and patrons must deploy the SimplyE app to access them. It is not clear whether or how soon Amazon Publishing will work other vendors in the library e-book market, but Michele Kimpton, director of business development and senior strategist for the Digital Public Library of America, told PW last year that the deal was not being negotiated or designed to function as some kind of DPLA exclusive.

[mitford13]

Originally Posted by CathyA

Update on Amazon / DPLA agreement: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...libraries.html

Very interesting, thanks for the update! Also interesting that they highlight that Amazon won’t receive patron data. It’s always irked me a bit that my public library loans go through Amazon when I use Kindle, though I appreciate it’s a trade I make for the convenience. IIRC, the issue of whose servers would be used was a big stumbling block back when Overdrive and Amazon were negotiating in 2011? (ish...too lazy to go check dates )

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Very interesting, thanks for the update! Also interesting that they highlight that Amazon won’t receive patron data. It’s always irked me a bit that my public library loans go through Amazon when I use Kindle, though I appreciate it’s a trade I make for the convenience. IIRC, the issue of whose servers would be used was a big stumbling block back when Overdrive and Amazon were negotiating in 2011? (ish...too lazy to go check dates )

I think the Overdrive — Amazon implementation is great, and for my purposes, much better than for other ecosystems.

What strikes me as ironic is that per the agreement, you will not be able to borrow these books and read them on your Kindle (without a Kindle Unlimited subscription, anyway). It’s not even clear the reading app will be available for Fire tablet in Amazon AppStore.