Tor delays new-release sales to library ebook supplier Overdrive

[AnemicOak]

Librarians Question Tor’s E-book Embargo

Librarians have been looking at the data and they say Macmillan’s recent claim that library e-book lending is having a “direct and adverse” impact on science fiction publisher Tor’s retail e-book sales appears to be more fiction than science.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...k-embargo.html

[Paperbackstash]

Now announced: Penguin Random House Change Library Lending Terms
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...ook-terms.html

[leebase]

The "no library has Tor books, and the few we have aren't read by anybody" defense. Really? You want the big publishers to do their experiment on the most in demand books that the libraries will really feel if time boxed?

There is no public need for genre fiction. Past that, there is no public need for books to be delivered in electronic format. Both libraries and book publishers are in the same boat as to getting people to read anything at all.

Forever we accepted the time boxing of first release hard back books at higher prices. Then trade books for less. Then finally mass market paperback editions. None of this ever had anything to do other than allowing the publishers to maximize their revenue based on those most interested in a book's willingness to pay more to read earlier.

It was Amazon's putting out the entire NYT's best seller list of ebooks for $9.99 and NOT time boxed for the publisher to maximize their opportunities that started this whole rigmarole to begin with.

eBooks completely do away with scarcity and damage. There is no such thing as a "used ebook". There is no such thing as being out of stock on an ebook.

Whether it's ultimately good business or not....well, that's for the publishers to work out and decide.

For the reader. If you want to read NOW....you pay the NOW price. There are far more choices for reading at ANY price point than anyone could actually read in their lifetime.

Now if you are picky, and want to read a particular author's particular book....then you either pay the price or you wait.

As someone who's occasionally tried to read a popular book from the library....you still have to wait as they never buy the rights to enough copies to satisfy initial demand. That initial demand will bring in the most a particular book will ever bring in.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Now announced: Penguin Random House Change Library Lending Terms
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...ook-terms.html

This doesn't sound too good to me. Looks like a perpetual license used to cost $65. Now they'll get a two year license for $55. This may represent an overall savings for the library - seems hard to believe to me, but I don't know the dynamics of library borrowing. But any such savings would come at the expense of customer satisfaction I'd think. I read a LOT of ebooks that are over two years old. Most of what I read is well beyond that actually. So does this mean that over the years, older ebooks may become scarce at libraries? The article does mention that existing perpetual license ebooks will still be honored. But it seems a reasonable conclusion that libraries might not be interested in obtaining older ebooks anymore. That would be a real shame when a customer discovers a current series they want to read, but the initial books of the series are two+ years old and possibly gone from the library now.

This new pricing model sounds like a real boon for publishers and a really raw deal for libraries (once libraries figure out that it's not just the new books that patrons want). But by the time the libraries figure it out, the new pricing model will be firmly entrenched and there may be no way of going back.

If I were a library, I'd ask for "$55 for a two year license, extendable to a lifetime license at anytime in the future, even after the two years is up, for an additional $10". I'm afraid that without a fallback like this, libraries may be cutting their own throats financially.

[haertig]

I assume that other publishers already have non-lifetime licenses. I hate it when I search for a book, it pops up in the main Overdrive site as being available at my library, but when I go to my actual library site it shows "0 of 0 copies available". I assume that is because a license has expired. Oddly enough, you can still put a hold on a "0 of 0 copies available" ebook. Other times I find something in the main Overdrive site showing for my library, but at the library site there is not a "borrow" or "hold" button, but instead a "recommend" button. This kind of behavior makes main Overdrive site searches less useful than they could be.