OverDrive has just announced that as of May 8th, the entire digital catalog of Hachette titles will be available for public libraries to buy. The model will be one ”copy”/one user with no special restrictions. That means there will be no metering or expiration to access. Thanks to Jim for forwarding the official news release from OverDrive.
According to Publisher’s Weekly, 3M will also have access to the catalog, but they have not yet confirmed this with us.
Hachette is the parent publisher of Little, Brown and Company and Grand Central Publishing, so this is thrilling news indeed.
Materials Mix: Investigating Trends in Materials Budgets and Circulation
February 21, 2013
This week, Library Journal’s Barbara Hoffert analyzes trends in circulation and budgets of public libraries. This is a survey of 175 libraries who responded to questions sent out to Library Journal subscribers. Here is the link:
Materials Mix: Investigating Trends in Materials Budgets and Circulation.
Among those reporting, 65% of circulation was fiction vs non-ficion. The top fiction genres were mystery, general, romance, and thriller; while non-fiction’s most popular subject areas were cooking, health, how-to, and arts/crafts. No big surprises there.
More revealing, perhaps, are the discussions of eBooks, self-publishing, apps, and social media marketing opportunities. One particularly interesting fact: eBook circulation was still only 3% of the total but grew close to 70% among libraries serving over 250,000 residents.
This information paints a panoramic backdrop against which we can highlight our own data from Collection HQ and other sources.
e-book prices special edition
September 26, 2012
Maybe the Little Professor could help…
Unnoticed by me, last week OverDrive released an update on Hachette e-book pricing announcing that they had miscalculated the percentage on increases. Rather than a 220 percent increase as initially reported HBG will be increasing their pricing by 104 percent.
We’ll do it but not because you TOLD us to it
Publishers Weekly is reporting that Macmillan has announced that they are close to finalizing the details of a pilot project that would make their e-books available to libraries.
“We have been working hard to develop an e-book lending model that works for all parties, as we value the libraries and the role they play in the reading community,” reads a statement provided to PW. “We are currently finalizing the details of our pilot program and will be announcing it when we are ready, and not in reaction to a demand.”
By demand they probably mean this.
posted by jim
e-book prices
September 14, 2012
Question: How much does a library e-book cost?
- About the same as a consumer e-book from Amazon or B & N around $10 bucks
- A little bit more because it’s the library around the cost of a hardback book $30 bucks
- Around the cost of buying a concert or sporting event ticket from a scalper or some other back alley guy who can charge pretty much any amount they want because they’ve got you over a barrel.
I’ll bet most people who don’t work at the library would choose the first answer. Library folks might choose the second more often than not. And a few would choose the 3rd option because otherwise what would be the point of writing this post.
So which one is the right answer?
All of them.
How is this possible? Because when it comes to digital copies of their titles publishers tend to price things all over the map. And of course pricing can change at the drop of a hat. Yesterday, OverDrive announced that Hachette Book Group will be changing it’s pricing model.
“Hachette will be raising its eBook prices on October 1, 2012 on their currently available eBook catalog (~3,500 eBook titles with release dates of April 2010 and earlier). On average prices will increase 220%. “
Let’s look at an example.
What Hachette and Barnes & Noble charge you and me $8.99
What Hachette and OverDrive charge libraries today $27.99
What Hachette and OverDrive will charge libraries after September 30th $89.99
What shouldn’t be lost in all of this is that other e-book vendors are going to charge exactly the same or about the same price as OverDrive does for Hachette titles. We buy all of our e-books from OverDrive so I can’t verify that by looking elsewhere. And there are plenty of other publishers who aren’t charging these kinds of prices, so I don’t want to paint all e-book publishers with the same brush. Nor should Mr. Patterson take the heat for what his publisher decides to charge libraries.
So, we’re curious what do you think about prices in general? And also what should libraries do?
A Question of (Anti) Trust
March 12, 2012
A big story right now in the publishing world is a threatened Justice Department lawsuit against Apple and five of the “big six” publishers (namely, Hachette, MacMillan, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and HarperCollins, with Random House not included). This follows on a class action submitted by a Seattle law firm last year. The allegation is price fixing through the adoption of the agency model for ebooks, whereby Apple or other distributors take a 30% cut and allow publishers to set retail prices, thereby undermining the wholesale discount pricing model favored by…Amazon for instance. It is against the law for large providers to collude to keep prices artificially high for consumers.
In this case, though, the collusion could be defensive and prompted by competition from Amazon’s popular Kindle and Amazon’s claimed ability to price low enough to stifle competitors, which could also be a potentially illegal practice if it became “predatory pricing” (though that seems difficult to prove under US law). The charge of predation comes periodically from booksellers, publishers, and others.
There is a lot of interesting dispute about pricing models and which help and hurt what suppliers and consumers.
Price-fixing versus cut rate prices from one aggressive vendor? For whom should consumers really root? It may be a case of Mothra vs. Godzilla. Take your pick.
Posted by Darren
Harry Potter e-books and e-audiobooks coming April 30th.
February 27, 2012
Press Release via: Digital Book World
Harry Potter eBooks to be distributed to Public and School Libraries through OverDrive
Bestselling series available for digital library lending for first time
(London, UK) – February 27, 2012 – Pottermore, the online experience and home of the Harry Potter eBooks created by J.K. Rowling and partnered by Sony, announced today it has entered into an exclusive worldwide eBook and digital audiobook distribution agreement with OverDrive for public and school libraries. Under the terms of the agreement, OverDrive, a leading global distributor of eBooks and digital audiobooks, will manage hosting and digital fulfillment for libraries for the Harry Potter collection of eBooks and digital audiobooks in English and more than 20 other languages to OverDrive’s growing network of over 18,000 public and school libraries worldwide.
Through local public library and school catalogues, OverDrive’s digital book lending service will promote to new and returning readers a popular way to access the official Harry Potter eBooks and digital audiobooks. The Harry Potter series has sold over 400 million copies worldwide and is widely credited with immersing an entire generation of young readers into books and reading. With this agreement, the seven books in the series will be available in digital formats for the first time for lending from public and school libraries.
Charlie Redmayne, Pottermore CEO, said:
“We are keen to support public and school libraries, and OverDrive, as one of the leading suppliers in this market, provides us with a global network that helps us achieve this, as well as encouraging the discovery of these amazing books across the world.”
OverDrive CEO and President Steve Potash said:
“J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is a once-a-lifetime phenomenon and has been an extremely significant catalyst for reading and literacy for current and future generations. We are honoured to bring this beloved storytelling experience digitally to public and school libraries worldwide.”
In keeping with Harry Potter’s international appeal, OverDrive will provide schools and libraries the ability to offer the official eBooks and digital audiobooks in many different languages – initially English, French, Italian, German and Spanish – with more languages to follow.
Readers will have immediate access to eBooks and digital audiobooks on a wide range of popular computers and reading devices including PC, Mac®, eReaders, tablets and smartphones. Supported devices include Sony® Reader, Kindle® (US only), NOOK™, iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phones and tablets, BlackBerry®, and Windows® Phone. In addition to the eBook collection, the complete digital audiobooks will be made available for digital borrowing in the MP3 file format on listening devices such as computers, smartphones and iPod®.
To find a participating library or school in the OverDrive network, visit http://search.overdrive.com.
About OverDrive
OverDrive is a leading multichannel digital distributor of eBooks, digital audiobooks, music and video. We deliver secure management, DRM protection, and download fulfillment services for hundreds of publishers and thousands of libraries, schools, and retailers, serving millions of end users. OverDrive has been named to the EContent 100 as a company that matters most in the digital content industry. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, OH. http://www.overdrive.com
About Pottermore
Pottermore is a unique online reading experience from J.K. Rowling, built around the Harry Potter books. Share and participate in the stories, showcase your own Potter-related creativity, and discover additional information about the world of Harry Potter from the author herself. The site allows visitors to experience and explore the first Harry Potter story, with subsequent stories unveiled over time. Pottermore is available to users in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Castilian). http://www.pottermore.com
posted by jim
Penguin ebook and audiobook news
February 9, 2012
This post has been updated with new information regarding Penguin e-books and e-audiobooks as of today.
This afternoon I received the following information from OverDrive regarding Penguin e-books and e-audiobooks.
Dear Library Partner,
Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012), Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and download audiobooks for library purchase. Additionally, Penguin eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer then transferred to the device over USB. For library patrons, this means Penguin eBooks will no longer be available for over-the-air delivery to Kindle devices or to Kindle apps.
We are continuing to talk to Penguin about their future plans for eBook and digital audiobook availability for library lending.
If you have any questions, please contact Penguin (Erica Glass, Erica.glass@us.penguingroup.com). OverDrive has no additional information to share at this time.
Regards,
OverDrive’s Library Partner Services team
Since this notice is very short and has implications for the Library District, I’ll save the editorial comments and speculation for another time. Reading this it would be easy to make the assumption that the big news is cessation of over the air delivery of Kindle devices or apps. Here’s my best attempt to summarize the statement and it’s impact both short and long term.
Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012), Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and download audiobooks for library purchase.
Impact: This will affect hold queues on our e-book and e-audiobook collection since we cannot purchase additional copies of this material.
UPDATE:
Penguin has completely suspended sale of both e-books and e-audiobooks to libraries. As of today all of the ebook and e-audiobook hold queues are well within line with our 5 to 1 holds to copy ratio, so we may not see notable delays in wait times for our customers in the short term.
Additionally, Penguin eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer then transferred to the device over USB. For library patrons, this means Penguin eBooks will no longer be available for over-the-air delivery to Kindle devices or to Kindle apps.
Impact: This affects Kindle devices but also Kindle apps, so if a customer uses a Kindle app on their mobile device (iPhone, iPad) they will now have to connect that device to a computer and download the book.
This announcement is effective tomorrow, so in the interest of communicating this as widely as possible, I’ve sent this same information via email
posted by jim.
How e-books are selected at the library
December 28, 2011
Today, I responded to a customer question about how e-books are selected here at the library, and why we don’t allow RINCs for this material. Since many of you may be asked similar questions by customers I’m copying the essence of the text of my response below (with just a wee bit ‘o editing).
We select e-books throughout the year working from lists provided by OverDrive. The collection is a mix of bestsellers and backlist titles from popular authors. Publishers consider the library market to be entirely separate from the consumer market and so they require that libraries have measures in place to prevent illegal copying of their material. OverDrive negotiates these contracts with publishers and provides mechanisms to ensure that material cannot be pirated. Amazon, though they have recently begun to partner with OverDrive so that Kindle users can access public library ebooks on their devices does not sell ebooks to public libraries. Amazon’s primary goal is to sell goods to consumers. They are not interested in selling materials to public libraries.
As I mentioned above, publishers see the library market as very different from the consumer market and this has an impact on what is available for us to purchase. Some publishers won’t sell e-books to libraries at all; others will sell but won’t release their most recent titles to libraries until some time has passed. Titles with a delayed release date are said to have been embargoed. Two of the largest publishers Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan don’t sell to libraries at all. This can cause confusion about how the library purchases e-books, because a customer can see that Stephen King’s latest bestseller 11/22/’63 is available for sale as an e-book on either Amazon, or Barnes & Noble but not available at the library as an e-book. Other bestselling titles are available immediately, or they have an embargo and later get added to the collection, so as a customer from the outside looking in it may appear that the library e-book collection isn’t as responsive to customer demand as it is with the physical collection.
Things become even messier when we talk about backlist titles for authors. When a publisher releases a new title by an author they typically will release some but not all of an author’s backlist. So when a mystery author releases volume 6 in their detective series, the publishing house might release volumes 1, 2, 3, and 5 but not volume 4 in the series. Why this happens and how they make decisions about what volumes to release is something that constantly puzzles librarians.
We currently do not accept RINCs for digital materials such as e-books, because of this separation of consumer and library markets by publishers, and the unpredictability that this creates in how our collections are created. The audiobook, music, and film publishing markets are all equally unpredictable when it comes to what consumer and libraries can purchase.
For those not in the know, a RINC is short for Request for an Item Not in the Catalog. Library customers can submit RINCs for books and media, and if the title is purchased, a hold is placed for the customer. If a RINC is rejected the customer gets an email notifying them.
posted by jim
Print Plummeting?
September 13, 2011
Last night I did something almost unheard of these days: I walked into an independent book store and bought a hardcover book at honest to goodness full retail price topped off with Washington sales tax and everything. It has been a while, but this sanctimonious sucker feels good about supporting a quaint community bookstore with personally handwritten bookmarks on the shelves. I don’t remember my last new book purchase before that (probably in an airport). I have to admit I got into the habit of downloading new books on my phone courtesy of Amazon One Click whenever I found myself painfully low on a library queue. (A quick check of OverDrive often pays, too, though. This week I scored Caleb’s Crossing with no wait and it’s a great timekiller stand by). Apparently I’m not alone in downloading the must have titles, and print sales are really sliding compared to ebooks. It isn’t a gradual plane of descent either but a true plunge, 64% in June for trade paper! This situation favors online retailers, naturally. By the end of 2010, the store retailer’s share of the market had dropped to 40%, and I’m sure it will be much lower now after Border’s demise. But are consumers really in love with ebooks as such or is it just the current price difference? We seem to experience stronger than ever demand for print books when the additional monetary cost is zero. Hm.
E content continues to outsell print
July 21, 2011
From today’s Publisher’s Weekly:
All major adult print segments–hardcover, paperback and mass market–showed a decline in sales in May, according to the AAP’s monthly sales report. While e-books showed a steep uptick of 146.9% for the month, bringing in $73.4 million in sales, adult hardcovers dropped 38.2%, adult paperbacks dropped 14.3%, and adult mass market fell 39.4%. For the calendar year, e-books brought in $389.7 million in sales, a 160.1% climb over the same period 2010.
Are print sales down because libraries are the suppliers?
posted by Nancy, who is working on a big file of RINC requests for adult fiction this morning
