“A New Hope for Books”

I couldn’t find an online version of this article, but Clive Thompson begins with a question that many of us have been asking for a long time and that is “will the e-book kill off the print book?”  Well, the paperless office still doesn’t exist and it probably won’t; so, could this fact help answer the above question with a simple and emphatic NO!? Books will live on well into the future; however, they probably won’t flourish and we are already seeing a decline in print materials thanks to all this e-stuff floating around within the “clouds.” I shouldn’t be using that word because it makes me feel silly, but I digress.  So, do you think that the above question and the multitude of prophetic answers even matters anymore?  Does it create a moral panic?  Even Marshall McLuhan predicted the end of print in the 1960’s and we still have print.  We still have vinyl records!  Hmmm …

Thompson states that print-on-demand will do the same thing to books as the explosion of paper use did for the paperless office.  The print-on-demand trend is allowing people to self-publish and this is creating an “intergalactically long tail.” Thompson compares traditional publishing, where the number of new titles increased 5%, to print-on-demand and self-publishing, which is growing 169% -- albeit not all good content, but that is another post. So, imagine what the book market will be like when the average computer user can print out paperbacks at home using more affordable print-on-demand technologies.  I can’t wait to read “The Myth of the Paperless Book” someday. ;)

Check out “The Myth of the Paperless Office” by Abigail J. Sellen and Richard Harper. 

Will Amazon Offer Purchasing and/or Donation Options for Library-Owed E-Books?

It may already have happened, but if not, I am wondering how long it will take Amazon to offer a purchasing and/or donation option for library “owed” e-book titles. For a while, OverDrive’s LibraryBIN (“Buy It Now”) program has allowed patrons “to buy popular and best-selling e-books and audiobooks with most of the LibraryBIN profits going back to libraries.” This is pretty cool, but will Amazon do it? I’d think that publishers would be happy because they could gain some revenue from it. A win-win, right?

Undoubtedly, library e-book collections will gain more visibility and with more visibility comes more demand, which many libraries may not be able to handle. Although I am fairly confident that libraries can handle it, it is probably too early to tell.  Anyway, I would welcome the idea of Amazon adding a purchasing option for high-demand library e-book titles as long as a portion (even a very small portion) of Amazon’s profits go to library funds AND if library users could then donate their used e-books to their library’s digital collections to give others the opportunity to read them.

On another note, Gary Price from InfoDocket, wrote a thought-provoking post on “eBooks, Privacy, and the Library” and he asks some very important questions that everyone, not just librarians, should be trying to answer.

What do you think?

It Is Time To Negotiate Change

Photo by Maggie Smith

Companies are in business to make money. I get this. If the book publishers looked to the failing, or failed, music industry they could learn a lot. They probably won’t and the most recent HarperCollins news seems to provide some evidence to support that statement.

Well, I’m sure this has been mentioned already, but I wanted to state it again because it makes sense to me. Okay, if I am reading an eBook and I am on chapter 12, then technically there are many other chapters that are not being read at that point in time. Another reader could start reading chapter 1.  Another reader could have 3 pages left to read etc.  It is technically possible for more than one person to read an eBook at the same time, but the publishers keep thinking “one reader/one book” and that is 20^th century thinking – maybe even 15^th century thinking.

Maybe it is time to look more closely at a Netflix-esque, Rhapsody-esque, or some other subscription model for libraries so that authors/publishers get paid per download or per view. Libraries can help distribute content! Libraries are pretty good at this actually. Publishers could make more money if they were more flexible and allowed libraries to do what they do best, which is helping connect their users to valuable information. Of course, libraries do way more than this, but this connection is significant. If an eBook is popular and, let’s say, 26 people read it, then charge the library for those “reads” by adding code to the eBook that automatically pays the publisher out of the library budget. It seems to be working for musicians – although musicians make more money if they aren’t under contract with a music label and/or distributor.  Plus, an analytic reporting function could be incorporated into an eBook that lets the publisher know that a user, for example, was only browsing a particular title to determine if they wanted to read it or not and this would not count as a “full read.” I can browse books at Barnes and Noble and I am not charged for doing this.  It should be the same for eBooks.

Going further, it is now affordable and convenient to download/stream music. More and more people are doing this legally because it is so much easier to have instant access to everything you want and whenever you want it, instead of illegally searching for music on torrent and file sharing web sites and taking risks with malicious software and other repercussions. For me, paying a $10 to $20 a month subscription fee to gain access to unlimited music or movies is totally worth it and I would do the same exact thing for eBooks through my library if it was possible. The funny thing, this is possible! We need to move past the “one reader/one Book” model soon. OverDrive offers “max access” subscription models and this is a step in the right direction, but this needs to benefit everyone and I am not 100% certain this is the case. If it is, please let me know.

Libraries need to step up and negotiate with these publishers, and as many librarians have already mentioned in other posts and tweets, librarians need to become strong advocates for their readers! If having access to eBooks and other eContent was in everyone’s “best” interest, including library users, then what is the problem?  Why hasn’t this happened yet? Money? I would think publishers (and their authors) could get paid more money if they went this route and began to think like innovators and not like stubborn idiots. It is not my intention to insult anyone. I just want to know why we don’t have a decent model yet? I’d like to share a passage from Bob Lefsetz because it supports my initial thoughts above:

Eviscerate piracy.  Make it so it’s just not worth it to steal.  Hell, people may even forget how to steal… But, but, but…if we lower the price so everybody can get in, we’re going to lose that extra revenue from our best customers!  Cable providers don’t care how much you watch TV, it’s just about signing up.  And cell providers have unlimited plans.  And both have great anti-piracy measures so there’s no direct comparison, but the point is today’s paradigm is giving a lot for a little, not being pecked to death by ducks, micro-payments of  $1.29 for every track.  Who could survive on a system like this?  Not car companies, who sell accessories in packages.  The key is to come up with a bucket of tracks, for a reasonable price. (Source: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/04/09/track-sales-peak/)

I agree! This is nothing new, but I do feel that it is time to rethink our library subscription models. Not just for eBooks, but we need to explore this for our databases and other eContent as well. Vendors are already figuring out ways (simple ways, in fact) to bypass libraries altogether and deal directly with their end users. This is unfortunate on so many levels. Should we simply watch this happen, or should we start negotiating, or should we boycott publishers who are not “library friendly?” These are tough questions that need answers. This recent HarperCollins announcement is ridiculous at best and libraries need to respond intelligently.  A couple of good places to start:

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

Library Renewal: Pioneering Electronic Content Delivery for Libraries  

HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations

Search/use #hcod hashtag on Twitter.
There will be an “eBook Trends and Practices” track at the 2011 Computers in Libraries conference.

Abandon Ownership!

An interesting Wired article regarding the "rentership society" got me thinking about libraries. Libraries have been in the "rental" business for a long time and it seems to be working, right? In the article, Suellentrop states that ownership is "for suckers" and I see his point. He goes on to say that ownership can be a burden and I know this feeling fairly well too (especially the last few years) since I do own my own home. Hopefully, the investment will pay off in the long run, but we'll have to wait and see.

Getting back to the point, I used to own thousands of CDs/DVDs/books and I still do, but I haven't bought a CD, DVD, or book for personal use in years because I simply can't find space for this stuff anymore. Conveniently, I now stream and/or download all my music and moving pictures. Occasionally, I will have Netflix mail me a blu-ray disc, but for the most part I have instant access to entertainment. The point is, I don't mind paying a monthly fee to have unlimited entertainment. I access content (e.g., music, film, documentaries, etc.) whenever and wherever I want, but I don't have this option right now with eBooks! I personally won't pay $10 for a single eBook EVER! Finally, Suellentrop wrote something that hit me hard in that "the winner of the ebook sweepstakes will be the bookseller who becomes a book renter." Wow, doesn't this sound like a perfect fit for libraries or is it just me? Having a library Netflix model for books in any format would be fantastic, wouldn't it?

Perseus Signs an EBooks Deal for the iPad

"Perseus Books Group, a large independent publisher that also distributes works from 330 other smaller presses including Grove Atlantic, Harvard Business School Press, Zagat and City Lights Books, signed a deal last week with Apple, following five of the six biggest publishers that have already signed agreements with Apple."

"With Apple’s iPad coming on the scene, Amazon is fighting to keep as much of its market lead as possible."

"Like the five other publishers who have already signed with Apple, Perseus will set consumer prices and Apple will serve as an agent, taking a 30 percent commission on each sale. E-book versions of most newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction will cost $12.99 to $14.99. All publishers whose books are distributed by Perseus will be allowed to opt in to the deal."

"Several of the larger publishers are seeking to renegotiate agreements with Amazon and other e-book retailers to mirror the deals with Apple. But Amazon has only agreed to those terms so far with one publisher, Macmillan, and is still in talks with the other big four, as well as other independent publishers. Amazon has told smaller presses that it does not want to enter into so-called “agency” agreements with them. These publishers fear that if they sign deals with Apple, Amazon will discontinue selling their books, as it did briefly during a dispute with Macmillan."