The Looming Library Lending Battle 390
smitty777 writes "The NY Times is running a piece on the tug of war between publishers and libraries for e-book lending. In one corner are the publishers, who claim that unlimited lending of e-books 'without friction is not a sustainable business model for us.' For example, Harper Collins claims in this corporate statement that unlimited lending would lead to a decrease in royalties for both the publisher and the writers. The NYT author further states that 'To keep their overall revenue from taking a hit from lost sales to individuals, publishers need to reintroduce more inconvenience for the borrower or raise the price for the library purchaser.' Their current solution is to limit the number of readings to 26 before a book license must be renewed. In the other corner are the libraries, who are happy that e-books are luring people back to libraries, bringing with them desperately needed additional funding. With e-book sales going extremely well this year and the introduction of more capable e-readers, this debate is likely to get worse before it gets better. The Guardian also has an interesting related piece on the pricing practices of the Big Six publishers."
Maybe this is a sign.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What does this statement mean? (Score:4, Interesting)
Zero friction is: as soon as it occurs to them they want the book, it magically appears in their hand.
Sounds like P2P to me.
This way of thinking worked soo well for the music industry.
The publishers will go the way of the Dodo if they don't recognize the change of the times. Amazon shows how it's done, as usual. Hey Harper-Collins, you could have significant ebook sales too (which would make up for reduced revenue per sale) - if you wanted.
The function of libraries (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a tough time for libraries. First they had to deal with becoming homeless drop-in centers. Then they had to deal with becoming Internet cafes. Now they have to face being unable to lend books.
The future of libraries is in question. If you don't have to go there to borrow books, what are they for?
Choice and information is good... (Score:4, Interesting)
We have a local clothier with the motto, "an informed consumer is our best customer." I think this applies to publishing.
We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the book publishing industry that rivals the previous one in music publishing. There are some hopeful signs. I think the market will produce more. Consider the changes in the Amazon Kindle service. It has grown rapidly such that now their two largest sellers are Kindle editions. Note that we can now view our content on multiple devices, view sample chapters before purchasing, and rent books. We do this after reading reviews. We see similar encouraging moves from O'Reilly such as providing DRM-free electronic copies of purchased content. Dealing with lending of resources by libraries is the next challenge. No publisher will ever release content if the public can get the content free from a small number of libraries. The parent is correct - that is not a sustainable business model. Safari Books Online is one possible model. It is still a bit pricey for my budget.
As customers, we need to vote with our purchases. Reward vendors who provide good content at fair prices with more purchases. Use the review system to say that we think content is over-priced. At the same time, we need to have realistic expectations. We are paying for infrastructure. Storage for electronic books is not free to the publisher but is likely much less expensive than warehousing paper products. Bandwidth to distribute them and all the infrastructure for secure payment is not free, but is likely less expensive than a distribution channel for paper. Editors, graphics designers, and those who convert the author's electronic input into the proper format for the final document creation software provide valuable services. So do those who market the electronic titles to the distributors. Nobody works for free. That said, we consumers want to share in the cost savings that come from the transition from paper to digital. I think the changes in the music industry suggest that we will have vendors that can thrive when they provide value to their customers. The key will be to find a subscription service that is affordable to the consumer and makes it worthwhile for the publishers to produce and distribute the content.
Re:It's being handled. (Score:5, Interesting)
I lived with limited borrowing in libraries with hardcopies, I can live with limited borrowing in libraries with e-copies.
Currently I can reserve a book, cancel it online at my county library and pick it up at any location. The waiting period for one of Songs of Ice and Ire was 200 people. Those are people like me - cheapskates who do not want to cough up any amount for a hardcopy.
If library had unlimited number of books, I assume few people would buy the book and all just go to the library and read it.
I think that the pricing where people should wait for a free book for a limited time is quite reasonable model.
I do not care about a model for movies, tv and music, but books are of a different category and while I won't care if Hollywood or BMG survives, I will care about surviving of publishers and ultimately, good writers.
Census usage, pay the authors (Score:5, Interesting)
Then the reduced friction would be in everyone's interest, both the users' and the creators'.
Of course, the publishers would still go fairly extinct. Is that a problem?
Re:Maybe this is a sign.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree that we need to fight the establishment, since the people in charge almost invariably try to strip away rights to protect their own interests. If an eBook is being lent out, I think that the author deserves some sort of royalty at a fraction of the cost of the paperback/hardcove ( simply because the electronic copy costs the author a lot less capital to produce and distribute (near-$0))
I'm at a loss as to how I should generalize this though. Maybe if the author disagrees with the royalty agreements for their eBooks they can merely NOT release one; but it will be converted into one and pirated regardless. The alternative would be to self-publish on your own terms, negotiating royalties or handling payment on your own.
Libraries receive money through late fees; eBooks can't be returned late, can they?
Re:No, not really (Score:5, Interesting)
Joe Unknown doesn't have that ability. He needs the services offered by a publisher: editors who understand not only clean prose, but what will sell; marketing teams that can put together a big push on a book; and salesmen that can make a store take a chance on an unknown writer.
Uh, Amazon will 'take a chance' on anyone who can upload a book to them. Most books get no marketing beyond that required to get into book stores. Most publishers expect a book to be edited before they see it so they don't have to spend time doing so.
The average unknown writer will never sell a book to a big publisher. The average unknown writer who does sell a book will get an advance of a few thousand dollars and then be expected to do their own marketing. The average unknown writer who's capable of writing a book that would sell to a big publisher would do much better to just upload it to Amazon, Smashwords and other book retailers where they'll make most of the money rather than hand that money to the publisher instead.
In my experience, the only people who still think publishers are required are publishers and unpublished writers.
Re:gigapedia (Score:4, Interesting)
"Unless a new business model"
Uhhh, I think that's what millions of us have been calling for in the entertainment industries. The world has changed, technology has advanced, and we're still paying for our entertainment according to some medieval scheme which supported hordes of typesetters, editors, and marketing droids. Today, half or more of an editor's job is done automagically with spell checkers, online thesuarus, and other simple tools of the trade. Typesetters? Get real - publishers haven't paid for real life typesetters in a long time. Marketing droids? I question whether they ever were necessary, but they are most certainly UNnecessary today.
Your idea of editors and authors sharing royalties sounds reasonable. How about, author takes 60%, editor takes 30%, and the remaining ten percent is divvied up between the publishing house, marketing droids, and whoever/whatever else is actually necessary? With a scheme like that, a title could sell for about ten cents, and make a profit for everyone involved. Call it 50 cents, and almost no one could bitch.
If dead tree copies are deemed to be necessary, then the author and the editor can sign a separate agreement with the publisher, in which those two individuals retain all their rights. The publisher is simply a separate contractor, providing a service - that of printing x number of copies, @ n.yy dollars per copy.
As for the idea of higher prices for libraries - I could probably live with that. Charge libraries a dollar for those fifty cent books. Hell, I'll buy my books in the name of the library, and pay the dollar, then "return" the files to the library! Everyone's a winner then!