Kindle News 2/9 - Penguin Quits OverDrive & public libraries. Update

PENGUIN GROUP TERMINATES ITS CONTRACT WITH OVERDRIVE

Michael Kelly, Editor, News for Library Journal, wrote in The Digital Shift that Penguin Group "has extricated itself from its contract with OverDrive, the primary supplier of ebooks to public libraries."

As of February 10, Penguin, will no longer offer any [more] ebooks or audiobooks through OverDrive.  In the prepared statement by Penguin Group's Erica Glass, they say they're continuing to discuss future plans "for ebook and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services."

You have to love how people treat contracts these days when they want out.   Kelley writes that Penguin is negotiating a “continuance agreement” with OverDrive, which would allow libraries that have Penguin ebooks in their catalog to continue to have access to those titles.  This is similar to what they did when they quietly removed library-lending access to Kindle books briefly last November.

3M is the big contender, Kelley says, but he describes 3M as "the still fledgling but growing competitor to Overdrive," which means Penguin has essentially shut down public library access to additional Penguin ebook titles.  New physical paper-bound titles will still be available. The Big6 publishing houses fear the effect of e-books, in general, on the 'value' of its hardcopy books.

OverDrive, which hasn't commented yet, sent the following email to its partners via a posting at InfoDocket.

' Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012), Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and download [of] 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.

[ AB here: I guess Amazon made it too easy for customers to get a book for reading from the library - Penguin will ensure that the method used for borrowing a book returns to the most inconvenient way -- and you'll see that spelled out below. ]

We are continuing to talk to Penguin about their future plans for eBook and digital audiobook availability for library lending. '

Kelly points out that, as a result, Penguin "joins Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette among the Big Six publishers in search of an ebook library lending model."

  So, what remains? Random House hasn't withdrawn yet, but while it's been late to join the other Big6 houses in resisting Amazon's lower pricing of e-books (although Amazon still paid publishers the same amount as before based on the higher suggested retail price), Random House has given in before.

  Then there is the reality that Random House has led the field in discouraging -- actually, disallowing -- the use of text-to-speech on most of its e-books, fearing that the mechanical voice would take too much in sales from the intelligent reading done by trained actors.

During the November brouhaha that ultimately led to the final decision yesterday to "not allow library lending of its new titles (via any vendor), Penguin had initially also targeted OverDrive’s relationship with Amazon as a particular concern, which led the company to demand that OverDrive disable the “Get for Kindle” functionality for all Penguin ebooks."

While Penguin backed down on this, what they termed the "security concerns" apparently remain because the Kindle's Overdrive process removes the transaction from the public library "and takes place under the terms that Amazon has worked out with OverDrive" (by delivering the library books over the air, seamlessly).

All this too-convenient borrowing from public libraries has left publishers "feeling a bit left out in the cold."

Penguin insists it's still interested in the library business, mentioning that it was encouraged by recent talks with the leadership of the American Library Assocation (ALA).

The word 'Value' comes up again from a Big6 publisher
  In the past, books have been borrowable from the library without publishers referring to it (out in the open) as devaluing their books.

  They give lip service to it being "vital that we forge relationships with libraries and build a future together" (after demolishing what exists)... "We care about preserving the value of our authors' work as well as helping libraries continue to serve their communities."

Back to the too-easy borrowing made possible by Amazon's Over-the-Air method
  Kelley mentions "publishers’ concerns that if library loans become too “frictionless,” (too convenient, too easy)  "in other words, do not involve a physical trip to the library to borrow and return a book, that it will eat into their sales."

It seems that as in Europe, the Big6 are hoping to be able to "demand a business model in which they will only make their ebooks available to public libraries if they are used in the library or if a patron is required to bring their device to the library and load the title onto the device in the library, then bring it home.

Kelley sums it up:
This would essentially eliminate all the convenience of borrowing ebooks from a home computer or device.


Update - My favorite lighter-hearted forum reaction today (most were not so light) to this news about Penguin's longing for more friction to deter the urge to borrow:   Posted by The Queen of Creative Invective:

"So, there are so many "friction" jokes that I could make, but all of them would end up being deleted.  Like this one:

If Penguin wants to get friction with me, they are going to have to at least buy me dinner first."

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Optimism at Digital Book World 2012 - Borrowing, exposure, and subsequent purchasing

Findings on 'book-buying behavior' from the Digital Book World 2012 Conference

While this isn't about free e-books or the latest e-readers (or tablets), there are some interesting trends pointed out in Library Journal's report on the Digital Book World 2012 conference of publishers, authors, agents, librarians, editors, marketers, and bookstores.
  Library Journal's Heather McCormack sensed a "markedly different psychology among the Big Six suits" that hasn't otherwise been reported.

"The damaging fear-induced myopia that took over publishing with the rise of ebooks in 2009 seems to be waning," she writes.  More than one CEO used what used to be an uncool word, ecosystem :-)

  Verso Media presented the findings of its 2011 Survey of Book Buying Behavior, including that there are:

' 70 million “avid book-buyers” in America and that they patronize online retailers, chain bricks-and-mortars, and local independent bookstores... ”

Co-existence seems so natural if some would just relax their fear of what the interest in e-books will "do to" print-book sales and instead take advantage of the fact that both are available and both have an audience but that with changes in technology always come changes in methods and, historically, those who do well adjust to those changes and make the most of them.

  McCormack adds

"More public libraries (9,225 according to ALA) exist than do independents in this country, so Random has done a wise thing by stepping up its library marketing and going deeper into the trenches to interact with patrons, likely part of the demographic who made “personal recommendations” (at 49.2 percent) the top ranking way that respondents in the Verso study found out about new books.  Coming in at number two, not surprisingly, was bookstore staff recommendations (at 30.8 percent). '

  That's right - as ever, the value of word of mouth and what that does for book buying.

  Unfortunately, Random House was the only Big Six publisher "to make the connection publicly between indies and public libraries," according to McCormack.

  Some still think of library purchases as "lost sales" or, on the other side, think that library patronage will make a publisher millions overnight, but, more realistically, Library Journal's Patron Profiles "demonstrates a clear link between borrowing books and purchasing them, not to mention a discovery opportunity for publishers."  Some stats from the study:

  "Power Patrons" - those who visit the physical library at least once a week:
    On average, they borrow 42 books a year and buy 10.
    40% of them reported buying a title they'd previously borrowed
    2/3rds reported buying a book by an author discovered via the library.

  "Word of mouth is essential to marketing, and Power Patrons are also active users of social media.

  Amazon's Russ Grandinetti said that preliminary findings from the Amazon Prime Lending program were that sales for books available to Prime subscribers via the Lending Library have increased since the program started.

' As an example, Grandinetti cited people who read the first entry in “The Hunger Games” trilogy bought the second book 19 percent of the time rather than wait.

  The same scenario played out with the third entry in the series. (Note: Kindle owners can borrow only one book every month from the Lending Library.) '

  However, library patrons have always looked for books by the traditional publishers, of course, or Big 6 content -- currently, only Random House and HarperCollins loan ebooks to libraries though.

  That is such a sad situation.  Some libraries have increased budgets for ebooks but "can't find enough books to acquire."  Time then to add focus on independent publisher books with good word of mouth...

  McCormack comes to three more-positive conclusions.

  . "A 'lost loan,' so to speak, for a library could very well mean a sale for an indie, B&N, or Amazon and money in the pockets of publishers...
  . "A lost loan" may not even be that because..."indies are plentiful in OverDrive's catalog (and could perform so well that the Big Six holdouts cave)"
  . "...while data is still lacking on how libraries contribute to the publishing ecosystem, we’ve laid a firm foundation, thanks in part to Amazon, five words I never thought I’d type."

Note that the word indies is used in the Library Journal article to mean either independent bookstores or independent publishers/authors depending on context.


Photo credit: 52projects.com

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Check often: Temporarily-free recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.  Liked-books under $1
UK-Only: recently published free books, bestsellers, or £5 Max ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

  *Click* to Return to the HOME PAGE.  Or click on the web browser's BACK button


Below are ways to Share this post if you'd like others to see it.
-- The Send to Kindle button works well only on Firefox currently.

Send to Kindle

(Older posts have older Kindle model info. For latest models, see CURRENT KINDLES page. )
If interested, you can also follow my add'l blog-related news at Facebook and Twitter
Questions & feedback are welcome in the Comment areas (tho' spam is deleted). Thanks!