In a new type of library discovery case study, Sourcebooks and OverDrive are working together to offer Michael Malone’s novel FOUR CORNERS OF THE SKY available for free to library patrons in hundreds of countries for 18 days, beginning May 15. They are calling it the “Big Library Read.” The objective is to accumulate data to quantify the effects of library support on sales and discovery in a variety of ways. In particular, Sourcebooks is looking to see if the special promotion drives strong and sustainable checkouts; if that carries over to the author’s other books; and if it results […]
Libraries
Hachette Book Group to Resume Sale of New eBooks to Libraries
Hachette Book Group announced Wednesday that it will make its entire catalog of ebooks available to libraries, beginning May 8, including new and recent releases. HBG had stopped the sale of new ebooks to libraries as of April 2010, so the policy change will open up both brand-new releases as well as titles from the past 3 years to library ebook lending. HBG has formalized new terms of sale that expand on the backlist ebook price increases they introduced in February 2012 as “part of an experimental pilot to find out more about the digital library marketplace.” eBook versions of newly-released titles […]
S&S Finally Initiates eBook Library Lending in NYC Pilot Program
The last of the big six trade publishers to at least try lending ebooks to libraries, Simon & Schuster announced on Monday their first experiment: A one-year pilot program with the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Public Library that will make available S&S’s complete catalog of ebooks, with new titles available immediately upon publication. Manhattan and Brooklyn’s program will start lending April 30, with Queens to follow suit in mid-May. Under the pilot program, the three library systems can acquire any S&S ebook title at any time, with each title available for use for […]
Penguin to Allow Libraries to Lend New eBook Releases
Penguin will lift their six-month windowing on new hardcover releases for libraries, allowing libraries to purchase/license and lend those titles immediately upon publication. Director of online sales and marketing Tim McCall tells the AP it’s an evolution of their lending experiments (under which they have been working with 3M and Baker & Taylor). “We feel that we’re ready to take the next step and offer what consumers and libraries have been asking for.” Penguin sells ebooks to libraries at the consumer ebook price, for one-at-a-time lending for one year only. Their soon-to-be partners at Random House offer ebooks to a […]
Briefs: Macmillan Library Lending Begins; Scottish Publisher Mainstream To Stop Publishing New Books
As previously announced, Macmillan officially began lending digital books to libraries Friday with 1200 backlist Minotaur Books titles under a pilot program. Macmillan ebooks will be available in the one copy/one user lending model for the earlier of two years or 52 checkouts for $25 each. Scottish publisher Mainstream will cease publishing new titles by the end of 2013 after more than 35 years in business. Titles already under contract and scheduled for publication will proceed as usual through March 2014, with backlist titles to be reissued under a Random House UK-based imprint. The company’s Edinburgh offices will close on […]
Macmillan Library Lending to Start March 1
Macmillan’s initiative to start selling some of their ebooks to libraries, beginning with about 1,200 Minotaur backlist titles, will begin March 1 according to an OverDrive email cited by InfoDocket. Macmillan had said in the January the program would start “before the end of the first quarter.” Per InfoDocket’s earlier second-hand report, the email confirms that “Macmillan ebooks will be available in the one copy/one user lending model for the earlier of two (2) years or 52 checkouts for $25 each.”