Amazon Publishing will finally make their titles available for lending to library patrons in the US, working with the non-profit Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and the SimplyE ereader app created by the New York Public Library. Starting this summer, and applying to their full catalog of approximately 10,000 ebooks and audiobooks, Amazon Publishing will offer four different licensing models. They say, “We expect that libraries will be able to access all of the Amazon Publishing titles by the end of the year.” For access by one reader at a time, they provide for either unlimited lends in a […]
Libraries
People, Etc.
After the recent restructure of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon Pulse senior editors Jen Ung and Nicole Ellul will join Simon & Schuster Children’s, reporting to Kendra Levin; and editor Sarah McCabe will join Margaret K. McElderry Books, reporting to Karen Wojtyla. At Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Shannon Spisak has been promoted to senior director of global marketing & communications and Jenna Marson to manager of global marketing & licensing. Mariana Garavaglia has joined Wiley’s board of directors. Currently chief people and business operations officer at Peloton, she was previously managing director for the Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores. […]
Briefs: Bookselling News, and More
Bookselling Barnes & Noble‘s Upper East Side location in NYC has closed permanently. B&N said to PL: “We can confirm that we are to close our bookstore at 86th St. and Lexington Ave. The store has served us well over the years but is now too large, and too expensive, for our needs. We have therefore made the difficult decision to close the store to focus energy and resources on improving our other bookstores in New York City.” The store closed in March due to COVID-19 and B&N is in “active pursuit of a new site” in the area. B&N […]
Macmillan Withdraws Windowing for Library eBooks and Restores Previous Terms; PRH Discounts Digital Titles for Libraries
Macmillan ceo John Sargent wrote to librarians, authors, illustrators and agents on Tuesday to announce that the publisher will abandon their controversial eight-week window on making new release ebooks available to libraries. They will revert to their previous pricing model conditions. At the same time, they will also have promotional prices on some titles to help fulfill library’s needs during the coronavirus crisis. “There are times in life when differences should be put aside,” Sargent said. “Effective on Friday (or whenever thereafter our wholesalers can effect the change), Macmillan will return to the library ebook pricing model that was in […]
Public Library Systems Close Across the Country
As the nation scrambles to implement social distancing and control the spread of COVID-19, major library systems around the country have announced plans to close. And in the few large population centers where libraries are still remaining open, there is controversy. Among the 20 most populous cities in America, only the Chicago and Boston public libraries had yet to announce temporary closures by Monday morning. In Boston that led to an online petition asking the city to close the libraries and make the employees whole. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio had publicly resisted library closures. When the New […]
Macmillan Starts Discussions On Alternate Library eBook Pricing that Avoids Embargo Through Different Charges
Macmillan recently shared some potential new pricing models for library ebook lending that could take the place of their current controversial embargo on making new-release ebooks available to libraries in the first eight weeks of publication. The new models are intended to “open discussions on possible new library models,” and were shared with a small number of individual librarians, as well as with a number of library associations, including the ALA (American Library Association) and the PLA (Public Library Association). ReadersFirst, an organization of libraries from around the world, posted a file summarizing the proposals, and offered some of their […]