E-books have surpassed all expectations of popularity and have actually gained prime beachfront status in the book real estate landscape.
Libraries are now lending out e-books and some publishers are trying to figure out how not to be taken too much advantage of...while concurrently maximizing their e-book profit...Harper Collins is trying to accomplish this by limiting library, e-book circulation to 26 checkouts before the e-book goes up in a puff of electronic smoke.
It seems all this new tech has really simplified and made processes much more efficient...but, nobody has figured out just how to make any money from all the new shitsky!
Aimee Levitt , of the St. Louis Riverfront Times, has this to say:
Publisher Attempts to Limit E-Book Circulation, Libraries Fight Back
It's a brave new electronic world we live in, where blogs like this one that you're reading have replaced daily newspapers, e-mail and Facebook updates have replaced letters and phone calls, and the heavy stacks of textbooks that used to weigh down schoolkids may now be replaced with e-readers.
Only problem is, nobody's figured out how to make money on all this yet, and everybody's afraid of being taken for a sucker. That's why last week HarperCollins Publishers announced that every e-book it sells to a library can only be circulated 26 times. Then it will disappear into the electronic ether. (E-books purchased before last week, however, can continue to be checked out indefinitely.)
Librarians, naturally, were not pleased. Two librarians in the Philadelphia area, Brett Bonfield and Gabriel Farrell, have organized a boycott of HarperCollins, which encompasses more than 30 different imprints. They argue that libraries don't have the funds to keep purchasing e-books; depending on the check-out period, a book that circulates 26 times would only last a year to a year and a half, less time than many printed books.
Read and learn more
Libraries are now lending out e-books and some publishers are trying to figure out how not to be taken too much advantage of...while concurrently maximizing their e-book profit...Harper Collins is trying to accomplish this by limiting library, e-book circulation to 26 checkouts before the e-book goes up in a puff of electronic smoke.
It seems all this new tech has really simplified and made processes much more efficient...but, nobody has figured out just how to make any money from all the new shitsky!
Aimee Levitt , of the St. Louis Riverfront Times, has this to say:
Publisher Attempts to Limit E-Book Circulation, Libraries Fight Back
It's a brave new electronic world we live in, where blogs like this one that you're reading have replaced daily newspapers, e-mail and Facebook updates have replaced letters and phone calls, and the heavy stacks of textbooks that used to weigh down schoolkids may now be replaced with e-readers.
Only problem is, nobody's figured out how to make money on all this yet, and everybody's afraid of being taken for a sucker. That's why last week HarperCollins Publishers announced that every e-book it sells to a library can only be circulated 26 times. Then it will disappear into the electronic ether. (E-books purchased before last week, however, can continue to be checked out indefinitely.)
Librarians, naturally, were not pleased. Two librarians in the Philadelphia area, Brett Bonfield and Gabriel Farrell, have organized a boycott of HarperCollins, which encompasses more than 30 different imprints. They argue that libraries don't have the funds to keep purchasing e-books; depending on the check-out period, a book that circulates 26 times would only last a year to a year and a half, less time than many printed books.
Read and learn more
4 comments:
Thanks, John! A new wrinkle in the e-book revolution! And also revelation RE Kindle's limitations
Jeanne,
I kinda thought you'd like this...It's a side of publishing and distribution (to libraries) that we often overlook...at least I do.
Peer-to-peer book is another part of the picture. We have 16,000 Kindle owners at www.BookLending.com who have turned their ability to lend some of their Kindle books, once per book, into a crowdsourced virtual library.
Hi Catherine,
Thanks for the neat info and site (I visited the site)...I had no idea and hadn't even thought about this lending concept!
I take it the lenders are restricted to only one lend by Kindle (or publishers)?
Your input is much appreciated and good luck with http://booklending.com site...
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