Random House, Meet Me at Camera Three

March 5, 2012

As Jon Stewart would say, we need to talk. Look, I understand things are a bit crazy for you right now. Ebook sales are rising, but they are kind of scary at the same time. Contracts, licenses, DRM, all of this is up in the air. So I get it; I see that you are concerned and looking for solutions. The first thing I want to say is thank you for hanging in there and trying to work through the issues. We appreciate it. But we really need to talk about this 300% thing.

Again, thank you for starting the conversation about the special needs of libraries when it comes to ebook lending. However, you seem to have left out the parts that come after “and” as in “to meet the unique ebook needs of libraries we are raising prices 300% and . . . ” HarperCollins made the same mistake when it went with 26 loans as its form of friction. The HarperCollins announcement should have read “we are limiting ebooks to 26 loans and making those loans simultaneous.” then everyone is a winner.

So what are the “ands” for Random House? Have you considered: “and we are using that higher purchase price as a base to offer additional simultaneous loan credits at $0.xx?” Or perhaps: “and as part of the higher purchase price, libraries will be able to download a DRM-free version of the book to use within their own lending system” (after an easy, painless certification process)? What about: “and along with your purchase of that higher-priced bestseller, we will also include five additional ebooks from new authors in the same genre that are yours to loan for one year in recognition of the critical role libraries play in helping new authors get discovered by readers?”

There are lots of options, so how about you take the next couple of weeks to think through what would work best for you. We librarians are not so naive as to think that ebooks are going to be free (delivered via unicorn even), but we are going to continue to ask for a fair deal for a fair price. The pushback you are feeling from libraries right now is because we think that Random House is no longer living up to that. If you need a higher price, that’s understandable . . . but it has to come with a fair deal for libraries.

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Random House, Meet Me at Camera Three

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