Home » Posts tagged "ebooks" (Page 11)

Penguin Throws Libraries a Rotten Egg

You can add Penguin to the list of “Big Six” publishers refusing to sell digital copies of their books to libraries.

Penguin announced on Monday that it will no longer sell digital books for new titles, and has disabled the ability to download ebooks in Kindle format in ALL of its titles. This is so frustrating to me! One of my big gripes with the Kindle was always that it used a proprietary format and that Amazon wouldn’t allow Kindle books to be lent in libraries. As of September 21, that changed, and it was HUGE for both libraries and library users who owned Kindles. Circulation statistics for ebooks went way up, and libraries spent a big chunk of money buying Kindle books. Now that Penguin has disabled Kindle functionality, I hope it also plans to refund some money and offer an apology for leaving libraries to deal with huge numbers of irate library patrons. Further, now Random House is “actively reviewing” its policy- although it’s hard to know what that actually means.

So here’s where we are with the “Big Six” publishers. Macmillan and Simon and Schuster refuse to sell ebooks to libraries at all. Hachette, and now Penguin, decline to sell frontlist titles in digital format, Penguin has disabled Kindle functionality, and HarperCollins requires libraries to re-license an ebook after 26 circulations (although that’s apparently under discussion). Who exactly are the winners in this situation?

Frankly, this stinks for pretty much everyone. Surely, publishers, authors, libraries, and readers can come up with something workable? Even if there are compromises that need to be made, it would be nice to find a way to make things come out with the sunny side up.

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Kirsten, 2 comments

Not The Apocalypse?

I have to admit that the announcement and grand opening of Amazon’s new Kindle Lending Library made me a little cranky at first. This monopolistic corporation that refused until recently to release any Kindle ebooks to libraries suddenly decides to take over the function of a library, but with a gigantic inventory of titles, and announce it like they invented the model on their own? Grr.

First impressions are just that, though- and a closer look at what Amazon is offering shows that really, it’s not that great. There’s a great analysis of it by Andy Woodworth at Agnostic, Maybe, where he assures us that the Kindle Lending Library is NOT the apocalypse. Whew. You’ll have to forgive me if I seem to be repeating some of what he said, but it seems like we noticed some of the same things.

Here’s the thing. Not everyone has a Kindle or can afford one, or even wants to read ebooks. The big six publishers aren’t happy about it- some of them don’t even sell ebooks to libraries. And the Kindle Lending Library is not available to just anyone. You have to be a Prime customer- meaning you shell out $79 a year to borrow one book a month. That’s more than I pay for my PLAC card(that’s a public access library card), which allows me to check many, many books (including ebooks) out of any library in the state. They might not be Kindle books, but at the rate I read, they’re in and out of the house pretty quickly (well, unless I lose them).

At a time when people are claiming it’s too costly to fund libraries with their tax dollars (and many libraries in this state are in danger of closing their doors) how many of them are going to happily shell out the money for an ereader and a Prime membership for the privilege of “checking out” one relatively obscure book a month? If you already have those two things, and the program expands a little, I guess it could be a nice perk, but I don’t see Amazon driving libraries out of business with this. As alarming as it seems at first, the Kindle Lending Library is not the end of the world as we know it. Yet.

Stay tuned.

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Kirsten, Reply

Free Halloween Reads Online

Need a quick Halloween read? Here’s a list of free reads you can find online, compiled by Michele Lee. These have not been reviewed at MonsterLibrarian.com, so proceed at your own risk. But since the Wall Street Journal informed me today that horror lovers live for risk, I know you’ll want to at least try one out. The Journal mentioned the thrill day traders get out of playing the market in almost the same sentence… Believe me, you’re better off getting your kicks from reading free Halloween stories online. Enjoy!

Web-hosted Titles

″The Inn Keeper’s Widow″ by K. H. Koehler

″Saving Up″ by R. Thomas Riley

″Do Better″ by R.J. Sullivan

The Sepulchral Library (a short fiction blog)

″As the Crow Flies″ by Kevin Lucia

″October Blizzard″ by Joel Arnold

″The Sliding″ by Kevin Lucia (web-hosted graphic novel)

Ebooks- available for download

Fright Files by Peter Swift (available October 21st)

″The Disembodied″ by John Grover

The Turtle Boy by Kealan Patrick Burke