Digital Book World Enacts an Embargo of Its Own

Digital Book World has enacted an embargo all its own: until Macmilan lifts its embargo of full access to digital content for libraries, Digital Book World has banned Macmillan employees from attending or speaking at the Digital Book World Conference and created a scholrship for librarians to attend as well. Said Bradley Metrock, CEO, Score Publishing:

here's Macmillan CEO John Sargent, who waltzes in to a recent American Library Association conference and dares to hold court with angry and frustrated librarians while failing to prepare in any way for the session. No slides, no data, no nothing. 

As disrespectful as that is by itself, he continues to make the claim that by giving libraries unfettered access to purchase Macmillan titles in digital format, the company would lose money. Amidst a barrage of b-school five-dollar words, he speaks of an imbalance in library lending that is damaging publisher profitability.

It's disingenuous, and it's false. It merits zero further discussion.

Somehow making this stance even dumber is that even if revenue gains were realized from the act of embargoing books from public libraries, that value is instantly outweighed by the PR fallout from all the negative publicity Macmillan has received by taking this action.

It is our absolute privilege to ban all Macmillan employees from attending or speaking at Digital Book World until the company's library embargo is lifted and they fully comply with the requests of the American Library Association. This ban goes into effect immediately for all of Macmillan's many imprints and subsidiaries, as well as for employees of the parent company, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

This ban may last for a few days, or it might last fifty years, but we yearn for a time when we hear of major publishers doing nothing with libraries other than graciously partnering with them and showing heartfelt gratitude for cultivating their revenue stream known as lifelong readers. 

Thank you, Mr. Metrock. We at RF yearn for that time, too!