A Quick Look at Penguin Random House's New (and temporary?) Models

PRH Tries an Experiment, or, with apologies to the great Garcia Marquez, Love (Sort Of) in a Time of COVID

On March 17 (the same day that Macmillan announced its change in license models—coincidence?), Penguin Random House announced an INTERIM  DISCOUNTED DIGITAL-BOOK LIBRARY PROGRAM FOR ONLINE PATRONS, EDUCATORS, AND STUDENTS.  The press release noted the following:

To further encourage book reading, especially among students, and to support school and public libraries that are closed with the escalating CV-19 outbreak, Penguin Random House will discount the prices of the e-book and audio book  titles sold through wholesalers to these institutions. This discounting  begins immediately and will be in effect for 90-day period.

“In this time of unprecedented disruption, Penguin Random House wants to continue and to expand our unwavering commitment to public and school libraries the best way we know how: by making our books more accessible for educators and students, especially those engaged in remote learning, and to library patrons everywhere,” said Skip Dye, Senior Vice President, Library Sales & Digital Strategy, Penguin Random House.

Penguin Random House sells its books to libraries through wholesalers, who have been provided with a 90-day temporary-pricing model for its accounts.

The RF Working Group wanted to wait until we saw actual vendor prices before commenting.  It should be noted that while PRH may set a certain price, not every library vendor necessarily reflects that price accurately, and prices listed below may reflect that.

It took some time for price changes to begin showing. One of Canadian members noted two week later “Splendid and Vile was $125 last month; it is still $125 for 24 months, and now they have added $63 for 12.” More recently, however, prices seem to be coming down about 5%. That is good news in a time when many libraries are trying to bolster their digital content to meet greater need when many physical facilities are closed.

Interestingly, Canadian libraries also getting a pay-per-use option, which U.S. libraries are not. At $7 per circ or thereabouts for many titles, it is still prohibitively expensive and we don’t expect t see it used much. Imagine, however, if prices were much lower on, for example, a backlist. Could we see greater use of title we might not be so willing to license for a long term?

Even more importantly, many of our members were happy to see multiple models offered at point of licensing.  Hilary Lewis of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh noted that an Unabridged Digital Audio of Where the Crawdads Sing was available in OC/OU perpetual license and n a 12 month metered access. She calls the option “very helpful” and says having the option on such a popular title “will help out a ton right now” by allowing greater short term access (get one for the long term and two for the next year while demand remains high). Ann Archer from Ottawa Library agreed, saying “The one advantage is filling the shorter term needs, like added copies from Holds Manager.” Adds Susan Caron of Toronto Public Library, “We’re seeing the multiple options and one-year license, which is good for top-ups.”

E-books are now available in metered licenses for two or one years. In e-book format, Where the Crawdads Sing is available for 12 months and 24 months. The one-year option is still helpful, unlike when a one-year license is the only option. Notes one member of our group, “The PRH models are really working out for us. Right now my strategy is to buy one copy at the longer meter (24 months or OC/OU) and fill holds with copies at the half price (12 month) model. I got an interesting report from OverDrive recently that shows only 5% of titles need copies repurchased after 24 months.”

Dianne Coan of Fairfax County Public Library is also happy to have options: “I am super appreciative of the 1 year model being added to the arsenal and I hope it stays.  I would love to see the eBook do what we are seeing on the eAudio with the ability to select OC/OU or MA [metered access]. I would also like to see all 3 options (Perpetual OC/OU, MA:12, MA:24).  In this case for the eAudio, we chose both more OC/OU and MA copies. Though we previously had maxed out our internal cap on the OC/OU, with increased demand and added budget, we rethought that cap. We then put some into our new “lucky day” [LD] collection so customers might actually see that we are addressing demand. FYI: this particular title all 15 of those LD copies in each format were snaffled up within two hours.”

In short, having options helps librarians provide access more efficiently.  We don’t spend less.  We spend better. More people have a chance to read more titles. Publishers don’t necessarily lose out.  We can make more titles visible, and give readers a chance for the sampling that (anecdotally, at least) leads to more consumer buying.  Thanks to PRH for offering options now. In a time of pandemic, expanding opportunities for reading and to quality non-fiction titles has never been more important. We can hope this period will be an experiment for PRH, in which they learn that offering options to libraries helps their authors, and everyone, so they might continue even after we have won through the pandemic.