Eating the Publishers' Lunch?

Publishers Lunch recently used press releases from OverDrive to imply that all’s well with the library ebook market and those meanies in different states saying otherwise are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Lest readers think I am taking things out of content, here are quotes:

In contrast to lobbying efforts in some state legislatures, the dominant service provider for library ebook lending reports that the market is thriving. Overdrive notes that in 2021, "With a focus on equity of access to books for all, libraries achieved all-time records for circulation while lowering the average cost-per-title borrowed." [Note—italics added by PL)

. . .readers borrowed "506 million ebooks, audiobooks and digital magazines, a 16% increase over 2020." (That comes even as AAP and NPD Bookscan statistics show a modest decrease in ebook sales marketwide through November 2021.)

A second Overdrive release celebrates a new milestone of 121 public libraries and consortia that each loaned more than one million ebooks during 2021 -- including, for the first time, the Baltimore County Public Library (located in Maryland, whose ebook lending is being challenged in court).

It’s time to put the “circulation is high, ergo all’s well” trope to rest. I wish I could say “to rest forever,” but we know it will keep getting dragged out even though all it actually proves is that licensing works.

Let’s take the statement about Baltimore County first. The system recently separated form the Maryland Digital eLIbrary Consortium. Previously, their stats wouldn’t have been counted separately. That’s why we see them now, not because they are suddenly doing miraculously well. And what if Maryland as a state, or ever library in Maryland, has had high consortial or individual lending? This is to IGNORE THE FACT THAT MARYLAND, AND THE OTHER PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN OVERDRIVE, ARE STILL PAYING FOR MANY UNFAIRLY PRICED LICENSES ON WHICH THEY HAVE NO ABILITY TO NEGOTIATE. If we had reasonable terms, we could offer even more, circulate even more, help discover more new authors, even help generate more sales. I’ll say it again. We in libraries can meet anyone, anywhere, and compare on books from the Big 5 the cost libraries actually pay for print, the retail cost of print, and the digital cost libraries pay, confident that the digital price is NOT reasonable and NOT Negotiable. Besides, the publishing world can’t have it both ways: that the library ebooks market is thriving and so all must be well, and that in ebooks libraries are eating the publishers’ lunch, excuse me, “cannibalizing sales.” And does anyone suppose that prices are NOT set where they are (by some but not all—as I’ve said over and over, many publishers do offer reasonable deals) in order to discourage library sales and thus promote consumer sales?

Speaking of consumers, oh, is there a modest decrease in the consumer ebook market? Don’t look at libraries, obviously. Where shall we look? Hmm, I know! Why not look at agency pricing! People are perhaps just not willing to pay $14.99 and up for a digital file they don’t even own.

The implication that a high circ library ebook market proves terms are reasonable simply doesn’t hold water. Anyone who thinks so must be out to lunch.