Palace Marketplace Offers New Indie Titles

In a press release, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) notes that its Palace Marketplace is now offering some 300,000 “titles from Smashwords and Draft2Digital. At launch, all of these titles will be available with a perpetual one-at-a-time license, often at less than $10 per title, with more licensing options to be made available in the coming months. As an additional service to libraries, the DPLA Curation Corps of librarians will be preparing selections of recommended titles to help libraries quickly and easily identify titles appropriate for their collections. We expect to add hundreds of thousands of titles from Draft2Digital and other distributors over the course of the coming year.”

This is in addition to the 1.2 million Big 5 and hundreds of other publisher titles already available, not to mention being the only source for Amazon and Audible originals.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this news is the work of the Curation Corps. It will add another arrow to the digital librarians’ quiver already partially filled by the Indie Author Project. The Big 5’s licensing terms are making it very difficult for libraries, especially small and rural ones, to offer rich and sustainable digital collections. The pricing of Indie titles, especially under perpetual licensing, makes them a vital and excellent alternative, especially for libraries hoping to diversify collections. What we often lack are reviews. The volume of work is simply too great to know well. Current lists of worthwhile titles will help librarians to know what to get, what to feature on reading lists, what might make a great alternative to the increasingly costly best sellers, what might help readers learn to love new and previously undiscovered voices, perhaps even help those new voices become a best selling writers.

Indie, perhaps especially indie authors who are local, offer a great opportunity for libraries to be taste makers and even content creators, providing great reads at sustainable prices. Thanks DPLA! As always, thanks too to the Knight Foundation for the great support of the Palace Project.