According to HarperCollins, the reason to modify their eBook policy was “to find the best model for all parties. Guiding our decisions is our goal to make sure that all of our sales channels, in both print and digital formats, remain viable, not just today but in the future. Ensuring broad distribution through booksellers and libraries provides the greatest choice for readers and the greatest opportunity for author’s books to be discovered” (Open Letter to Librarians, 2011). In the open letter, HarperCollins also recognized that libraries “are a crucial part of local communities. HarperCollins count on librarians reading our books and spreading the word about their authors’ good works”. Read all the replies to the open letter, there is an influx of negative comments against the new e-book policy. HarperCollins’ new policy raise the argument why it limits on the number of e-books circulation while there is no limit on hard print items and how they determine up to 26 times that libraries have to repurchase the e-book. Numerous of librarians are irritated with the change and threaten to boycott the so-called “greedy” publishers including e-books and traditional ones. Currently there is no limit on the number of circulations a hard print item can have. HarperCollins was intended to promote sales including print and digit books; conversely, it looks like that the new e-book policy may very possibly lead in counter expectations.
The e-book policy controversy reminds me a lot of music download dilemma a decade ago. When the online digital media applications were introduced, iTunes, the most famous service operated by Apple, the record companies and the artists were resistant to embrace the music revolution. Like book publishers, the record companies were worried about consumers wouldn’t buy CD records anymore and illegal download would consequently damaged music industry. The artists argued how much percentages of royalties from music download. National Music Publishers’ Association including Apple, Amazon, Emusic, Best Buy’s Napster…etc was challenged if they should price higher and pay higher royalties to music publishers. Despite all the battles occurred among music publishers, artists and online music distributors these years, the market has proved that music download service has been leading the industry. Only iTunes store itself, Apple announced that over 10 billion tracks have been downloaded on the February 24, 2010 (iTunes).
Same to publishing marketplace, besides hesitation and resistance to digital book revolution, publishers and authors should scrutinize what a(n) (e-)book is worth and the future of book publishing. NPR recently posted an article: No ink, no paper: what’s the value of an e-book, addressed fears and the battles that the book industry has encountered. The author revealed a good point that “one thing that publishers do have to consider in thinking of pricing is that they don’t want to liquidate their existing retail structure by making it so inexpensive to get an e-book that people won’t go to bookstores at all and then publishers will have no place to sell the 90 percent of the books they do create in the physical form. (Neary, 2011)” . As Chris Dannen, a freelance writer who specializes in technology, shares his viewpoint that “embracing the e-books might mean leaving their old business model behind, but publishers should be finding ways to make it easier, not harder, to buy e-books”.
References:
iTunes. (n.d.). Retrieved 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itunes#cite_note-51
Neary, L. (2011, March 12). No Ink, No Paper: What's The Value Of An E-Book? Retrieved April 2001, from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124592613&ps=rs
Open Letter to Librarians. (2011, March 1). Retrieved 2011, from Library Love Fest: http://harperlibrary.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/open-letter-to-librarians.html
