ALA Midwinter 2020: Macmillan CEO John Sargent, Librarians Spar Over E-book Embargo - Publishers Weekly

Today when Panzer entered the Catosphere he was greeted by screaming and crying and gnashing of teeth. Following all the chaos took our brave kitty boy to the Publishers Weekly site. Digging in the posts produced one about publisher Macmillan and the company's library embargo. Panzer has been telling you about this ebooks to libraries slowdown since before it was started.

He's joking right?

According to the post by Andrew Albanese, publishing company Macmillan CEO John Sargent says there's no end in sight for Macmillan's library embargo. CEO Sargent was speaking at the American Library Association midwinter meeting when he reiterated he had no intentions of changing the company's library embargo. He continues to blame library patrons for Macmillan's lagging book sales. To fix the problem with library patrons checking Macmillan's books out of the library and reading them for free, now Macmillan only allows a library to license one copy of an ebook for the first two months after its publication. This causes long wait times for library patrons who want to read the book. CEO Sargent believes this will force library patrons to instead buy a copy of the book to read it. The post includes several links to previous posts about Macmillan's ongoing embargo against libraries.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... This little kitty is confused. ... When did libraries start to control a publisher's book pricing, book marketing and book store placement? ... Aren't those some of the real controlling factors for book sales? ... Aren't those the things the publisher controls?"

Note: This post is h-u-m-o-n-g-o-u-s-l-y long. Bring two gallons of tea, three dozen muffins, a sleeping bag for a nap in the middle and a cook stove for dinner for today's reading selection and all the included links in the post.

To read the post tootle over to Libraries and Macmillan embargo continues
To read Panzer's previous post tootle over to Macmillan