Publishers Worry as Ebooks Fly off Libraries' Virtual Shelves - Wired

Doing some cleaning there wasn't time for this weekend, Panzer discovered a wadded up post stuffed under the pilot's seat cushion. Flattening it out our fastidious kitty discovered it was a post from the Wired site about libraries and ebooks.

 

According to Aarlan Marshall's post, publishers are concerned about the large number of library patrons checking out ebooks. Library ebook check outs are up 52 percent during the  Covid-19 lockdown over the same time period last year. Libraries have switched from buying physical books from publishers to licensing ebooks from them. Publishers are worried about this new trend because they don't earn as much money from the ebook licensing as they do from physical book sales. Publishers have long harbored the fear library patrons won't buy authors' physical books since they can get them for free from libraries.

 

Buy them at Amazon?

Panzer says, "Libraries' buildings are closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There's no reason for them to buy physical books. Nobody can get into the libraries to check them out. Bookstores are closed, so there's no place for readers to buy physical books. Readers have to get library ebooks."

Note: This is a humongous post. Bring a thermos of cocoa, three muffins, three brownies and three chocolate chip cookies (biscuits) for today's reading selection.

 

To read the post tootle over to libraries' virtual shelves