How Libraries Are Bypassing Big Publishers To Build Their E-Book Offerings

At libraries, romance ebooks are underrepresented relative to size of their popularity among readers -- that is in part because the major publishers are still figuring out their ebook lending strategies.

A new partnership aims to help libraries build their romance ebook collections by giving greater exposure to more titles from smaller, ebook-only publishers. Starting May 16, Library Journal, which has long helped librarians decide which books to purchase, will begin reviewing romance ebook originals. The advance review copies will come through NetGalley, which provides digital galleys to “professional readers” (critics, bloggers, booksellers, librarians and teachers).

The expansion of ebook offerings is the most complicated issue libraries are dealing with now, says Heather McCormack, Book Review Editor of the 135-year-old Library Journal. Some 72 percent of libraries now offer ebooks, but licensing them from publishers can be difficult. In general, publishers work with e-book vendor OverDrive to broker contracts with libraries; the end result tends to be that libraries have limited access to publishers’ e-books, and restrictions on lending (an ebook can’t be checked out simultaneously to more than one person, for instance). Currently, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster do not make any of their ebook titles available to libraries. HarperCollins has generated controversy by allowing its e-books to be checked out only 26 times before they expire, forcing libraries to buy them again.

As a result of these restrictions by big publishers, McCormack says librarians are turning to smaller presses, which are generally less restrictive about offering access to their ebooks. Library Journal‘s arrangement with NetGalley will introduce librarians to new titles from many of these smaller e-book-only romance publishers. Angela James, Executive Editor of Harlequin’s Carina Press, estimates that over half of digital-first content is in the romance genre.