Lending is the right model

Book publishers are struggling with eBook lending.

The latest to have a problem is Penguin who announced last week they would opt out of library lending programs citing security concerns. (They subsequently softened their exit to something temporary). The Penguin move specifically highlighted the Kindle lending program. Of course, this is just the latest following Harper Collins’ approach to limit lending to 26 times per year. And as many have pointed out, the problem publishers have with eBook lending is the same problem they have with book lending: it undermines their business model of relying on ownership to sell books. Here is the central fact about book publishing: lending is the natural state. Authors produce a book that is improved by others (including editors etc). Then people read the book and that is where it has primary value. Notice that there is no ‘then people buy the book’ stage in the middle or ‘then people place the book on their shelves forever more’ after these. Those are things people did because (a) they had to buy a physical copy and (b) they got used to keeping the physical copy. But for libraries, none of that was relevant. The issue book publishers face — and so many have said it I really shouldn’t bother, but I will — is that they are wedded to a strategy whereby they sell owned copies rather than reading.