Is the title of an article by Annoyed Librarian. Here’s a little snippet of and article well worth reading:
Yesterday’s New York Times reported that publishers are delaying the ebook releases of some titles because they think ebook sales are cutting into their hardcover sales, especially given that Amazon tends to treat popular ebooks as loss leaders by selling them for $9.99.
As a librarian, it’s hard to know where to stand in this fight. Publishers are resisting because they haven’t figured how to monetize ebooks yet. I watched for years as journal publishers struggled to adapt to a digital environment. Some of them still require libraries to subscribe to print copies to gain access to electronic copies, or block access to the last year’s content online. Book publishers seem to have ignored all this, and now they’re acting like they fell asleep in 1985 and just woke up.
In 2001, Association of American Publishers President Pat Schroeder famously blamed the publishing industries woes on libraries. They couldn’t sell books, you see, because libraries gave access to books for free. At the time I thought Schroeder was short-sighted and extreme. She didn’t want to attack libraries because they have such a good image. She should have wanted to save libraries because they promote and support reading.
Now the publishers have found a new enemy in Amazon. …
