Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Outrage over ebooks! Stop the Madness! (And we can show you how...)

HarperCollins's recent decision to monitor ebook usage and re-charge for the e-titles is reverberating throughout the entire library world; and it is spawning a great deal of not just commentary, but action, which includes boycotts of Harper titles. The purchasing model for trade ebooks in libraries is a crucial issue for all involved, and we will be watching this one closely to see how libraries leverage their influence throughout the proceedings.

But while this is going on, it might be surprising for some to learn that trade publishing is only one part of the entire publishing world. Trade certainly gets outsized coverage in the media, but some estimates size trade publishing at about a quarter of the entire industry. By and large, trade has been very slow to pay much attention to ebooks.

Meanwhile, there is a subset of Academic and Educational publishers that exclusively cater to libraries and have been selling ebooks for a number of years already. ABC-CLIO is one these. And, we think you'll like what you see from our imprints: award-winning titles focusing on current events by expert authors from Praeger Publishers, industry-leading reference titles geared to support student research needs from ABC-CLIO and Greenwood Press, and even titles that will help librarians do their jobs better from Libraries Unlimited and Linworth. We offer some 7,000 titles to choose from, and our ABC-CLIO eBook Collection is a 2010 CODIE Award winner. The clincher just may be the purchase model--one-time purchase price with free hosting for the first five years (and a very small fee thereafter), lifetime access, and unlimited simultaneous use. Trials are free, too. So check us out at http://ebooks.abc-clio.com.

--Kevin Ohe, ABC-CLIO, Director of Editorial, Electronic

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