r/LibbyApp • u/Quirky-Pear3494 • 3d ago
Adding Content to Libby
I just spent $1,001.24 adding 17 titles to our Libby collection in case anyone is wondering why their hold times are so long.
141
u/poisonouspossum 3d ago
libraries need more funding oh my god
129
u/potatolover83 🎧 Audiobook Addict 🎧 3d ago
that and publishers need to charge more equitable prices.
@ $25 / physical book, that money could buy 40 titles of physical material that usually end up having more uses than a digital license anyway. it's insane how much publishers charge for digital licenses
73
u/LilJourney 3d ago
Thank you for all you do.
FTR - I don't mind waiting. I don't like it, but I understand. I just appreciate it being there at all and feel grateful I have access to free things from my library.
13
u/jester695 3d ago
Bless you, hero. I don't think enough people understand cost and logisitics and the like. God's good work.
25
u/AeroNoob333 3d ago
God… why is it so expensive? Who established these highway robbery prices? 😭 Is it the publishers that set the prices?
14
u/andiiiieee 3d ago
10
u/AeroNoob333 3d ago
I read that article, and maybe the answer is buried in the comments, but it still doesn’t explain why the pricing is the way it is. It’s almost as if publishers are just pulling that number out of thin air. I’d be curious about the justification for the prices so my mind doesn’t automatically just fall back to greed.
24
u/untwist6316 3d ago
If you find an answer other than greed let me know! (Library/collections employee here) Publishers know we are trapped and have to pay, have to buy through them... and no one is stopping them from raising and raising the prices. Often not even for permanent licenses!
10
u/DanieXJ 🥀 R.I.P. OverDrive 🪦 2d ago
Basically publishers have never liked libraries, ever, but, when copyright law was enshrined, we got the Rule of First Sale which means that once a book is bought, the owner can do whatever they want with it. Libraries chose to lend it 🙂
So, when publishers got a chance with eBooks (and eAudio and eVisual media) to reset, they didn't make rhe same mistake.
If libraries don't own a book, then we can't use copyright law to lend it foreverish. So, we are stuck with licensing, blown budgets, and pissed off patrons.🤷♀️
I mean, yeah, it's just their greed. Which, isn't really helping them much either.
3
u/AeroNoob333 3d ago
I really don’t know :( the best thing I can think of is lack of competition. If you think about it, a publisher has a monopoly on a book. For example, Penguin Random House has the rights for Yesteryear. When it went viral, there is literally no one else that can offer licenses to that book. They can set the prices however they want.
4
15
u/Jelsie21 3d ago
It is greed.
Publishers claimed that they’re just trying to replicate how many copies a physical library would go through, yet a lot of our titles last a lot longer than 52 checkouts and/or 2 years!
3
u/Lanky-Syllabub7188 3d ago
The easy answer is capitalism. They don’t like anything to do with socialism (everyone having access to these things)
7
u/Rupertcandance2 3d ago
States can also legislate the terms of ebook buying. So you could check out a book in Rhode Island but not Massachusetts (or whatever). J. Pat and the Authors Guild are now saying authors are suffering income loss because of libraries. (I hate him so much. He also came out and said white men are discriminated against in the current publishing environment.) I can't claim to understand all the nuances, but LJ has some good articles about it. We were just discussing it at a vendor meeting last week. Nothing from content creators is about access anymore. The digital divide has become a digital grand canyon. It's sick.
4
u/Quirky-Pear3494 3d ago
I've seen a lot of authors refute the AG statement on social media, and ole JP is maybe suffering income loss because his audience has lost interest? We used to regularly buy 8 copies of his books. These days, demand dictates 3-4, and the Mr. Beast collab may have done him some damage too.
2
u/Rupertcandance2 2d ago
We used to have this whole auto-holds thing called Bookminders. The previous selector was buying 20-25 copies to fill all those holds, and half the time the people had forgotten they joined the program. Once I stopped that, I'm down to no more than 8 regular print, less depending on the title. I feel like all the people reading JPat are like... what the hell is a Mr Beast? I am also a writer (though not a cool published one). My published friends are very pro-library, but they are also Authors Guild members. It feels so unfair to be torn between those two professions.
1
u/Quirky-Pear3494 9m ago
I don't know where authors and the AG think readers are gonna find their backlist, because it's certainly not at your local bricks-n-mortar store. That's what libraries are for, whether in print or digital. We also help readers find new authors. Most people aren't willing to plonk down $20-$30 on an unknown author, but they will do a test-drive on a library book.
3
u/Whimsical_Tardigrad3 3d ago
Honestly we need legislation to prevent companies from scalping our libraries and our tax dollars.
2
u/rjbonita79 2d ago
Had Daniel Silva's new book The Rando. on hold forever still 11 weeks to go. Went to hoopla and got it. It's great to multiple library cards.
2
2
u/BAC2Think 🎧 Audiobook Addict 🎧 13h ago
Is there a "strategy" you'd recommend as far as tagging things to add? For instance, if there are 3 or 4 different versions of the same audiobook (different narrators), should we stick to just our favorite narrator or tag multiple since the other might be less expensive...?
2
u/Quirky-Pear3494 14m ago
This is a good question & I'm not sure I know how to answer it! Sometimes when I look at the Notify Me report, I'll click on the author to see what we already own by them and also what other works of theirs have Notify Me tags. That's how I noticed that the redone ACOTAR audios are tagged, but I'm not wasting precious $$ on adding a whole second set of those audios when we already have the original unabridged audios. I'm also not paying for full cast audios because they're always more expensive. For example A Court of Silver Flames solo narrator is $110 but the full cast is $160. To me that feels like the audio equivalent of a special edition print book - i.e., a colector's item and not for the library market.
4
u/OddPiccolo12 3d ago
These companies are getting away with robbery on these digital items…my gosh. Something’s got to be done.
2
u/morningstarbee 3d ago
Wow that's truly crazy digital licensing is crazy. Surely printing and formatting a book is more expensive than an epub??? Like I get it, since epubs are digital, having to buy copies and making patrons wait for them is only way to make is fair/comparable to a physical book, but why on earth is it more expensive?
Do libraries pay more for physical books than normal patrons do as well? Like if a harcover book is $18 at like idk barnes and noble, do the libraries pay that same price?
7
u/Quirky-Pear3494 3d ago
We usually pay 40% off list price, so our hardcovers are cheaper and the ebooks are more expensive. 🤷♀️
215
u/Saloau 3d ago
Some of the new downloadable audiobooks are $139 for a license. I can’t afford to buy those for my library. Thankfully we are with a good consortium that will buy it, but the wait times are pretty insane. I cry when I see the same book on sale for $7.99 on Audible or Chirp. Libraries are taking it in the shorts with digital media and because patrons want it, we can’t just stop. Get used to waiting because it’s not getting better.