March 17, 2011 - your right to read is at risk

I just returned from a meeting with the American Library Association, part of a task force responding to some pernicious trends in the world of publishing. Our work even rated a mention in USA Today.

Let me see if I can put this plainly: your right to read is at risk. If you're an author, you may lose your right to BE read.

A transformation is underway in commercial publishing, and not just on the commercial side. In brief, the movement is away from print, and toward digital. That won't happen overnight, but it will certainly happen eventually. Why?

It's cheaper and faster. As an author, once I've done the work, I can "publish" an eBook in just a few moments, in just a few clicks. As a publisher, I don't have to print, bind, and ship anything. There are no "returns" to mess with from bookstores.

And what is the publisher response to this huge drop in production costs?

Many publishers in the rapidly consolidating world of commercial publishing - among them giants Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster - won't sell eBooks to libraries at all. Why? Because they believe, falsely, that there's an opportunity to greatly boost their profits while reducing the availability of the product. Sell direct to the consumer, bypass the cooperative purchasing power of the library, and eliminate this whole business of people not paying for every single access.

Under this emerging model, the right of ownership disappears. You simply won't be able to own a book anymore. You will have to have the device, the communications plan, and the money to pay per view. It's like replacing home ownership with a rental -- where the owner has the ability to raise the rent whenever he feels like it. It replaces the DVD with an on-demand subscription. It eliminates booksales and heirloom gifts with corporate lockboxes.

Publishers who won't sell new formats to libraries forget that we have a nationwide sales force. All by itself, Douglas County Libraries has 2 million visitors a year, and another 2 million to our website. Almost all of those people are looking for books. We're just about to roll out exciting new ways to display e-Content, and make it more findable. Cut us out of that eco-system, and all you really accomplish is to make it more difficult for readers to find authors, and for authors to find an audience.

As I alluded to last week, the move from LP album to CD was a similar savings for music publishers, and resulted in a similar grab for money. The result? Consumers rejected the whole system, and went direct, eliminating the middle man, and finding new distribution channels.

Public libraries in the 21st century are busy community hubs. Librarians are active and passionate lovers of literature, of music, of movies. We're even crazy about technology. Librarians will remain relevant and engaged in the acquisition, organization, and provision of public access to creative content. We're good at it. We will survive.

Will the big publishers? When they're reluctant to sell to some of their best customers, to the detriment of their own content creators?

Librarians think your right to read is worth fighting for. Watch this space for the announcement of some new partnerships. It's clear that we need them.

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LaRue's Views are his own.