SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

September 13, 2012 by Gary Price

OverDrive To Library Customers: Hachette is Raising E-Book Prices an Average of 220% on Over 3500 Titles

September 13, 2012 by Gary Price

UPDATE 5 (September 17, 2012): OverDrive Has Updated A Blog Post About Hachette Increase
It says that the 220% increase that they told library partners about last week was miscalculated. The average increase will be 104%.

UPDATE 4: Jamie LaRue from Douglas County Libraries Comments in this Library Journal Report
UPDATE 3: We reached out to OverDrive with specific questions about the price increase and the technical issues that Hachette refers in their comment  (below). They told us, “As a policy, we don’t comment on our internal processes or business relationships.” However, they did refer us to this blog post but it does not address any of the questions we asked.

UPDATE 2: Below With Comment from ALA

UPDATE 1: Below With Comment From Hachette (via DBW)

In February, we learned that Random House was going to raise the price of their ebooks by up to 300%.
Some seven months later OverDrive is informing customers that beginning on October 1, 2012, Hachette will increase the price of approximately 3500 titles (with release dates of April 2010 and earlier) by an average of 220%.
Here’s the full text of an e-mail that OverDrive is sharing with library partners.

Dear Library Partner,
Hachette will be raising its eBook prices on October 1, 2012 on their currently available eBook catalog (~3,500 eBook titles with release dates of April 2010 and earlier). On average prices will increase 220%.
Orders for Hachette eBook titles at current pricing must be submitted in Content Reserve by 11:59 pm US Eastern Time on Sunday, September 30, 2012. This includes any orders that are currently in your Content Reserve work queue as well as new orders created during the remainder of the month. Any orders with Hachette eBook content left in your work queue and submitted after September 30th will be processed under the new pricing.
Effective October 1, 2012, the new prices will be reflected in Content Reserve.
Regards,
OverDrive Collection Development Team

Check back for updates.
UPDATE: Jeremy Greenfield at Digital Book Work Includes The Following Comment from Hachette In His Post

As part of an experimental pilot to find out more about the digital library marketplace, we revised ebook prices earlier this year.  HBG notified all our public library distributors (including OverDrive) that we would be selling ebooks to them under new terms.  We believe these terms fairly reflect the value to the library customer, that the ebooks will not need periodic replacement as do print copies, and there is no limit on amount of borrowing activity per ebook copy. Our new pricing was sent electronically to accounts as part of our regular data feed (ONIX). Due to an internal systems issue at Overdrive, for the limited number of backlist titles they carry, they failed to ingest the proper data until recently.
We are working with libraries, Overdrive, and several other partners to gather information and explore various options for making HBGs ebooks available to readers in a rapidly changing digital world.

Update 2: Full Text of Comment from ALA

The American Library Association (ALA) denounces Hachette Book Group’s reported decision to raise the price of ebooks to the library market starting October 1. ALA President Maureen Sullivan issued the following statement:
“When Hachette announced it was stepping back into the library ebook market this past May with pilots that would bring a selection of its recent bestsellers to millions of library patrons, the ALA welcomed this news. Leaving our meeting with them, we were pleased that they recognized libraries as strong partners-as direct customers and marketers of their titles, as well as integral community institutions that must be supported as a fundamental cornerstone of  literacy.
“After these tentative steps forward, we were stunned to learn that Hachette plans to more than triple its prices for ebook sales to libraries starting October 1. Now we must ask, ‘With friends like these…?’
“We are weary of faltering half steps and even more so of publishers that refuse to sell ebook titles to libraries at all. Today I have asked the ALA’s Digital Content & Libraries Working Group to develop more aggressive strategies and approaches for the nation’s library community to meet these challenges.
“Libraries must have the ability to purchase a wide range of digital content at a fair price so that all readers have full access to our world’s creative and cultural resources, especially the many millions who depend on libraries as their only source of reading material.
 

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, Digital Collections, Interactive Tools, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries, Publishing

SHARE:

E-BooksHachetteljOverDrivetds

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Recent Articles on LJ

Prince George’s County Memorial Library System Targeted by Anti-LGBTQIA+ Vandalism

DEI Audits: The Whole Picture | Equity

There Are No Lanes: Rural Libraries Do It ALL | Backtalk

After the MLIS

Capitol Gains: ALA 2022 Preview

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

News and New Resources Roundup

1. E-Readers: New York Public Library Launches SimplyE, new e-reader app (via amNewYork) UPDATE July 12, 2016: We’ve now posted the full text of the official NYPL launch announcement below. ...

Now Available: Slides from NISO/BISG 10th Annual Forum: "The Changing Standards Landscape: The User's Experience"

The NISO/BISG 10th Annual Forum took place on Friday, June 24, 2016 during the ALA Annual Conference 2016 in Orlando, FL. The agenda with links to slides posted on SlideShare is ...

OverDrive: "Public Libraries and Schools Surpass Half a Billion Digital Book Loans in 2021"

From OverDrive: As the pandemic persisted in 2021, librarians and educators enabled readers worldwide to borrow 506 million ebooks, audiobooks and digital magazines, a 16% increase over 2020. With a ...

COVID-19: Special Offers, Events, News, and Updates From Library Vendors, Publishers, Online Services, and Others

The links below provide updates and special offers from vendors and other companies that work with the library community. Latest Additions Expanded Access to JSTOR During Covid-19 Crisis Follett, Baker ...

ALA and Canadian Urban Library Council Respond to Tor Books Four-Month Embargo on Selling New Ebook Titles to...

UPDATE August 18, 2018 Librarians Question Tor’s E-book Embargo (via Publishers Weekly) –End Update— UPDATE August 10, 2018  “American Library Association nor the Canadian Urban Library Council Have Received Replies to ...

Library Freedom Project Reports 20 Organizations Have Endorsed the Library Digital Privacy Pledge

Kudos to Alison Macrina and Eric Hellman for their leadership and the 20 organizations for making the endorsement. Details about how to add your organization to the list of organizations ...

IMLS Awards More Than $12 Million Dollars in National Leadership Grants

From the Institute For Museum and Library Services: The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced 52 National Leadership Grants totaling $12,065,054. The institutions receiving the awards are ...

Google Book Settlement Rejected: Press Review, Comments, and Resources

UPDATED (March 27, 2011, 10:30pm EDST) Recent Additions “Doing Google Books Right” (by David Weinberger, Joho the Blog) Now it seems it’ll be up to Congress to address the orphaned ...

Digital Preservation: "NYU Division of Libraries Issues First-ever Guidelines For Publishing Preservable, Complex Digital Scholarship"

From New York University (NYU Libraries): New York University Division of Libraries has developed and issued a set of digital-publication guidelines, the first of their kind, to make it easier ...

New Data: Public Library Association (PLA) Releases "2020 Public Library Technology Survey" Report

From the American Library Association: As the nation celebrates Library Card Sign-up Month this September, a new report from the Public Library Association (PLA) details how libraries are further extending ...

New Online: "The Need for Change: A Position Paper on E-Lending by the ALA Joint Digital Content Working...

From ALA: ” examines digital lending in public, academic, and K-12 school libraries. The paper notes current and long-standing challenges in digital content lending and the issues that complicate acquisition ...

The Internet Archive’s Community Webs Program Receives a $1.1 Million Mellon Foundation Award for a National Network of...

From an Internet Archive Blog Post by Jefferson Bailey: In 2017, the Internet Archive’s Archive-It service launched the program, “Community Webs: Empowering Public Libraries to Create Community History Web Archives.” ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW INFODOCKET ON TWITTER

Tweets by @infodocket

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.