Days before Macmillan's controversial embargo on new release e-books in public libraries is set to go into effect, Macmillan CEO John Sargent is speaking out to librarians. In an open letter to librarians published this week, he struck a somewhat conciliatory note, but his message remains unchanged: library e-books pose a problem.
"We believe the very rapid increase in the reading of borrowed e-books decreases the perceived economic value of a book ... I know that you pay us for these e-books, but to the reader, they are free." That is what is driving the embargo, Sargent suggests—the fear that readers are being trained to get e-books "instantly and seamlessly" from a library, "causing book-buying customers to change habits," and creating "a problem across the publishing ecosystem (authors, illustrators, agents, publishers, libraries, retailers, and readers)."
"We believe the very rapid increase in the reading of borrowed e-books decreases the perceived economic value of a book ... I know that you pay us for these e-books, but to the reader, they are free." That is what is driving the embargo, Sargent suggests—the fear that readers are being trained to get e-books "instantly and seamlessly" from a library, "causing book-buying customers to change habits," and creating "a problem across the publishing ecosystem (authors, illustrators, agents, publishers, libraries, retailers, and readers)."