The poster girl for self-publishing, Amanda Hocking (her ten YA urban fantasy and paranormal romances have grossed around $2 million since she began publishing them through Amazon’s CreateSpace last year), was profiled in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.

But she recently abandoned her self-pubbed status for a major deal with St. Martin’s. Why? She tells the NYT Magazine that she wants “…to reach as many people as possible among the 85 percent or so of the population who don’t have e-readers yet. For me to be a billion-dollar author…I need to have people buying my books at Wal-Mart.” Also, there is a concern that major retailers will not want to stock books published by their competitor, Amazon.

St. Martin’s will publish Hocking’s Trylle trilogy (already in paperback by CreateSpace and on Kindle) in August, 2012. The original Watersong series begins Fall 2012.

Trylle trilogy

Switched 9781250006318; January 8, 2012 (currently available from CreateSpace, pbk, July 5, 2010; 9781453688939)

Torn 978125000632; February , 2012 (currently available from CreateSpace, pbk, Nov. 15, 2010, 2010; 9781456355791)

Ascend 9781250006332; April 2012 (currently available from CreateSpace, pbk, Jan. 11 2011, 2010; 9781456541286)

Watersong (exact pub dates not set for later titles in the series)

Wake 9781250008121; August 2012

Lullaby 9781250008107; (Fall 2012)

Tidal 9781250005663 (Winter 2013)

Elegy 9781250005670 (Spring/Summer 2013)

Yesterday, Amazon announced that another self-published author, John Locke, has joined their “Kindle Million Club,” for authors who have sold over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store. The author of mysteries and westerns, Locke publishes his paperbacks through self-publisher Telemachus Press and uses Kindle Direct Publishing for his ebooks.

If Amazon authors choose to do so, they can make their eBooks available to libraries through OverDrive; but neither Hocking nor Locke are listed on OverDrive’s database.

Amazon, which recently added publishing to its businesses, just made a major, attention-getting step by hiring Larry Kirshbaum, former long-time CEO of TimeWarner Book Group (now Hachette Books), one of publishing’s “Big Six” companies, to head up their publishing operations in New York.

Amazon began making inroads into publishing with AmazonEncore, launched in 2009 to identify strong selling digital titles, many of them self-published, to re-edit, market and distribute in both eBook and print format. They quickly added AmazonCrossing, to translate titles into English and just last week announced a two new imprints, Montlake Romance and Thomas & Mercer  mysteries.

These moves worry many in the business; one unnamed publisher told the Wall Street Journal, that Amazon has an unfair marketing advantage;  “They can push their writers to the front and they have a decade of genre purchaser information.” Booksellers, who have long had issues with Amazon, have threatened boycotts of books by authors who publish through Amazon (thriller writer Joe Konrath’s takes strong issue with these tactics on his blog).

Will ebook versions of Amazon titles be available for library lending? Currently, that is a decision made by the authors; Konrath, for instance, recently made a deal to distribute 22 of his titles to libraries through OverDrive. One of the advantages of ebooks for libraries, says Konrath is that, “…unlike print, which wears out, an eBook is forever. It won’t get that crooked spine. You can’t rip the pages. The cover never needs to be replaced.”

Of course, some publishers and authors do not see that as an advantage.

Amazon has declared many landmarks for Kindle books outselling print, but all have been with an asterisk (comparison made to paperback sales only, comparison includes free Kindle downloads, time period follows a gift-giving season when many people received Kindles as gifts).

But today’s news release may signal an actual tipping point. Amazon announced that, since April 1, they have sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 in print, whether hardcover or paperback.

In addition, they say they have sold more than three times as many Kindle books than they did for the same period last year.

No actual numbers are included, so it is still nearly impossible to ferret out what percentage Kindle sales represents of the total book business.

Today’s Morning Edition on NPR featured the re-release, in ebook, of the classic From Here to Eternity by James Jones (listen to the story here). More than a simple re-release, however, it is a “restored edition,” which includes sections that deal with homosexuality in the military, censored in the ’50’s.

Happily, tthe publisher, Open Road Media makes its titles available for library lending through OverDrive.

Amazon announced this morning that they are working with OverDrive to make eBooks available for Kindle users later this year. The story is being carried by several national news sources:

NYT, Media Decoder blog; Coming to Your Kindle: Library Books

CNN, Amazon announces e-book loans for the Kindle

TIME; Amazon Announces e-Book Lending Partnership with Local Libraries

Wall Street Journal; Amazon to Add Library Lending to Kindle

The Associated Press; Amazon says library e-books coming to the Kindle

Specific question about the program are being addressed on the OverDrive blog.

Last night, NPR’s All Things Considered looked at “The Future Of Libraries In The E-Book Age,” in light of HarperCollins’ newly-instituted limit of 26 circulations in libraries.

Two librarians offered differing solutions. Christopher Platt of the NYPL is in favor of a leasing model that allows libraries to buy a number of uses and apply them as they see fit. Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor District (MI) Library (who has said elsewhere that libraries are “screwed” in the ebook world) thinks libraries should bypass publishers and deal directly with writers and artists to get content.

Simon and Schuster is one of the two publishers in the Big Six that do not sell ebooks to libraries (Macmillan is the other one). In a public interview yesterday, Carolyn Reidy, CEO of the company, indicated that is not likely to change soon. As reported on TeleRead, she said, “We don’t yet sell ebooks to libraries because haven’t found a business model that they are happy with…[we] have met with various people about library solutions but haven’t found one yet.”

This serves to further highlight what we wrote earlier, that librarians concerned about their ability to circulate ebooks need to look beyond the change in HarperCollins’ policy (LJ’s Editor-in-Chief, Francine Fialkoff also addresses this issue in yesterday’s editorial, “It’s Not About HarperCollins“).

Ebook Sales

Information on sales of ebooks has been dominated by Kindle hype (at MidWinter, several librarians were using the term “anecdata” for the kind of information generally available). The view from a publisher is valuable because it is less likely to be influenced by the desire to sell hardware. Reidy said that ebooks are  “now 15 – 20 % of units,” sold (she was not able to be definitive because B&N had some reporting problems early in the year) and that she expects that number to be 50% in five years.

Earlier this week, Hachette Livre reported to the UK publication, The Bookseller, that for their US division (which includes imprints Little, Brown and Grand Central), ebooks are now 23% of sales volume and, since the beginning of the year, they represent 8 to 10% in terms of dollars (Reidy did not have information on S&S’s dollar sales).

It’s now official; in a front-page story, the New York Times, the “national newspaper of record” writes that libraries are protesting HarperCollins new 26-loan restriction on library e-book lending (the NYT covered the story earlier, but in the “Media Decoder” blog. It’s also been covered by other newspaper, such as USA Today).

Ironically, this attention may serve to bring more users to libraries for ebooks. As the article notes, “It is still a surprise to many consumers that e-books are available in libraries at all.” Nevertheless, ebook lending has risen by 36% in the New York Public Library in the last year.

The story quotes Macmillan CEO Jon Sargent, one of the two major trade publishers that does not loan ebooks to libraries (the other is S&S), who says Macmillan will continue that policy until they “…find terms that satisfy the needs of the libraries and protect the value of our intellectual property.”

As to whether other major publishers will follow the HarperCollins’ approach, Stuart Applebaum of Random House says they have no immediate plans to do so, but will not rule out that possibility.

How important are library sales to large trade publishers? In an industry where statistics are difficult to come by, there are no reliable industry-wide figures. Two major trade publishers told the NYT reporter, “Sales to libraries can account for 7 to 9 percent of a publisher’s overall revenue.”

Below is a letter to librarians, just issued by HarperCollins. Steve Potash, OverDrive CEO has also issued a statement on the company’s web site (via Library Journal).

March 1, 2010

Open Letter to Librarians:

Over the last few days we at HarperCollins have been listening to the discussion about changes to our e-book policy. HarperCollins is committed to libraries and recognizes that they are a crucial part of our local communities. We count on librarians reading our books and spreading the word about our authors’ good works. Our goal is to continue to sell e-books to libraries, while balancing the challenges and opportunities that the growth of e-books presents to all who are actively engaged in buying, selling, lending, promoting, writing and publishing books.

We are striving to find the best model for all parties. Guiding our decisions is our goal to make sure that all of our sales channels, in both print and digital formats, remain viable, not just today but in the future. Ensuring broad distribution through booksellers and libraries provides the greatest choice for readers and the greatest opportunity for authors’ books to be discovered.

Our prior e-book policy for libraries dates back almost 10 years to a time when the number of e-readers was too small to measure. It is projected that the installed base of e-reading devices domestically will reach nearly 40 million this year. We have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors. We are looking to balance the mission and needs of libraries and their patrons with those of authors and booksellers, so that the library channel can thrive alongside the growing e-book retail channel.

We spent many months examining the issues before making this change. We talked to agents and distributors, had discussions with librarians, and participated in the Library Journal e-book Summit and other conferences. Twenty-six circulations can provide a year of availability for titles with the highest demand, and much longer for other titles and core backlist. If a library decides to repurchase an e-book later in the book’s life, the price will be significantly lower as it will be pegged to a paperback price point. Our hope is to make the cost per circulation for e-books less than that of the corresponding physical book. In fact, the digital list price is generally 20% lower than the print version, and sold to distributors at a discount.

We invite libraries and library distributors to partner with us as we move forward with these new policies. We look forward to ongoing discussions about changes in this space and will continue to look to collaborate on mutually beneficial opportunities.

To continue the discussion please email library.ebook@HarperCollins.com

Sincerely,

Josh Marwell
President of Sales
HarperCollinsPublishers

On Friday, news broke that, as of March, new HarperCollins ebook titles licensed though library vendors, will have a cap of 26 circulations.

Librarians, concerned about the limits this puts on their ability to serve their communities, immediately began protesting on blogs, listservs and Twitter (#hcod). The protests caught the attention of The New York Times, which published a story last night on the “Media Decoder” blog.

Some librarians are now urging their colleagues to boycott all HarperCollins’ titles, in print and well as eBooks.

Both parties are nervous right now, which makes this discussion particularly heated. Libraries are struggling for their existence, and publishers fear they are, too. The Borders bankruptcy puts a particularly strong light on the shrinking number of bookstores. Further, publishers worry that ebooks will send them the way of the music business.

Two other Big Six publishers have their own ebooks-in-libraries solution; they aren’t making them available at all. John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan, explained  last year that he doesn’t see the current model of licensing ebooks to libraries as good for his business. He later met with a group of librarians at BEA, but that did not seem to change his mind; Macmillan (which includes FSG, St. Martin’s, Holt, among others) still does not make their ebooks available to libraries. One of  the concerns Sargent articulated is that an ebook can circulate forever without replacement. The HarperCollins’ circulation cap is one alternative to that objection.

Now is the time to offer other ideas that allow you to serve your users. Creating new models is not easy, but librarians, who have dealt with electronic licensing for decades, are more expert than trade publishers in this area.

On Twitter on Friday (#hcod), HarperCollins tweeted —

We’re reading your posts – and listening to our authors. If you want to share longer thoughts with us, email library.ebook@harpercollins.com.

Take advantage of that; get a real discussion going.

Two articles published today seem to present contrasting views of whether eBooks are at the tipping point. The NYT declares, In a Digital Age, Students Still Cling to Paper Textbooks, while USA Today says More bibliophiles get on the same page with digital readers.

However, some statistics in the USA Today story indicate that a total conversion to eBooks is not around the corner. Commenting on an August Harris poll in which 80% of the respondents said they do not plan to buy an eReader in the next six months, an analyst predicts

…a gradual, uninterrupted growth in e-books…tipping point implies there will be something overnight which will instantly change the character of the publishing business. Thousands of new consumers are showing up in the e-book ‘yes’ column every day, but on the other hand, there are still over 120 million people who buy print books.

The ability to slice and dice content digitally, giving new life to backlist titles, is often touted as a major advantage for publishers. Often touted, but so far, rarely used.

Simon and Schuster just announced that they are releasing an eBook called Truman Fires MacArthur, about the event that is the historical precedent of “Obama Fires MacChrystal.” The ebook is an excerpt of David McCullough’s 1992 Pulitzer Prize winning bio, Truman.

It appears the excerpt is not available to libraries. However, the full book is available electronically through OverDrive.

In her L.A. Times blog “Jacket Copy,” Carolyn Kellogg notes calls this a smart move by S&S’s brand-new publisher, Jonathan Karp, the former publisher and founder of the Grand Central imprint Twelve, and says it  bodes well for  his leadership of S&S.

By the way, for libraries that haven’t already done so, this is a good reminder to bring the book out of the stacks and display it.

Truman David McCullough Retail Price: $22.00 Paperback: 1120 pages Publisher: Simon & Schuster – (1993-06-14) ISBN / EAN: 0671869205 / 9780671869205