1. Swimming upstream
Jamie LaRue, Director
Douglas County Libraries (CO)
<jlarue@dclibraries.org>
1

2. Library as last link:
- Author
- Agent
- Publisher
- Distributor
- Reviewer
- Library
- Reader
2

3. Change 3

4. Technology Economics
• Design (EPUB, Sigil, • Sell for $40,
Booktype) make $4
• Distribution = Internet • Sell for $9.99,
(web page, ftp, email, make $7
Dropbox)
Result?
Explosion of writing 4

5. In 2010:
New commercial titles: ~300,000
Non-traditional: 2.7 million
Small/independent: 290,000
Self-published: ~300,000
Big 5: not so important? 5

6. Theft • DRM
• Amazon  drives cost down
Pricing
• Agency pricing  drives cost up
• Variable pricing
Irrelevancy
Threats 6

7. 21st century problem: how to find the book. “Discoverability.” 7

8. • Add Value • Die
Where we are 8

9. Reader: I want it now
(but don’t own it anymore) 9

10. Publisher | distributor
lock it up 10

11. The Big 5 (51% of USA publishing):
* HarperCollins: buy again at 26 uses
* Random House: 3-5 times the price
* Penguin (now owned by RH): wait for 6 months,
get 1 year
* Macmillan, Simon and Schuster, Hachette: not
available at any price
So libraries now look to new publishers. 11

12. New publisher models:
* Smashwords.com – digital publishing
(85% to author)
* Unglue.it – set it free
* Publishing partnership with library 12

13. • Reviewers – blueinkreview.com
• Libraries
• Agents (international rights?)
• Authors (Creative Commons, gifts)
And the rest… 13

14. DCL Model 14

15. 15

16. Evoke.cvlsites.org 16

17. 17

18. 18

19. Questions? 19