Ebooks are the new Prius
PrintJames LaRue’s post yesterday detailed the costs of ebook lending. In short, when the ebook costs about five times as much as print, you end up spending a lot of money for not a lot of access. But, if you can believe it, I don’t think LaRue went far enough in his statements about the worrisome cost of ebooks. Let’s take another look at the numbers.
Douglas County Libraries (DCL) purchased 149 copies of the print version for $9.41 apiece. That means $1,402.09 was spent on print copies to meet the current circs+holds demand of 1,497, resulting in a per loan cost of 94 cents for print.
DCL purchased 20 copies of the ebook version at a cost of $47.85 each. So $957 on ebooks to meet the circs+holds demand of 479 or a per loan cost of $2 for digital.
So ebooks are twice as expensive? Not really. It gets worse.
DCL purchased 149 copies of the print and ended up with 1,497 requests, or 10.5 requests per item on the print side. On the digital side, DCL bought 20 copies for 479 eventual requests, resulting in 23.95 requests per item. That means, as LaRue noted, much longer wait times.
If DCL wanted to bring ebook holdings to the same 10 requests/item level as print, it would need an additional 27 copies of the ebook. That would bring the total ebook expenditure to an astounding $2,248.95 and raise the cost/loan to an unsustainable $4.70 per circulation.
All this fancy (and hopefully not too fake) math does is show that if you want to buy comparable levels of access in print and digital, then the cost of ebooks is going to have you seeing red. And bleeding red in your budget. Right now, as LaRue pointed out, libraries’ best hope is Random House, HarperCollins, where you are paying the list price for 26 loans of an ebook. In this case, the nearly 500% ebook markup by Random House HarperCollinsmakes digital access untenable.
Let me put this a different way. One that doesn’t involve the emotions of books and libraries.
Buying ebooks for your library is like buying a Prius. It makes no economic sense.
If you think you are buying a Prius (or really almost any other hybrid) to save money on gas, you are deluding yourself. Sure, the hybrid is more efficient and uses less gas, but you won’t make back the upfront cost of going hybrid for hundreds of thousands of miles. And don’t think that you went hybrid to save the environment either; those batteries involve rather a lot of heavy metals and other toxic nasties.
In the end, people buy hybrids to help advance change in the world of car “publishing” (too subtle?). People see that hybrid and electric vehicles are the way forward, and some are willing to pay the higher costs of getting in early on a disruptive technology. And yet the tipping point is almost here: Both Toyota and Honda now have hybrid compact cars for around $18,000. At that price, you can save money in the relatively short term.
The question is, when will the tipping point for ebooks in libraries come? Because right now, if you are buying ebooks for your library from one of the Big Six publishers, it makes no economic sense. And yet, we know this is where things are going.
Just remember to always buckle up before you head down the road.
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Comments
put your thinking cap on
I agree E-books are on first look expensive; however instead of just complaining we as library leaders need to be open to options. One possible way of getting more value out of your e-books is to reduce the length of check-out time versus print. It would likely not inconvenience your patrons much as they can access the book from home, they may download the e-book upon receipt of an automatic e-mail notifying them of the boos availability, thus saving themselves the trouble of driving to the library to pick-up the print copy that is on reserve for them. Secondly you avoid to look at the TCO ( total cost of ownership) , the paper copies will over time need to be either repaired or replaced due to use, an additional few will be stolen. Those costs are not included in your calculations, not is the staff cost related to paying overdue’s, sending hold notices and the like. If we look at the really big picture the cost of E-books seems to be more reasonable.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 08/03/2012 - 15:28
Thinking cap is not dunce cap.
This comment has to be from a publisher! Here’s the good news: we get a little more use out of an ebook because it ALWAYS comes back on time, and it never gets stolen from the hold shelf. But five times more expensive is more reasonable. No.
Actually your condescension
Actually your condescension towards a fellow Library Director shows your intolerance and ignorance. A voice of opposition should be examined and studied not vilified. But good luck with you self published collection of e-books !
Actually...
This comment thread is done for now. If you want to come on here and post anonymously, that is certainly your right. But then don’t be surprised if your arguments are greeted with skepticism. I also figured your cement for a publisher astroturfing.
I think I can speak for Jamie as well when I say that open and frank dialogue is in everyone’s best interest. I welcome disagreements as a way to help grow. But if you are unwilling to own your comments, then leveraging attacks is way uncool.
Two things here. First, it’s
Two things here.
First, it’s HarperCollins which has the 26-loan limit. Random House is the one which tripled prices as of March 1 (although they’re currently having a sale on some newer titles at the previous price).
Second, how long do you expect the paperback copies to last? NOT that I’m advocating for ebooks necessarily here, mind you, but you need to think about whether those paperbacks will last long enough to fill the hold lists.
Ultimately, we need to make the best decisions for our libraries based on a realistic examination of the budget. With our budget, we can’t meet even our 1:10 hold ratio for certain titles (e.g. FSOG). Even Nancy Pearl admits that there is a limit. Hold to it.
Thanks for catching that
Thanks for catching that mixup on publishers. If you had left your name, I could make a more personal thanks.
The idea of an ebook sale on OverDrive strikes me as rather funny. What is the point of lowering the cost on selected titles? Is this an admission that the price they were at is not an accurate reflection? Are they seeking to manipulate purchases? Is this some kind of pay to play thing to game best seller lists?
As for the other points you raise, I expect the paper copies to last through at least five reads, which still makes them cheaper than the silly price of the FSoG ebook. If they last ten reads, even better.
In the end, I think we both agree, if he ebook deal we are presented is not working, we might have to pass it up. The problem, of course, is that we still have to meet the expectations (real or perceived) that we are lending digitally.
Random mistake corrected
Thanks for catching that error, which has been corrected.