The Macmillan CEO insisted the embargo wasn’t designed to ‘punish’ libraries but was an honest effort to correct an ‘imbalance in the publishing ecosystem.’
Catching up with PW's Andrew Albanese
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Last weekend at the American Library Association Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, Macmillan CEO John Sargent invited attendees to an “Ask Me Anything” session. The subject for discussion: that publisher’s sales embargo on new release e-books for public libraries.
“Sargent briefly recapped the rationale he made in two memos for pursuing the embargo, expressing concern that the rapid growth of library e-book lending is creating an ‘imbalance in the publishing ecosystem,’ not unlike the growth curve Amazon created when it first launched the Kindle and priced new release e-books at $9.99,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“He insisted the embargo wasn’t designed to ‘punish’ libraries, but was an honest effort to correct that imbalance,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.
“To restore balance, Sargent told librarians, the publisher basically had two ‘levers’ at its disposal – pricing and availability. With library e-book prices already high, Sargent said, Macmillan executives ‘did some math’ and concluded that tweaking the availability lever seemed worth a shot.”
Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.
