This is what it looks like on my library website when I check out a kindle book.
Yay! I’ve been waiting for so long to get library books on my kindle. Up until this point, this was one of those areas that the Nook had a clear advantage. So, last Wednesday (the first day you could borrow library books for you kindle) I got onto my libraries’ website and went a little nuts. At least half of my Amazon wish list was available at my local library. My local library subscribes to OverDrive, which is the ebook borrowing service that supports kindle library books. It was easy to check out a book and it delivers wirelessly to my kindle just like purchasing a book. Some of the popular books have waiting lists because like real books, the library has a limited number of ebooks available. One thing that I love about borrowing ebooks is that they are automatically returned. That means no late fees and no waiting longer when some bozo lost the book you’ve been waiting weeks to read.
I thought that the kindle would allow the popular epub format of ebooks to work on it, but to my surprise there was a separate link under each book for the kindle version of that book. This worries me. The Harry Potter ebooks are going to be sold by Google Books this October and Google only sells epub format books. Am I going to be able to read Harry Potter on my kindle? I can’t say for sure until they start selling them, but if I can’t read Harry Potter on my kindle, my pure love will turn to blackest hate.
There were a few articles last week about publishers getting nervous over ebooks being available from libraries. These nervous publishers are obviously making decisions based off of fear. Let me give you an example. I’m going to borrow Eragon from the library. The movie version of this book was so bad that I would never in a million years pay to read it. However, I am willing to give it a try if I don’t have to pay to read it. This is true of all books. People are more willing to try things that are free. This increases demand. Libraries pay for books. I don’t get what publishers are complaining about. Another example; I borrowed the Twilight Saga on my kindle even though I own all of these books just because I’d rather read them on my kindle. I personally think that libraries increase the demand for books. Libraries buy more of the popular books and people that don’t like waiting for them go out and buy them. I think this means more profit for publishers in general.
What do you think? Do you think libraries are good or bad for the profit of publishing companies?
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
I think libraries should have ebooks. The best publishers will figure out a way to take advantage of this. There are a lot of people to who can’t read a book in the time frame given by library lending and some of those people prefer to buy the book rather than wait their turn again from the library – I’m sure though publishers have the numbers on this, or maybe they’re working on it.