Hello library ebook aficionados,
Carmi Parker and other members of the ReadersFirst Working Group have noticed that some prices seemed to be going up. They investigated.
Carmi has posted about what they found:
Price increases from three of the Big Five
August 23, 2024
Some of our libraries have seen unusually high costs over the past few months. We asked OverDrive to help us investigate and they shared that Hachette raised prices in May.
When we analyzed the price increase, we found that Macmillan and HarperCollins have also raised prices within the last year.
Details:
Washington Digital Library Consortium compared the price per unit we paid on Big Five titles in 2023 to what the price is now in OverDrive.
We found:
HarperCollins eAudio prices are now 8% higher than what we spent in 2023, and its eBook prices are 15% higher on average.
Hachette eAudio prices are 20% higher now than in 2023, which will be painful going forward because Hachette eAudio licenses expire after 24 months. Hachette eBook prices increased by 4%.
Macmillan eAudio is holding steady, but its eBook prices have increased by an average of 20%. Macmillan's policy has historically been to charge $60 for a 24 month license on a newly published eBook. One year after release, the eBook price used to change to $40. Now, Macmillan eBook titles more than one year old are $55.
WDLC confirmed the Hachette price increases with another large library system in another state and found identical data, so we believe these price increases are occurring for all OverDrive libraries. If you have questions or would like to see the data, please feel free to reach out to RF leadership.
I welcome comment from any of these publishers.
Michael
Michael Blackwell
Director, St Mary's County Library
23630 Hayden Farm Lane
Leonardtown, MD 20650
301-475-2151 x5013
mblackwell@stmalib.org
