Amazon Publishing, which releases more than 1,000 titles per year, is in talks with the Digital Public Library of America to offer its ebooks to libraries through DPLA’s ebook reading platform, SimplyE.
Not to be confused with Amazon KDP (the self-publishing division), Amazon Publishing is a traditional publishing operation that consists of about two dozen imprints across nearly every genre. Until now, its policy has been to withhold ebooks from library lending under any terms—and it is the largest US publisher to do so. Moreover, it’s been claimed that Amazon has shared data with big publishers convincing them that library lending hurts book sales, leading to recent licensing changes unfavorable to libraries, such as the Macmillan embargo.
But apparently Amazon has had a change of heart, although only for ebooks; any new deal will not include Audible Originals, which remain exclusive to that platform.
Andrew Albanese at Publishers Weekly points out that while this appears to be positive news, the DPLA Exchange is used by a small fraction of libraries, and SimplyE does not yet enjoy wide adoption. So this may be a clever way for Amazon to counter growing criticism of its policy while not “getting in too deep.”
For those unfamiliar with the DPLA: the organization has been working on reducing libraries’ reliance on restrictive distributors’ terms through its project known as the DPLA Exchange [since rebranded Palace Marketplace], launched in 2017. The exchange is a marketplace where libraries can purchase digital content for their collections as well as gain access to thousands of public domain works. (So far, 500,000 titles are available from 60 publishers.) The New York Public Library uses the DPLA Exchange; furthermore, *NYPL helped develop SimplyE, a free, open-source e-reader app that any library can use, essentially competing with OverDrive’s Libby. The DPLA hopes that by developing a direct relationship with publishers through the Exchange, they will find out what the real limits are to licensing; currently, the market knows only the constraints imposed by distributors.
*Clarification: NYPL is the primary developer of SimplyE, and its development began prior to the inception of the DPLA Exchange. We thank Risa Wolf at the NYPL for bringing this to our attention.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
