Publishers Lunch (subscription required) quotes Overdrive CEO Steve Potash “are adapting as best we can” in “getting the information and making sure it’s good to go” from those publishers switching models, while warning that “there will be holes in [some publishers’] catalogs starting tomorrow.”
Among the issues with the Agency Five, Potash says, is that “some of the imprints and subsidiaries that may have not been initially identified” as changing models “are now also confirming that they are switching over,” such as Harper’s Zondervan division.
Calling it a “dynamic” situation that will have “people busy all day late into the night” getting ready, Potash notes “we are still getting input and data..from one or more” of the Agency Five. On the retail side as well, their “retail channel partners are in various states of adapting” to the new terms.
Potash notes that “the fire drill is around retail ebook sales in the US,” with very little effect on their international and institutional/library sales. He expects that “there are going to be pros and cons from this exercise,” saying that “in 6 or 9 months, we’ll see if this strategy was the right one.” He does believe that “by leveling some of the pricing we’ll see some new etailers come into the market offering ebooks.”
Once again the library community will most likely me screwed! Will we still have to pay full hardcover price for new releases while the retail prices come in far below (even if they are above $10)? I wish libraries would get together on this and push back.