Friday, August 31, 2012

Libraries and eBooks

Tip of the Day: Go eat a cookie/ice cream sandwich. Why? Because they're yummy and one won't kill you. ;)

For a while now, I've been trying to figure out how to get my ebooks into libraries. Overdrive won't have me. Smashwords is starting a system, but it's taking a long time to get it up and running, much less get more than a handful of libraries to join.

I even asked A2A girl Deena how I can give my ebooks to libraries. Yeah, you heard me right - give. For free.

Look, I love libraries. My mom has been a library aide since I was in 2nd grade. I've worked in libraries. I'm a lifetime member of my local Friends of the Library. I volunteer at my library a few hours every month. I'm going to two state library conferences in October.

I <3 LIBRARIES.

So if any libraries out there want my ebooks, they can have them for free. No DRM. Unlimited checkouts.

I thought I was the only one, until Joe Konrath posted about this yesterday. He wants to sell his ebooks for $3.99. Big whoop. I think any library can handle $3.99 for an ebook that they can keep in circulation forever.

I'm going to continue to pursue this. I might contact the library Joe referenced in his blog post. I plan to talk with more librarians this fall and find out how I can help them build their ebook collections. The big pubs are snubbing libraries - forcing them to buy super-expensive ebooks with limited checkouts. Some big pubs have even severed their relationship with Overdrive.

So, if any librarians are out there and want free copies of my ebooks, let me know. They're yours. Forever.

(Oh, and if you're a reader of my books, my latest novel, The Sundering, dropped last night on Amazon. The other sites should have it soon too.)

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

5 comments:

Elizabeth Varadan, Author said...

If you go in and ask a librarian, they can tell you who to contact to find out how to give your book to the library. I donated a print book of mine to my local libray and it's been very satisfying to know kids are checking it out. I grew up with public libraries being a vital part of my life and love the idea of being in the system.

Megg Jensen said...

It's a different process with ebooks. Their libraries need specific programs to accept them and integrate them into their system.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

Let me know if you figure it out! I would love to do this too!

Emily Marshall said...

Yes ebooks and libraries are much more complicated. I wish it weren't so difficult. Hopefully things will get easier in the future. And overdrive seems to be making tons of changes, so they might accept more indie authors eventually. Hopefully. Plus with more competitors popping up its likely to change completely. I don't even know how we could logistically accept ebooks from authors. It probably could be done to integrate directly in our catalog, but not easily yet.

DeenaML said...

It is ridiculous that it is so difficult to get ebooks -- indy or Big 6 -- into the library system! Megg, definitely keep me posted if you learn anything before us librarians do! There are so many great ones I want to buy and can't....and our patrons want them too!