Penguin Cuts Off All Library Ebooks

It looks like the meeting that the ALA held with major publishers on Wednesday went even worse than I thought. On Thursday afternoon Penguin announcedthat they were permanently ending their relationship with Overdrive.

In these ever changing times, it is vital that we forge relationships with libraries and build a future together. We care about preserving the value of our authors’ work as well as helping libraries continue to serve their communities. Our ongoing partnership with the ALA is more important than ever, and our recent talks with ALA leadership helped bring everything into focus.

Looking ahead, we are continuing to talk about our future plans for eBook and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services. Because of these discussions, as of February 10, 2012, Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and audiobooks for purchase via Overdrive.

TBH, I'm not surprised. Penguin had already made this decision months ago; this was merely confirmation that it was permanent.

Update: And now it gets worse. Penguin also cut off the over-the-air Kindle support.

Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012), Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of e-books and download audiobooks for library purchase. Additionally, Penguin eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer then transferred to the device over USB. For library patrons, this means Penguin eBooks will no longer be available for over-the-air delivery to Kindle devices or to Kindle apps.