OverDrive, Axis360, and 3M Cloud Library to Carry Hachette eBooks
When Hachette announced yesterday that they would soon be selling their ebook front list to libraries there was one key detail that they left out. The press release mentioned the extortionate prices that Hachette planned to charge for the ebooks, but it didn’t mention which of the library ebook vendors will be carrying the ebooks.
This is actually a more important detail than it might appear because a number of the major publishers have a bee in their bonnet about OverDrive. Penguin and Simon & Schuster, have all entered (or re-entered) the library ebook market while at the same time refusing to do business with the largest library ebook vendor.
Luckily for us the vendors haven’t been silent on this issue. Baker & Taylor, 3M, and OverDrive have each issued a press release which promised that they will soon make Hachette’s 5,000 title ebook catalog available to their partner libraries.
There was no date mentioned for the 3M Cloud Library, but OD and Axis 360 will reportedly offer the ebooks on 8 May. None of the vendors have released details on pricing or availability, but I would assume that the prices will largely be the same. Hachette will probably set the prices and try to maintain a uniform price between the vendors. And as Hachette informed us yesterday, future ebook releases will be made available at the same time as new print editions, of course.
Comments
App Wars | Check It Out May 30, 2013 um 1:47 pm
[…] Hachette’s press release about their new offers to libraries, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and 3M announced that they would be the distributors of Hachette’s 5000 or so digital titles. I am very […]