Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Douglas County Libraries Refers Patrons to Bilbary. What About Smashwords?

Douglas County Libraries' (DCL) director, Jamie LaRue, is referring DCL's patrons to Bilbary for ebooks that aren't available within the county's library system (see ""Buying Ebooks from Bilbary – Douglas County Libraries"). Mentioned is the fact that the Big 6 are still rather unwilling to sell to libraries, and those that do, still place insidious and insipid demands on libraries. To circumvent traditional-publishing's buffoonery, DCL makes available, via Bilbary, ebooks that are published by some of the Big 6; Random house was Bilbary's latest addition.

Bilbary's roots run deep within the sanctuary of the Big 6. Although a fledgling commercial venture, Bilbary is built on the backbone of Ingram Content Group. It does not loan ebooks for free; however, when a DCL patron buys an ebook from Bilbary, DCL claims it will receive 50% of the proceeds, which will supposedly be reinvested into titles from publishers other than the Big 6.

Enter Smashwords: This week, Smashwords will deliver, via its new Library Direct platform, an initial order of ebooks to DCL. Oddly, DCL's site makes no mention of its new relationship with Smashwords, but instead, focuses on gaining indirect access to Big-6 ebooks. So, Smashwords delivers best-of-class functionality once again, but the effort is downplayed – knocked from the limelight by the allure of Big-6 titles.

I am ecstatic that many well-branded authors are coming to Smashwords. How long will it be until the roles are reversed and Smashwords takes its rightful place in the catbird seat?

11 comments:

  1. Actually, all of the books we bought from Smashwords can be bought too, directly from within the catalog. Not so with Bilbary, which requires a separate search.

    When we get the Smashwords titles processed (not yet all received) you'll see that on our website, too.

    Jamie LaRue

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  2. Actually, all of the books we bought from Smashwords can be bought too, directly from within the catalog. Not so with Bilbary, which requires a separate search.

    When we get the Smashwords titles processed (not yet all received) you'll see that on our website, too.

    Jamie LaRue

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  3. Thank you, Jamie, for updating us on Douglas County Libraries' relationship with Smashwords. Your input cleared up the mystery. If you don't mind, and I doubt the information is confidential or proprietary, what were the criteria DCL used when selecting the ebooks you purchased from Smashwords? Your answer would help educate Smashwords' 45,000 authors, which includes me, as library relationships are relatively new to Smashwords.

    Thank you so much for your comment and time.

    With kind regards,
    LC

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  4. As another smashwords author I would also be interested to know that and want to say thanks to Jamie for clearing that up. :)

    Great post, LC!

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  5. Sorry, off on vacation there. I forget the exact algorithm we followed, but it included several things. First, we required that the authors had offered library pricing. Second, we wanted things that had already sold well -- although how well I couldn't say. Third, they were all English language titles. Fourth, we avoided erotica for the first go round. Ultimately, we bought 11,000 titles, all of which will be cataloged in our system, and have an in-catalog link to purchase.

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    1. Welcome back from your vacation, Jamie. I hope it was relaxing. You must be supercharged and eager to dig into work, right?

      Thank you for detailing some aspects that went into the purchase decision. Smashwords lists scores of titles that are free to the public, including others, such as my titles, that are priced at free for libraries.

      Did DCL acquire all of Smashwords' free titles (sans erotica, per your reqs)?

      Then, regarding library pricing, did those of us who priced our ebooks at "free for libraries" get included in DCL's purchase from Smashwords?

      My suspicion is that the logorithm might have used "free" as a subsort from within the pool of top-selling, and not necessarily ALL of Smashwords' free available titles. Am I correct?

      A rudimentary check to see if DCL might have received ALL of Smashwords' free titles, the data file from Smashwords would contain titles from li'l ol' me (LC Cooper). :)

      Gosh, please let me know if my ebooks aren't included, and I'd be glad to send them to you! I'm not pandering, of course ... merely "offering" (sure, let's call it that).

      Well, anyway, thanks so much again for participating in this conversation. Your insight is absolutely invaluable to authors and publishers. It's nice of you to take a moment to educate us.

      With kind regards,
      LC

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  6. To be frank, I don't know. But I'll find out today and get back to you. Incidentally, I tried to grab that free copy of "Legacy" below and the download link didn't work for me.

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    1. Hmmm... regarding downloading my ebook, "Legacy": I successfully downloaded it from Smashwords a few hours after your post. Was your attempt via Smashwords? What format do you use? I'll email a copy of "Legacy" to you.

      Thank you for checking into the scope of the free titles DCL received from Smashwords. If you want all free titles, then I'm pretty sure Smashwords' staff would be eager to provide them via your Smashwords linkage.

      All the best,
      LC

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  7. Just checked: we are not getting ALL of Smashwords free titles. After they run the list of the top 10,000 downloaded titles, they are giving us the top 1,000 free titles. We're still waiting on the list of final titles, so I can't check to see if you're on it. But it shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks till we have them all in our catalog.

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    1. Wow, thanks for the great feedback, Jamie! Assuming you want ALL of Smashwords' free titles, will you request them from your Smashwords' account rep? Probably 40,000 of we Smashwords authors would GREATLY appreciate your requesting our free titles! After all, if our free books not getting exposure, what's the point in setting their price to "free?"

      Take care,
      LC

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  8. very interesting. I can almost guarantee that my poor little books did not make it, either. (Joleene Naylor) as they're far from best sellers.

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Thank you for your comment! As my gift to you, please click link below
for your free copy of my ebook "Legacy".
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/17743

Take care,
LC Cooper