Whatever next?

Did you know that China-based readers get around copyright laws by joining British libraries and plundering their virtual collections for free? No, I didn't either. But because of this Chinese crime, publishers are re-thinking how libraries access their ebooks. It's not a move admired by libraries as they fight for survival. Here are some of the arguments kicking around at the moment. The links will take you to the original articles.


The Publishers Association claims this poses a serious threat to publishers' commercial activities. So they want readers to come to the library premises to borrow ebooks – which sort of defeats the object of the e-reading concept.
One library authority briefly allowed borrowers outside its geographical boundaries access to ebooks, and publicised the service with the line: "Free ebooks, wherever you are, whenever you want." Reading that, one can see why publishers dislike the idea.


Overdrive (the system that allows remote library lending) insists the debate is a storm in a teacup. The system establishes checks to ensure that libraries serve only to those customers in their service area, abd that particular library no longer uses that particular slogan.


Some authors object to ebooks on the basis that while they currently receive 6p every time a physical copy of their book is borrowed from a library, they don't get a penny if the digital version is loaned.


There is more. HarperCollins has entered the fray, telling libraries that henceforth ebooks will be sold on the condition that they can only be circulated 26 times before they self-destruct. They claim this reflects the usage of the print editions sold by HarperCollins to libraries for literally centuries. As most librarians and readers will know – indeed anyone with a modicum of common sense – this is not true. the ebook deal HarperCollins is offering to libraries. It's bizarre to argue that this finite durability is a feature that we should carefully import into new media.


It is true Ebooks have loads of demerits when marketed to libraries. They are sold at full price, while print editions generally go at a hefty discount to reflect libraries' volume purchasing. They can only be read with proprietary readers, which is a bit like insisting patrons read their books by the light of one preferred lightbulb. They can't be sold on as a library discard once the library no longer needs them for the collection.


But they have virtues, too. The major one is that they don't wear out. To pretend that this virtue belongs on the vice side of the argument is indefensible. Of course ebooks don't wear out. We all know that.

Fame!

I attended my first author panel yesterday evening, and do you know, it wasn't so bad. Once I got the first sentence out, it seemed good fun. Knowing how nervous I was in spite of having six other authors alongside me, I can’t imagine what it must be like to walk into a hall alone and face 70-80 people as Philippa Gregory did at Alnwick last week.
But I suppose one can get used to anything.

Northumberland Libraries took a room in the Tankerville Arms Hotel, Wooler
since the local library did not have enough space to take everyone. As I said, there were six other authors besides me, and all of them had done this sort of thing before. If you look at the pic (perhaps enlarge it by clicking on it?) Prue Phillipson sits to the left, followed by Janet MacLeod Trotter, Anna Louise Lucia, Margaret Carr, Abigail Bosanko and Michelle Styles' attention has been caught by something on the information board!

Naturally, dh and I arrived ridiculously early, as we usually do. I always used to arrive dead on the minute for anything, but he has slowly got me around to his way of thinking. We covered the sixty-five miles across the sunny Northumberland landscape with no hold-ups. I was first there. Too eager, I know.

Diane Wright, the area Librarian, had everything set up, people arrived, and off we went. First topic – why was I drawn to write in my chosen genre? I gave a brief answer about loving reading, history and being a librarian which probably wasn’t too logical, but seemed to fit the bill. I can’t actually remember what I said, but Prue followed on seamlessly, and then on down the line. A chunk of infor from everyone and then on to the next person.

The next question was about selling the first book, and I’d got my breath back now listening to everyone else, and began to enjoy myself. Told the tale of dh scanning my typewritten pages into a computer for me, and of selling Banners of Alba in America and hearing that the publisher declared herself bankrupt the very day my book came out!

There was a break in the middle for nibbles, a glass of wine and the chance to mingle before back to part two. I shouldn’t have had the wine, for I could feel my cheeks flaring. Probably looked like a Dutch doll with a temperature, but by then it couldn’t be helped. Diane finally stopped us half an hour after the specified time, and when I left people were still buzzing and talking. Twenty nine people in the audience, and a very good evening. Congratulations, Diane on a well run evening. I can’t wait for the next one.