The Tangled Web
Publishers’ and aggregators’ e-book pricing
models:
trying to please everybody
Linda Bennett
linda@goldleaf.co.uk
Pricing e-books: the issues for
publishers’ customers?
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Individual users / purchasers want flexibility,
particularly the option of buying parts of the
book, or leasing the whole book for a short
period
Librarians often expect e-books to be cheaper
than print or even free
Librarians want simultaneous user access per
title (not one copy, one user)
Librarians want more high-demand material to
be available in e-format, particularly textbooks
Some librarians prefer aggregated collections
to publisher-specific collections
Some librarians want one platform, not several
different platforms from different publishers; thus
there is a continuing role for the e-book
aggregator
Pricing e-books: the issues for
publishers?
• E-books cost at least as much to
produce as print
• The publisher should be paid
appropriately for allowing
simultaneous library user access per
title
• The publisher should be paid
appropriately for making highdemand material available to libraries
in e-format
• Making e-books available through
different channels and allowing
flexibility of choice are generally
supported by publishers: appropriate
methods of remuneration have to be
found
What about aggregators?
• They are secondary publishers
• They ‘reduce the time and
effort needed to regularly
check websites for updates’
[wikipedia]
• They enable librarians to deal
with fewer intermediaries
• They help publishers to
increase their customer-base,
by providing more routes to
market
• They are very useful
scapegoats!
The simultaneous usage
debate
• Only a tiny percentage of e-books (mainly
monographs) are ever viewed
simultaneously by more than 2 or 3 people
• T & F has allowed up to 5 simultaneous
users per title, which would seem to cover
most current eventualities
• Why not therefore allow unrestricted
simultaneous usage?
Because so far most publishers have not
made many textbooks available as ebooks. If they do make more textbooks
available, they need the restriction in
order to preserve existing revenues
• If the librarian wants more simultaneous
usage per title, the fair solution is for them
to buy more e-copies of that title
Selling e-books: the options
1. The retail model
• End-user buys discrete copy of ebook in chosen format, via
publishers’ or booksellers’ website,
often using a prefabricated
electronic retail service
• Refinements may be offered on
purchase of whole book: read-only;
read, view and print, slice-and-dice,
etc.; or the option to compile a
‘book’ from several different
publications
• Whole e-book price usually similar to
hardback price, with premium
charged for part-book sales
• Some publishers are now offering
pay-per-view as well as outright sale
to individuals
Selling e-books: the options
2. The direct library sale model
• Library / organisation buys a copy of
the e-book ‘in perpetuity’
• The price charged for the e-book
usually bears some relation to the
price of the print version
• A maintenance fee for access to the
platform may also be charged
Selling e-books: the options
3. The subscription model
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Library / organisation gets access to a collection by paying an annual
subscription (‘site licence’). There is usually a minimum order
requirement
Some publishers allow full multiple user access, some simultaneous
access to a specified number of individuals, some don’t allow it
Discounts are often given for multi-year deals
Prices are set according to subject area and the number of titles
offered, and may also relate to the size of the institution, the number of
FTEs requiring access to the collection, or some kind of ‘banding’
arrangement
The relationship to the print price may be tenuous or non-existent
Some e-book aggregators
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NetLibrary
ebrary
Ebooks corporation / EBL
MyiLibrary
Books24x7
Knovel
NetLibrary
• Oldest and biggest
aggregator
• Holds approximately
120,000 titles, plus journals,
audiobooks, ‘e-Content’
• Core model: one book,
one user
• Also offers collections
• Frequently runs special
offers and deals
E-books Corporation /
EBL
• Approximately 80,000 titles
• EBC offers consumers a retail
model
• EBL:
– Main model is outright sale
– Online or offline access
– ‘non-linear’ lending: limited
multiple concurrent use (325
‘lends’)
– Short-term loan: libraries can rent a
book to be used by a single patron
for a short period
MyiLibrary
• 60,000 titles
• Single and multi-concurrent user book
pricing (one-off or subscription – oneoff most popular)
• Single and multi-concurrent user
pricing for set collections
• Individual publisher bundle
arrangements
• Annual subscription options for
bundles and collections
• Content can also be delivered in
‘chunks’
• Special offers
Books24x7
• Online access only
• XML not PDF
• Specialist titles aimed at
businesses and academia:
Computing, Engineering,
Business, HR
• Subscription model only
– Individual
– Corporate / institutional
– Access sold to complete
collection or six individual
collections
• Price based on number of users
Knovel
• 800 reference works and classic texts
in Science and Engineering
• Core customers are corporate,
academic, government. Some retail
• Knovel Library. Core model =
subscription
• Lowest level of access by subject
area (17 subjects)
• Access can be obtained on
concurrent user or enterprise (relevant
user) basis
• There are individual title outright sale
options
• Knovel Publishing Platform. Publishers
offering content on this set prices for
end-users. Options range from payper-view to institutional access
Some e-book publishers
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Elsevier
Springer
Taylor & Francis
Wiley
Oxford University Press
Cambridge University Press
Elsevier Science Direct
• Annual subscription for all serialised content or reference works
• Upfront payment option for site-wide access to handbooks.
Small annual charge from second year onwards. Additional
payment charged for new volumes coming on a yearly basis
and any new ancillary material
• One-time payment for ‘standalone’ reference works, without
continuing annual fees tied to updates. When a new edition
appears, the library is alerted and offered another one-time
payment choice
• Pick and choose option for book series, handbooks and major
reference works – allows the library to make its own choice
• One-time payment option for subject collections (there are 18
of these)
• All one-time payments have to represent a minimum spend of
$1,000
• Books from Science Direct can be purchased regardless of
whether or not the library has a Science Direct site licence
Springer
• Springer e-book collection won prize for
best STM Information Product of 2006
• Main model is outright purchase, with
modest hosting fee
• Subscription model available for specific
collections
• 15,000 titles available, with 3,000 to be
added each year, in 13 subject
categories
• Once a library purchases the collection, its
users are allowed unlimited simultaneous
access ‘in perpetuity’
• Integration with Springer’s e-journals
collection via SpringerLink
Taylor & Francis
• Retail model:
– Outright purchase by title. 16,500
titles available in four different
formats
– eSubscribe: instant online access
to e-content
– DX Portable: offline access to
subscribed / purchased e-content
– ePrint / e-Copy micropurchase
facility
– eCompile: create your own ebook facility
Taylor & Francis
• Institutional model:
– 30 online e-collections available
(or do-it-yourself collections)
– Each collection may be accessed
by outright purchase or annual
subscription
– Subscriptions based on 25% of print
cover price for titles in collection
– Up to five simultaneous users
allowed
– One, two or three year options,
with discounts for multi-year deals
Wiley Interscience
• One-time fee option:
– Institution builds customised
collection (min 20 titles)
– Pays once for ongoing access for
all titles
– Pricing based on list price of
hardbacks
– Discount based on institution size /
number of titles purchased
annually
– Unlimited concurrent usage
Wiley Interscience
• Flexi-Subscription Option:
– Institution builds customised collection
(min 20 titles)
– Annual flat fee determined by
institution size
– Ongoing access for any title licensed
for 3 consecutive years with no further
charge (‘auto-subscription’)
– Titles added midway through
subscription year charged at full
annual rate; part-year counts towards
‘auto-subscription’
– Titles can be added, deleted or
swapped at renewal date, subject to
20-title minimum rule
Oxford Scholarship Online
• Fully searchable full text of about 1200
titles in four subjects (added to at the
rate of 200 titles annually)
• Librarians can choose to purchase or
subscribe to either the full collection or
individual subject modules
• Subscriptions negotiated on a site
licence basis
• One-time purchase fee gives access
‘in perpetuity’ (plus modest annual
hosting fee)
Cambridge Collections Online
• Payment by subscription only
on a site licence basis
• ‘Substantial’ minimum order
required, on a by-collection
basis (i.e., titles from each
collection require a different
subscription)
• Rationale: the payment model
is flexible, straightforward,
easily-understood and easy to
administer
E-book pricing models: is it possible to cut
the Gordian knot of complexity?
JISC / CHEMS Feasability report
(Oct 2006)
•Do libraries prefer to buy from
aggregators or direct from publishers?
•Do they prefer bulk collections, e-books
in subject groups, or individual titles?
•Has there had been any change (since
2004) in preference for
purchasing by subject or by collection
from either source?
•Across the sector purchasing individual
titles has been, and will continue to be,
the favoured approach
•The second preferred model is to buy
subject collections from aggregators
• Large general collections [from
publishers] are least popular
Gold Leaf ‘straw poll’ study
January 2007
• 78 academic librarians were
contacted to find out if they would
buy a collection of titles from one
specific publisher
• 42 responses received within one
week
• 19 favoured access to a collection
from this publisher; 7 didn’t know; 9
were negative, but of these only two
preferred access to the titles via
aggregators - the other 7 said they
weren’t strong enough in the subject
concerned to justify the expenditure
on e-books for it at all
• 7 didn’t answer the question
Gold Leaf ‘straw poll’ study
January 2007
• All forty-two respondents answered
the question on their preferred pricing
method
• Of these, 50% preferred an outright
sale model and 50% preferred a
licensing model
• Several said that the ideal would be
to have the choice – a licence option
to start with, then outright sale if the
collection proved popular
• Their comments showed a general
dislike of aggregators’ pricing models
and / or restrictions
Are publishers better than
aggregators, or aggregators
better than publishers? The
customers’ view:
Recap: what is the best ebook pricing model?
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Flexible
Simple
Affordable
Profitable
Brandable!
The Tangled Web
Publishers’ and aggregators’ e-book pricing
models:
trying to please everybody
Linda Bennett
linda@goldleaf.co.uk