The pilot is limited to 1,200 older titles from the Minotaur Books mystery and crime fiction imprint (part of Macmillan’s St. Martins division). Libraries will be able to lend out the ebooks for two years or 52 times, whichever comes first, before having to buy a new copy. According to Library Journal, each ebook will cost $25. The ebooks will be available through three different digital library distributors at launch: OverDrive, 3M Cloud Library and Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360.

Macmillan CEO John Sargent said in a statement, “Among the many titles we publish, mystery and crime fiction makes up one of the largest categories and Minotaur Books is the primary source. And, as the library market has always been one of Minotaur’s largest customers, we think that this pilot will provide books especially desired by library patrons.” Alison Lazarus, president of Macmillan’s sales division, told Library Journal that the company “will make assessments along the way as to whether to expand the title selection and whether to continue the program as launched beyond the two-year term.”

Publishers have been reluctant to offer ebooks to libraries in part because they fear that it will cut into sales. Sargent said “ we do not expect [the pilot] will heavily impact our retail sales over time.”

With Macmillan’s new offering, all the big-six publishers except for Simon & Schuster are making ebooks available to libraries in at least a limited way. Penguin is testing its own pilot with libraries in New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland (after previously pulling all its ebooks and digital audiobooks from libraries). Random House makes all of its ebooks available to libraries but sharply increased the prices last year. HarperCollins allows ebooks to be checked out 26 times before the library has to buy a new copy. Hachette does not make ebooks published after April 2010 available to libraries, and increased the prices of those that are available last year.

Photo courtesy of Flickr / Eric Mueller 

Califa would “purchase about 10,000 of the company’s top titles for about $3 a title.” Some of the titles could cost less, though: Smashwords CEO Mark Coker recently told me that the company will soon allow its authors to set their own ebook prices, and said “a lot of them are going to want to offer libraries lower pricing…or will want to offer their books for free to libraries.”

Califa and Smashwords are also working on a self-publishing program for library patrons. Smashwords marketing manager Jim Azevedo explains to me how that would work:

Smashwords and Califa will collaborate to create local library publishing portals that will allow patrons to publish and distribute ebooks through Smashwords for acquisition and listing by their local library.  These ebooks will also be available for sale through the Smashwords distribution network, which includes Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor’s Blio, and Diesel.  The books will also be distributed to the new Smashwords library aggregators including Baker & Taylor’s Axis360 platform and 3M’s Cloud Library platform (3M announced the Smashwords relationship earlier this month at BEA).

Heather Teysko, Califa’s director of innovation and development, tells Library Journal, “It’s great, the whole idea of having libraries becoming community publishing partners. We always knew we wanted to have a self-publishing arm as part of this.” (Similarly, many indie bookstores are embracing self-publishing as their customers use Espresso Book Machines to print their own titles.)

The site is aimed at book-buying librarians, though anyone can subscribe. It includes over 20 years of reviews, including starred reviews, “best” lists and Junior Library Guild selections. “This website extends the value of our reviews beyond print, offering librarians one highly functional yet agile tool to support collection development efforts, while bringing online access to professional reviews of books and media to avid readers everywhere,” Ian Singer, group publisher for Library Journal, School Library Journal and The Horn Book, says in a statement.

Book Verdict is free to browse, but you have to pay to get access to the full text of the reviews and other features. Subscriptions start at $60 per year for a basic subscription to Book Verdict Pro Library Journal or School Library Journal (including all reviews plus tools like lists and saved searches) and go up to $99 per year for Book Verdict Pro Plus, which includes all reviews from Library Journal, School Library Journal, Horn Book and Junior Library Guild.

Existing subscribers to any of the publications get free online access to all of its reviews or can upgrade to Pro for a fee that ranges from $12 to $33 for the remainder of their subscription.

Book Verdict launches at the American Library Association’s annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. this week.

See also

RLJ Equity acquires Media Source, owner of School Library Journal and others

Shelf Awareness launches new book review for consumers

Photo courtesy of Flickr / ButterflySha

Random House met with the American Library Association in New York on Tuesday. “Our commitment to libraries, as imperative to our momentum, if not to our existence as publishers, is greater than ever,” Random House spokesperson Stuart Applebaum told Library Journal blog The Digital Shift.

Random House’s reaffirmation of its commitment to e-books in libraries comes at a time when other big-six publishers are reassessing their policies. Penguin recently announced that it will no longer make new e-books or new digital audiobooks available to libraries. HarperCollins allows an e-book to be checked out only 26 times before the library has to buy a new copy. Hachette, Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS) and Macmillan do not make e-books available to libraries at all.

Random House will raise the e-book prices it charges to library wholesalers like OverDrive, starting on March 1. Those wholesalers provide the e-books to libraries, so the prices that libraries pay will also go up. The rationale for the price increase, Applebaum told The Digital Shift, is to align e-book pricing with digital audiobook pricing, which “has digital audio books for library lending at a higher price point than digital audio books sold at retail.”

E-book checkouts from libraries are increasing rapidly. OverDrive recently reported that libraries’ digital checkouts (including digital audiobooks and other digital materials as well as e-books) were up 133 percent in 2011 over 2010, with 35 million digital titles checked out.

Bethesda, Md.-based private equity firm RLJ Equity Partners is the new owner of Media Source. Media Source was previously owned by New York-based private equity firm Riverside Company. Both RLJ and Riverside specialize in middle-market companies.

Media Source bought Library Journal and School Library Journal from Reed Business Information in 2010.

Media Source’s acquisition has been in the works for awhile, said Andrew Thorne, the company’s VP, marketing. “Riverside first acquired Media Source with the expectation that we would grow the business, and at some point they would realize their investment by selling to another organization,” he said. “In terms of what it means from a day-to-day standpoint, it should be fairly invisible to our customers, suppliers, readers and even employees.” RLJ brings “a new set of areas of expertise and renewed enthusiasm about Media Source.”

“Librarians truly appreciate [Media Source]‘s editorials, reviews and book selections, and their book choices often go on to receive literary awards,” said RLJ managing director Daphne Dufresne. “Subscribers view The Library Journal and School Library Journal as ‘must own,’ so we like that too.”

School Library Journal has 29,200 print subscribers (current subscription price: $88.99/year for 12 issues) and 200,000 monthly unique visitors to its website. Library Journal has 17,500 print subscribers ($157.99/year for 20 issues) and 196,000 monthly uniques. Horn Book has 8,500 readers ($49/year for six issues). And Media Source’s service Junior Library Guild helps librarians build their collections; it has over 19,000 users.

Several publishers have even launched “digital-first” romance imprints, which publish only e-book originals. Harlequin, the largest romance publisher in the world, started Carina Press in 2009, while HarperCollins announced “Avon Impulse” in March 2011.

But at libraries, romance ebooks are underrepresented relative to size of their popularity among readers–that is in part because the major publishers are still figuring out their e-book lending strategies.

A new partnership aims to help libraries build their romance e-book collections by giving greater exposure to more titles from smaller, ebook-only publishers. Starting today, Library Journal, which has long helped librarians decide which books to purchase, will begin reviewing romance e-book originals. The advance review copies will come through NetGalley, which provides digital galleys to “professional readers” (critics, bloggers, booksellers, librarians and teachers).

The expansion of e-book offerings is the most complicated issue libraries are dealing with now, says Heather McCormack, Book Review Editor of the 135-year-old Library Journal. Some 72 percent of libraries now offer e-books, but licensing them from publishers can be difficult. In general, publishers work with e-book vendor OverDrive to broker contracts with libraries; the end result tends to be that libraries have limited access to publishers’ e-books, and restrictions on lending (an ebook can’t be checked out simultaneously to more than one person, for instance). Currently, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS) do not make any of their ebook titles available to libraries. HarperCollins has generated controversy by allowing its e-books to be checked out only 26 times before they expire, forcing libraries to buy them again.

As a result of these restrictions by big publishers, McCormack says librarians are turning to smaller presses, which are generally less restrictive about offering access to their ebooks. Library Journal‘s arrangement with NetGalley will introduce librarians to new titles from many of these smaller e-book-only romance publishers. Angela James, Executive Editor of Harlequin’s Carina Press, estimates that over half of digital-first content is in the romance genre.

James predicts that romance e-book originals will be a hit for libraries. “Romance readers are such voracious readers and they can’t afford to buy all that content,” she says. They also tend to be very loyal to specific authors, so checking out e-books in libraries gives them a chance to try out authors they’re unfamiliar with, she says.

Although Library Journal is only accepting romance e-originals now, it plans to expand to other genres. “All signs are pointing to sci-fi and mystery,” says McCormack–two other genres that are fast-growing segments of the e-book market. She says that shorter nonfiction works, such as those offered by Byliner and through the Kindle Singles program, are a prime target for libraries as well.