How Learning Platforms Provide Stability to the Changing eBook and Audiobook Publishing Models
There are times of upheaval and turmoil in almost every industry, at some point in time. The timber industry in Louisiana faced such a period in the 1980s. The forests in that area were being devastated by a pest known as the southern pine beetle. The standard procedure was to spray the infested site with pesticides. But that only seemed to make the situation worse.
The publishing industry is facing a similar predicament today, where traditional solutions do not seem effective anymore. The crux of the matter seems to be Amazon promoting the narrative that the lending of eBooks is one of the primary reasons for the decline in eBook sales. Amazon started sharing data that appeared to confirm that licensing libraries were leading to the loss of sales of digital books. This led to numerous publishing houses changing their licensing models.
In 2019, Hachette Book Group changed its model for libraries from perpetual licensing to a two-year digital audiobook and eBook lending model. Other publishers, such as Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House (PRH), soon followed suit. Some other publishers, such as audiobook provider Blackstone Publishing and Macmillan, tried putting an embargo on sales to libraries.
The library sales embargo might look like a good proposition in the beginning. According to Tom Doherty, president and publisher of Macmillan, libraries are only responsible for 15% of the revenue, despite being accountable for 45% of the digital reads.
So, lending or renting digital content isn’t the biggest obstacle to optimal monetization for publishers. It is all about licensing. Here, even a subscription model could bring in improved revenue.
How Publishing Platforms Can Solve Licensing Dilemmas
Like in the case of the Louisiana timber industry, the best solutions are not always the ones that are first used. In Louisiana, it was found that the pesticide that was being used to destroy the southern pine beetle was also killing anther beetle species that helped control the pest population.
In case of the publishing industry, the solution to the monetization problems and dwindling digital content sales lies not in changing the business model but managing licensing and digital rights through a robust and advanced digital publishing platform.
Here’s a look at some of the ways in which such a platform can improve ROI for publishers.
