Publisher Price Watch

UPDATE APRIL 2024:

We have pulled new data for the Big FIve publishers and updated the Publisher Price Watch recommendations below.

Read in detail about how the Big FIve prices changed between May 2022 and December 2023.

HIghlights:

  • All five publishers lowered their Audible prices significantly, with an average decrease of 22.5%.

  • HarperCollins increased OverDrive eBook and eAudio unit prices by 18%

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Almost all digital books are rented to libraries under terms that allow one borrower at a time, modeling how we loan print books . Readers First believes that print-like digital books should have print-like prices, so we have analyzed the prices and terms that popular publishers offer and list them below, from best value to worst. Our goal is to help library selectors optimize their digital book budgets and create strong, sustainable collections, using three categories:

Color codes for pricing tables

Read how we decide on the RF recommendations.

RF GOOD BUY

These are the publishers offering library taxpayers a great value for their digital books. Click to read more about the kinds of books they publish.

This list is not comprehensive, and many other indie publishers offer perpetual licenses at print-like prices.

Note: we are sad to remove Workman Publishing from this list. Workman offered perpetual licenses on both eBooks and eAudiobooks at reasonable prices, but was acquired by Hachette. Workman titles are now offered under Hachette’s expiring license models and high prices, which fall under the RF Not Recommended category below.

RF RECOMMENDED

These are the publishers offering library taxpayers a fair value for their digital books.

PERPETUAL LICENSES:

EXPIRING LICENSES:

Scholastic and Disney are the only expiring licenses to be recommended, because the prices are comparable to print. We acknowledge that the lifespan of youth materials is shorter than the lifespan of adult materials, especially in paperback.

IT DEPENDS ON THE TITLE

The following publishers offer digital books on perpetual licenses, but their unit prices exceed $60. In cases where a title has a spike of interest but goes quickly out of date (political tell-all, celebrity bio), the value of having the license perpetually does not merit the high cost. Alternately, the high cost may well be worth it for durably popular authors. It is worth noting, however, that these publishers charge an average of $24.95 for perpetual licenses at retail, so their library markup is significant.

RF NOT RECOMMENDED

These publishers either charge more than $90 on average for a perpetual license or charge high-than-retail prices for licenses that expire.

PERPETUAL LICENSES:

EXPIRING LICENSES:

  • HarperCollins Publishers, offering 26-checkout licenses (about 1 year) on eBooks at an average of $28.39.

  • Penguin Random House, offering 24-month licenses on eBooks at an average of $55.00.

  • Macmillan Publishers, offering 24-month licenses on eBooks at an average of $60.00.

  • Simon & Schuster, offering 24-month licenses on eBooks at an average of $61.44 and on eAudio at an average of $78.99

  • Hachette Book Group, offering 24-month licenses on eBooks at an average of $68.25 and on eAudio at an average of $65.00.