Update to Publisher Price Watch: May 2025

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Greetings digital books colleagues!

As we have time, Readers First updates its Publisher Price Watch, a project where we select 20 popular books from each of the top trade publishers and compare their prices across five formats sold at retail and to libraries.

Summary for May 2025:

Since the first posting of Publisher Price Watch in May 2022:

  • HarperCollins library eBook prices have increased at an annualized rate of 12.9% per year

  • Macmillan library eAudio prices have increased at an annualized rate of 12.5% per year

  • The annualized rate of increase for all five publishers is 1.9% for library eBooks and 3.6% for library eAudiobooks.

  • By contrast, retail prices on print and eBooks remained flat and retail prices on eAudiobooks fell at an annualized rate of 4%.

This update includes an analysis of a possible correlation between price increases and the decreasing number of unique authors represented in one consortium's digital book collection despite increases in its collection budget.

If you have questions or feedback about Publishers Price Watch, please contact us.