RF PPV and ULC Ebook Pricing Crisis

/

Rf’s Carmi Parker has updated our Publisher Price Watch, which you may find here. Do check out the full report. Here, to start us for now, is Carmi’s summary

2026 Summary:

Since our first posting almost four years ago in May 2022:

  • HarperCollins library eBook license prices have increased at an annualized rate of 17.3% per year.

  • Hachette library eAudio licenses increased 36% year over year. Hachette also has the highest average annualized rate of increase at 13.1% every year in the last four years, followed closely by HarperColllins (11.5%) and Macmillan (11.6%).

  • On eBooks, license prices on books from Macmillan and Simon and Schuster are steady.

  • Library license prices on both formats from Penguin Random House are steady.

If libraries are seeing eBook circulation decrease and eAudio circulation increase, then the relatively flat prices on eBooks and the rising prices on eAudio may disproportionally impact their budgets.

Some good news here: ebook prices from three of the Big 5 have remained steady, while PRH has generally held the line on audio. For this, thank you! There have been no changes to speak of in Big 5 license terms, and PRH has kept their most recent terms, originally rolled out in the Pandemic, that allow some flexibility to libraries. Two cheers! (PRH, 2.5 cheers if you offer perpetual and metered in ebooks as well as audio. Three if we could talk price just a wee bit.)

That brings us to today’s topic. The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) has released a statement, “The E-Book Pricing Crisis.” It cites a study that Carmi and I published in 2024. We are pleased to see our work used. Please do read the full ULC statement—it’s well-worth a look. For now, let’s take a look at the conclusion, calling in part for what we just requested above to PRH:

  1. Time-metered e-book licenses (e.g. 1- 2 year licenses) are rarely a responsible use of taxpayer funds – library licenses should be based on usage.

  2. An option of perpetual licenses for mid- and backlist titles would work better for public libraries – and many libraries are willing to pay a premium for such access.

Note, please, that price is not discussed. The aim is not to do down publishers. It is to open a dialogue on two very basic points. As always, RF points with gratitude to the many, many Indie Publishers who already meet both terms or even provide perpetual access as prices that beat every Big 5 metered deal. But Big 5, how about this: In both ebook and digital audiobook, we get both metered licenses based on circulation (and not time) and also (perhaps more expensive) perpetual licenses. It isn’t everything libraries want but isn’t it a reasonable start? PRH, you are already a lot of the way there. There are many who say that the Big 5 will never change their library terms unless they are forced by law and/or changes in library purchasing. I’ve been one of them. How about this time, if only in this relatively small way, you prove that view wrong?