Draft2digital boosts library ebook distribution with Baker & Taylor deal

Ebook distributor Draft2digital says authors who use the firm’s library distribution services have seen a 133% growth in library revenue over the past six months.

The company has now added major library distributor Baker & Taylor to its list of partners after deals with distributors OverDrive and bibliotheca during the past year.

Baker & Taylor is reckoned to be the biggest distributor of digital and print books worldwide to thousands of libraries, publishers and retailers. As a library distribution partner, D2D says Baker & Taylor will  improve indie author reach to the estimated 1.5 billion people who visit libraries each year.

D2D believes libraries can help authors improve the discoverability of their work while also increasing revenue potential.

Authors can choose to add any or all of their books to Baker & Taylor library distribution on their D2D account.

There are two distribution options through D2D’s library partners — One Copy, One User (OCOU) and Cost per Checkout (CPC). These are both enabled by default for library distribution through Baker & Taylor, OverDrive and Bibliotheca.

The OCOU royalty option cannot be turned off except by delisting a book from library distribution.

Cost Per Checkout (CPC) is also on by default but can be turned off account-wide from the My Account page.

Most public libraries lend ebooks in the same way as they lend print books. Once the book is checked out, it is no longer available for others until it is returned. This is the One Copy, One User (OCOU) model. If a library wants to lend to more than one person at a time, they have to buy each ebook separately.

Cost Per Checkout allows libraries access to the same title for more than one user. Instead of a fixed price, libraries are granted access to a title and then pay per each loan of the ebook. For each checkout through CPC, the author is paid 10% of the price of a full purchase but CPC allows an unlimited amount of people to check out an ebook at any time.

Draft2digital says Cost Per Checkout raises the level of discoverability for an ebook compared with One Copy, One User.


Draft2digital widens ebook library distribution with Bibliotheca and adds new royalty-per-loan option