IngramSpark has added new online retailers and virtual libraries, including new sales models, subscription models and distribution to mobile apps, such as OverDrive.
The distributor offers a variety of ebook sales channels, including retail, library, and institutional, with each category having several ebook sales models.
Library pricing is now available when setting up a new ebook or updating pricing on existing ebooks. IngramSpark says due to the lending models associated with library ebook distribution, library pricing for ebooks is typically 2.5 times the corresponding ebook retail price. It adds that if you are selling an ebook for $9.99 to ebook retailers, you would be fine to enter $19.99 as your library pricing to help maximize profits when selling to libraries.
The ebook sales models available through IngramSpark are:
Retail ebook models
One Book, One Sale: An end-user buys a perpetual license to the digital title in an a-la-carte purchase environment.
Unlimited Subscription: A flat, monthly price to a subscription service for access to a digital title until the subscription ends. A sale occurs each time the user consumes the set threshold of a digital title (no more than 20%).
Shared Pool: End-users pay a flat, monthly price to access a subscription service which contributes to a shared revenue pool.
Library ebook models
Single-User: One end-user gets access to the digital title at any one time. This allows a library or academic institution to purchase a perpetual license to the digital title.
Three-User: Three end-users gets access to the digital title at any one time.
Pay-per-use: An unlimited number of end-users can access the digital title at any given time. Profits are shared equally between the reseller and publisher, allowing a library or academic institution to buy a limited license to the digital title.
Institutional sales models
Short-Term Loan: End-users get access to the digital title for a 24-hour period. An unlimited number of end-users can access a digital title at any one time. A sale is triggered each time an end-user is granted access to a digital title.
Three-User: Three end-users gets access to the digital title at any one time.
Non-linear lending: Libraries buy a license that allows 325 ‘uses’ of a digital title every 12 months. A “use” occurs when a user reads, copies, or prints a certain number of pages (or a certain percentage of) the digital title. Access is removed after the 325th use and is not reinstated until the following year, unless an additional license is bought.
Libraries have been seeing big increases in ebook borrowing over the past year, with OverDrive reporting a 40% rise in 2020 compared with 2019 levels and ebook distributor PublishDrive saying its library business had doubled during 2020.
Ebbok distributors such as PublishDrive and Draft2digital also offer independent authors and publishers distribution through a wide range of library channels with a variety of sales models.
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