eBook Lending Clubs Growing in Popularity with "Twerps"

In E-Book Lending Takes Off, the Wall Street Journal reports on the raising popularity of eBook lending clubs such as BookLending, Lendle and eBook Fling. BookLending, for example, has some 16,000 registered users, and have made a total of nearly 20,000 book loans so far. In his article, Stu Woo reports

The lending sites have drawbacks. One is limited selection. Most major book publishers haven't made their e-books lendable, and the books can be lent only once and for only 14 days. That means that with every successful loan, the sites' available library shrinks unless new users with books to lend join.

Some publishers, which are monitoring the sites closely, say they fear that making books available for loan may deter people from buying physical and digital books.

In Publishers Wary of E-Book Lending 'Twerps', Nicole Ferraro, Executive Editor of Internet Evolution adds:

The fear that people will share digital books and not buy them as much, or that publishers will lose money on digital content, is a somewhat reasonable one. But it's also proven to be counterproductive for other industries -- like the music industry -- where digital has taken over. That's an industry that has been rocked by piracy, and there's no reason to believe this will be different for book publishing.

A new report suggests that the only way to combat privacy is to adjust pricing. I would add that publishers need to be realistic about the age-old practice of book sharing, about the workings of a digital society, and about the fact that by making it difficult for people to buy and enjoy content, they only make it more likely that they'll find other unlawful and unprofitable ways to access it.

That might make those people "twerps," but as we've already learned, they're twerps with a very real ability to damage business.

Hat tip to Legal Research Plus for the Wall Street Journal cite. [JH]