Libraries shut out by new audiobooks
If you’ve tried getting most of the Giller Prize shortlisted books from 2017 on audiobook at the Toronto Public Library, you probably already know that you’re out of luck. Same goes for some Canada Reads titles including Sharon Bala’s The Boat People.
In fact, demand for audiobooks, according to the latest statistics from BookNet Canada, has grown dramatically in this country. This year, 61 per cent of Canadian publishers are producing audiobooks, for example, up from 37 per cent in 2016.
“Audiobooks have been popular for years and years at the library; now with digital they’re our highest area of growth — they grew 40 per cent last year, so over 650,000 downloads ... and we’re projecting a million this year,” said Susan Caron, director of collections and membership services with the Toronto Public Library, referring to a U.S. distributor of audiobooks.
Even as demand grows, the library says it can’t buy some popular titles. And it’s worried that people who rely on the library to access books — those with a limited income or disabilities — are being shut out of reading some of the best Canadian titles out there.
When the library buys a book, it doesn’t pay the $25 cover price that consumers might pay if they bought a trade paperback edition. Audiobooks, for example, can cost from $75 up to $200, depending on the book.
Most of the time, the library lends that book to one user at a time while keeping the hold list to six people. To do that they buy more books. Here’s an example using books from last week’s bestseller list. The library, according to Maria Cipriano, senior collections specialist, figured Stephen King’s The Outsider would be popular, so they ordered 20 copies at $129.57 each. That’s $2,591.10.
Even at those prices, there are still books they can’t buy.
Creating audiobooks of Canadian titles in Canada is a relatively new phenomenon. In September 2017, Rakuten Kobo, Audible and Penguin Random House all announced they were going to start producing audiobooks of Canadian titles. They were leaping into a trend recognized by a group of Canadian independent publishers who were also starting to produce audiobooks.
But just because a publishing company has the right to publish the print edition of a book, for example, doesn’t mean it has the right to the publish the audiobook. Or they might have the right to publish the audiobook in one country, but not in another. Publishing houses of- ten buy U.S. rights for a book, say, but the Canadian rights will go to another publishing house.
“Rights management is truly where a lot of this stems from,” says Robert Wheaton, chief operating officer at Penguin.
This, notes Penguin Random House, has resulted in audiobooks by Canadian writers being unavailable in Canada, the Sharon Bala book being one of them. An audiobook had been produced, but Penguin Random House didn’t have the right to sell it here. With the Giller books, Caron noted, most were exclusive to Audible or available only on Audible or Kobo.
“We’ve had to rebuild our distribution systems for this format and that includes how we send the files out. The information includes where we have rights,” Wheaton said.
“We take really seriously as a Canadian company that all of the retailers and library wholesalers have a level playing field, (but) we need to respect the rights of the right edition, (for example) not accidentally selling the U.S. edition.”
They are trying to solve the technical problems, he says, expecting that to happen by the fall with the titles they have rights to in their Canadian program becoming available.
Kobo has also been producing audiobooks. Not all of the original Canadian audiobooks Kobo has produced are currently available to libraries, but, “We’re quickly working with our sister company, Rakuten OverDrive, to make this content available to libraries supported by their platform,” said Rebecca Best, their manager of original content and publisher relations, in an email response to concerns over availability.
If you want to take out a digital audiobook or eBook from the library, you have to download one of two apps: RBdigital or OverDrive. OverDrive is the biggest, distributing and selling books to libraries around the world with what it says is 90 per cent of the North American library and school market. It has digital platforms that allow the library to give its members access and keep track of who the book is lent to.
According to David Burleigh, director of brand and marketing communication for OverDrive, even his company — which is owned by Rakuten Kobo — is being affected by the rights issue. When they’re selling a book, says Burleigh, “We’d like to have both the ebook and the audiobook available side by side.” But because of rights being available in some jurisdictions and not others, that’s not always possible. In addition, they have to ensure that the correct versions of books are being sold in the correct markets.
Another person who’s worried about access is Sabina Iseli-Otto. She’s the public services librarian with the National Network for Equitable Library Service. Her organization is able to produce different formats of a book for readers with print disabilities, but only if that book is not already available commercially.
“If a requested book is commercially available we can typically direct readers to their local public library, and the library can purchase or license a copy.”
But not if that book is owned by Audible. When asked to comment for this story, Audible was unable to provide a spokesperson. Last fall, however, when the company first launched in Canada, the Star spoke to its founder and CEO, Don Katz. He said then, “at this point we kinda decided the public library is just a place that people will get a smaller collection from others (other audiobook producers) and that’s fine.”
Their audiobooks, including new Canadian productions, would only be available to those who subscribe.
“I just think that we’re only going to have stuff that people pay for. And we’ll make it free, there’s plenty of free stuff once you’re a member.”
Subscriptions cost $14.95 per month and includes the purchase of one book and access to a number of books offered as “free.”
Katz also said that “when you go to a public library and get books and audiobooks, the author and, in our case, the actor don’t get paid or they get paid infinitesimally small amounts of money.”
In Canada, it doesn’t quite work like this, but it does highlight another tricky aspect of audiobooks. Authors get royalties when a book is purchased. And when a book is borrowed from a library, authors are eligible for a Public Lending Right fee, which they get in a lump sum each year depending on how many people borrow their book or a book in which they are anthologized.
Audiobooks are not yet eligible for the PLR payment, although John Degen, head of the Writers’ Union of Canada, says they will be soon. But he has other concerns in terms of libraries buying audiobooks.
“With audiobooks especially, library lending really eats into sales to a greater degree than with print,” he said, noting that a high-quality audiobook is expensive to make, and that it doesn’t wear out the way a CD or tape does (and hence need to be repurchased).
“Writing, publishing and library access is an ecosystem,” he added, “and it must be carefully balanced. There really is no quality production without payment … the market must be protected or the content will not be there.”
“We understand that we can’t all afford everything in the world,” said Iseli-Otto, “but, as a librarian, I believe everyone should have access to the world’s books and stories.”
“We understand that we can’t all afford everything in the world, but, as a librarian, I believe everyone should have access to the world’s books and stories.” SABINA ISELI-OTTO PUBLIC SERVICES LIBRARIAN NATIONAL NETWORK FOR EQUITABLE LIBRARY SERVICE