The Literary Snob

Dear MacMillan Publishers,

I'm writing in regards to your new embargo policy that will be taking affect of November 1st. In this new policy you will only allow libraries of any size to buy ONE copy of an ebook within the first few months of publication, therefore trying to artificially inflate wait-times for ebooks and force people to buy your ebook instead of checking them out. Libraries are the backbone of the social fabric on the United States. The wide availability of libraries in different communities that serve every socioeconomic neighborhood is truly a gift and provides an opportunity to bridge the income gap within this country. Libraries allow anyone, no matter age, race, poverty, or background to have the opportunity to learn and be enriched by books. But in order for a library to successfully achieve its goal in the community it needs to be able to grow an up-to-date and robust catalog of books, both physical and digital.

Libraries suffer from enough fiscal challenges without you adding onto it for the sole purpose of greed. MacMillan, as a publisher, must be aware of the importance that libraries play in our community. The fact that you have created such a draconian financial policy regarding the sale of your digital assets to libraries means that as a publisher you're spitting upon the idea that in the United States books should not be reserved for the wealthy in our nation but available to everyone. People don't abuse the digital assets in a library, they check them out in order to read them. And most of those people can't afford to buy the books they're checking out therefore your policy won't lead to more sales but less number of people reading your books and less word-of-mouth regarding your titles.

I've read over 70 books so far this year. I'm a member of a book club in my community. I have a book blog with over 8,000 followers. And I post about every single book I've read on Goodreads, plus I make posts about my favorite books on other social media platforms such as Facebook. I both buy and checkout ebooks and audiobooks from my local library. As a 29-year-old avid reader, I can't financially afford my reading habit if my library wasn't open to me or had a dearth of books in their catalog. I have bought books after reading them at the library at full price and I've bought books by authors I've fallen in love with after being introduced to them through my public library. I find your new policy not only to be shortsighted but reprehensible. I'm writing you this email in order to inform you that I'm going to be boycotting all of your books published by MacMillan Publishers and all of your subsidiaries from now on until you change your nickle-and-dimming policy towards our public libraries. I also will be making this letter public on all my social media platforms in order to spread the word of your greed. It is my hope that as a publisher you revisit your new policy in regards to libraries and decide to reverse it. Until that time I will continue to boycott you and spread the word about your embargo.