Macmillan employees banned from attending DBW conference over ebook embargo

Friday, 31 January 2020 Books+Publishing

Digital Book World (DBW) has banned Macmillan employees from attending its 2020 conference in solidarity with the American Library Association’s (ALA) campaign against the publisher’s restrictions on new release ebooks.

Score Publishing CEO and DBW executive producer Bradley Metrock said in a DBW announcement, ‘It is our absolute privilege to ban all Macmillan employees from attending or speaking at Digital Book World until the company’s library embargo is lifted and they fully comply with the requests of the American Library Association.’

From 1 November last year, Macmillan imposed an embargo that limits libraries to purchasing a maximum of one copy of a new release title until eight weeks after the release date. In September last year the ALA launched its #eBooksForAll campaign, condemning Macmillan’s embargo.

According to Metrock, Macmillan CEO John Sargent ‘continues to make the claim that by giving libraries unfettered access to purchase Macmillan titles in digital format, the company would lose money’.

‘If revenue gains were realised from the act of embargoing books from public libraries, that value is instantly outweighed by the PR fallout from all the negative publicity Macmillan has received by taking this action.’

The DBW ban affects employees of Macmillan’s imprints, subsidiaries and parent company, Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.

Category: International news