If you publish a book in Germany, then you are required to provide two copies – the so-called “Pflichtexemplare” – to the national library.

The system is similar to law in the UK requiring copies of new books to be sent to the British Library, and for certain others, eg. the Bodleian Library in Oxford, to be able to request free copies if they wish to do so.

As a result, the Deutsche Nationalbilbiothek is able to provide a complete database of anything published in Germany.

Recently, there has been some discussion as to whether digital publishers are required to provide free copies to the library as well, even to the extent of whether bloggers would have to provide copies of every post!

Luckily the library appears to have seen sense and just scans and stores any articles on blogs that they choose to archive.  But what about e-books?

With my e-book coming out at the beginning of October – tomorrow in fact – I contacted the library and asked them what I had to do.  Did they really want two digital copies, and in which format? [Read more…]