OverDrive and Libby for Indie Authors

OverDrive is the dominant digital content distribution platform for public libraries globally, serving over 88,000 libraries and schools across more than 100 countries. Libby is the patron-facing app OverDrive launched in 2017 — the interface most library borrowers use to browse, borrow, and read digital content on their phones, tablets, and e-readers. Together they represent the largest library ebook and audiobook network in existence, and for indie authors pursuing a wide strategy, they represent a category of reader — the library patron who borrows rather than purchases — that retail distribution alone doesn't capture.

OverDrive was founded in 1986 and pivoted into digital library media in the early 2000s as ebooks and digital audio gained traction. Acquired by Rakuten in 2015 and then by investment firm KKR in 2020, it now operates as a standalone library services company at significant scale. Indie authors can't upload directly to OverDrive; access runs through aggregator partners including Draft2Digital, Smashwords, Kobo Writing Life, and StreetLib, which submit titles to OverDrive's catalog on behalf of their author clients.



How OverDrive and Libby Fit a Wide Strategy

A wide publishing strategy, covered in this resource library's foundational wide-versus-KU article, is built on the recognition that different readers exist in different channels, and that concentrating exclusively in one platform means accepting that every reader outside that ecosystem is permanently unreachable. Library readers are a genuinely distinct segment — readers who borrow rather than buy, who discover books through library catalog browsing rather than retail algorithms, and who often read across a broader range of genres and authors than purchase-driven retail browsing tends to produce. OverDrive is the primary gateway to that segment at global scale.

• Long-tail visibility: once a library purchases or licenses a title through OverDrive, it remains in that library's active catalog indefinitely under the One Copy/One User model, generating potential borrows and discovery years after the initial acquisition

• Community discovery: librarians actively curate their collections and recommend titles to patrons; a book available in OverDrive has the potential to be hand-sold by a librarian in a way that doesn't exist in any retail channel

• Non-retail revenue: library pricing, discussed below, is typically set higher than retail pricing to reflect licensing value rather than individual ownership, which affects the per-unit return

• Global reach: OverDrive's international library network extends far beyond the U.S., including major library systems in the UK, Canada, Australia, and across Europe

How Indie Authors Access OverDrive

Library Licensing Models

Understanding how libraries actually acquire titles through OverDrive matters for setting pricing and having realistic income expectations from this channel. OverDrive offers libraries several different acquisition models, and which model a library uses affects how the author earns from each title.

Library pricing for all models should be set higher than retail pricing — commonly two to three times the consumer list price — to reflect licensing value rather than individual ownership. This pricing is set through the aggregator dashboard during the OverDrive opt-in process.

⚠ Royalty percentages from OverDrive income depend on the aggregator handling distribution, typically in the 40-50% range of the library price set rather than the 70% available on direct retail platforms. The higher library price partially offsets the lower royalty percentage, but the per-transaction economics differ meaningfully from retail sales. Verify current rates directly with whichever aggregator you use for OverDrive distribution.

Libby and Patron Discovery

Libby is where the patron interaction actually happens — a clean, well-designed app available on iOS and Android that connects directly to a user's library card and gives them access to the full OverDrive catalog their library system has licensed. With tens of millions of active users, Libby is the primary reading interface for a significant portion of the digital library borrowing audience. For an indie author, being in the OverDrive catalog means being potentially discoverable inside Libby's browsing and recommendation interface — which surfaces titles by genre, subject tag, and popularity within the library's collection rather than by paid placement or purchase algorithm.

The practical implication for metadata is the same as for any catalog-based discovery system: accurate genre classification, complete subject tags, a compelling description, and a professional cover all improve the likelihood that a Libby browser encounters the book and adds it to their hold queue.

ScribeCount and OverDrive

OverDrive income flows through whichever aggregator distributes your title there — Draft2Digital, Kobo, Findaway, or others. ScribeCount imports royalty data from these aggregators directly, so OverDrive income appears in your dashboard as part of the distributor's report. Authors who want to track library channel performance specifically can filter by platform within ScribeCount to compare OverDrive revenue against hoopla, Bibliotheca, and other library channels over time — giving a clear picture of how the library segment performs relative to retail channels in the overall wide income stack.

Conclusion

OverDrive and Libby represent the largest single library distribution opportunity available to a wide author, covering a global network of over 88,000 institutions and a patron base of tens of millions of active Libby users. For any author already distributing through Draft2Digital, Smashwords, Kobo Writing Life, or Findaway Voices, opting into OverDrive distribution through those existing partners requires minimal additional effort and opens the full global library market to a catalog that would otherwise remain invisible to library readers entirely.

 - Randall