February 9, 2023. Digital Public Library of America is pleased to announce the launch of a new independent author catalog in Palace Marketplace. Palace Marketplace now offers more than 1.2 million ebooks and audiobooks from all of the "Big 5" publishers, Amazon Publishing, Audible, hundreds of mid-sized and independent publishers, and independent authors. The addition of these new titles will help libraries expand access to diverse content at reasonable licensing terms while supporting independent authors.

Beginning on February 16, 2023, Palace Marketplace will offer more than 200,000 titles from Smashwords and Draft2Digital. At launch, all of these titles will be available with a perpetual one-at-a-time license, often at less than $10 per title, with more licensing options to be made available in the coming months. As an additional service to libraries, the DPLA Curation Corps of librarians will be preparing selections of recommended titles to help libraries quickly and easily identify titles appropriate for their collections. We expect to add hundreds of thousands of titles from Draft2Digital and other distributors over the course of the coming year.

"The arrangement between Draft2Digital and DPLA is music to the ears of indie authors, because it means our books will get into the hands of more library patrons," said Carole Mortimer, an award-winning, bestselling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. "In the coming days, my books will be accessible to more than 400 libraries and library systems across the U.S., with more on the way. These are exciting times!"

"Libraries want to build collections that include a wide variety of voices, and Palace's new indie catalog is another welcome addition to the growing breadth of content available through the Marketplace," said Mike Buschman, Library Development Manager of the Washington State Library.

About Palace Marketplace

Palace Marketplace is the only not-for-profit ebook marketplace for libraries. It is part of The Palace Project, a new not-for-profit platform for the management and delivery of e-content that allows libraries to serve all their content in a single app while protecting patron privacy. If you're interested in becoming a Palace library or licensing e-content from Palace Marketplace, you can find out more information here, watch our Palace 101 webinar, or contact us. You can download the free Palace app for iOS or Android here.

DPLA's ebook work is supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

About The Palace Project

The Palace Project is committed to building and expanding a digital future for libraries and their patrons, and builds off of a longstanding investment in DPLA's ebook work by Sloan Foundation. The Palace Project is a division of Lyrasis, working in strategic partnership with Digital Public Library of America and funded by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment by the Knight Foundation.