The article explores the development of e-lending models for digital books (e-books and digital audiobooks) in public libraries from a comparative perspective, analysing cases in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Special attention is placed on the actors involved in developing e-lending models and the variations across Scandinavia. First, the legal prerequisites of digital books, licensing culture and policy context are linked. Next, the phenomenon of e-lending and e-lending models are introduced and discussed as a form of artificial friction. Then, based on a review of international and Scandinavian grey literature, the paper provides three chronological overviews of e-lending model development, seen as an interplay between publishers and public libraries. The comparison highlights the similarities between the three countries but also differences in preference for a particular e-lending model in involvement of policy actors, and in pace and character of the analysed processes. Differences are primarily attributed to variances in established collaboration practices between the identified actors of cultural policy, to already existing regulatory frameworks, and to the maturity of the digital book market.