[Air-L] book prices

[Rhiannon Bury]

The one issue I haven't seen raised in this interesting discussion is library 
budgets. With cutbacks to postsecondary funding happening in many countries, why 
would we think that university libraries can afford these high prices for a 
single hardcover book?  If they are purchasing at this price, that means that 
other books will not be purchased, ie maybe yours or mine. This business model 
of publishers is in danger of self destructing sooner rather than later.  


In terms of open access, AU Press at our university is a leader. I haven't 
explored this option myself  (Peter Lang gets first right of refusal on my next 
book as per my contract for Cyberspaces of Their Own) but here is the link to 
their website:

http://www.aupress.ca/

best

Rhiannon 

Rhiannon Bury, PhD
Associate Professor,
Women's and Gender Studies
Athabasca University
Canada's Open University




________________________________
From: "Jonathan Sterne, Dr." <jonathan.sterne at mcgill.ca>
To: "air-l at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Wed, March 9, 2011 11:57:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-L] book prices

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading this discussion with interest.  The future of publishing is an 
ongoing discussion in many fields.  Lots of people are coming up with new models 
and alternative publishing arrangements.  AoIR ought to consider at least 
officially endorsing some of the better electronic journals related to Internet 
Studies so that assistant profs can use that endorsement in their tenure 
dossiers.  But ultimately, it will be organized people who change things.  
Publishers add value through paying for labor, and the main problem with open 
access for now is precisely that.  Someone has to copyedit, lay out and proof 
materials as well as maintain the site.  Once people figure out robust  and 
sustainable funding models, this will be even more viable than it already is.

Of course, for nonprofit university presses, income from journal publishing 
subsidizes book publishing, which in most cases is a big financial loss for the 
press.  So those of you in book fields should be a little circumspect about 
celebrating the death of the journal.  


But Wiley and Blackwell are for-profit publishers.  Their handbooks (and 
Oxford's) follow a business model.  Publishers approach authors whom they 
believe to be leaders in a field (or who want to be and are up and coming) to 
edit the handbook.  The editors are told that the handbook will be a way to 
bring a field forward, collect the latest and greatest scholarship and help 
define the field.  Then, the editors generate lots of value for the press by 
bringing in friends and colleagues with the opportunity to be part of a 
field-defining conversation (or in some cases calling in favors).  The 
collection is made, published, authors are paid a nominal fee and asked to sign 
away their rights with an incredibly restrictive author's agreement, and then 
the book is published.  These publishers hope to sell to libraries first and 
then piece them out in electronic form for a period of years, which is probably 
one of the reasons for the ridiculous agreements contributors are asked to sig
n.  This all works great for the publisher, but as of yet, the "field defining" 
part hasn't happened in a lot of places.  the books need to be read to have 
their effect, and the fact that they are only available in DRMed online versions 
or in libraries means even in bookish fields, they appear to be having less 
impact than was promised.

How do I know?  I've been asked by publishers more than once to edit a 
collection like this (I declined) and have contributed to a few so I've seen 
both sides of it.  Now, I'm not innocent here -- this discussion led me to go 
looking and I see Amazon is listing the hardback version of my forthcoming Sound 
Studies Reader at $125, but at least the softcover will be cheaper.  And I'm 
actively working to change how I deal with this in new ventures (I wasn't as 
attentive to these things when Routledge and I negotiated several years ago--and 
I will raise the issue with them).  


I've written a lot about authors' rights on my blog -- see 
http://superbon.net/?p=1681 for example (and read Ted's article that I've linked 
to!) and would encourage people who care about these things to educate 
themselves, and make things like the contributor's contract a political issue -- 
which it already is.  Obviously, those of us with tenure have to be the ones to 
do some of the heavy lifting. 


Best,
--Jonathan

--
http://sterneworks.org
http://mcgill.ca/ahcs
http://media.mcgill.ca



_______________________________________________
The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: 
http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
http://www.aoir.org/