[Air-L] book prices

[Sari]

If any of the warez crews (reading this) can hack the book advertised for
yesterday, we can do without this back and forth discussion now!..

/Sari


On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:33 PM, Rhiannon Bury <rcbury at rogers.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
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