Lack of information about how books are actually used has resulted in a set of actions that don’t make solid economic sense. Now that more end-user information is becoming available, the book business is likely to adjust its practices.
There is no comprehensive solutions provider for academic book publishers today. The emergence of such a vendor could transform the academic book publishing world by inviting new entrants into the marketplace.
There will never be a “Netflix for books” if by that term one means a comprehensive collection. Book aggregations must serve the overarching needs of the publisher to generate revenue and are thus best viewed as simply one channel among many.
Barnes & Noble can compete more effectively with Amazon by moving to a strategy of making its infrastructure available to numerous companies, many of which formerly saw B&N as a rival.
Some notes on academic publishing, university presses in particular.
There are compelling reasons to create an online bookstore specializing in academic titles. Such a bookstore could be linked to physical community spaces and may even have a life as a component of library catalogs.
What are the key issues for scholarly publishing today? Setting the agenda for productive discussion.