Ensuring the Sustainability of Print
Mindful of ecological factors, decision-making regarding print production shifts, balancing innovation with pragmatism.
Navigating the Page and The Reader’s Task
Juggling formats of print vs. digital for books, have developers simply given up on whether there’s room to improve navigation and design?
Stanford University Press and the Wrong Lesson of the Humanities
What if, instead of enacting a caricature of Silicon Valley, Stanford recognized the future and threw its arms around Stanford University Press? That would be the smart move.
What is an eBook? How do Publishers price it?
A short video explaining the costs that go into producing a book, and how little difference there is in those costs between electronic and print books.
Identity Crisis — Does Print Need to Die for Online to Flourish?
The bias against printing has a technological basis and some business rationale, but are we underserving our role as “content marketers” by shutting down this option out of hand?
Scale Rewards, Scale Punishes — Is the Future of Scholarly Publishing Already Determined?
The Internet rewards scale and creates clear competitive disadvantages for niche businesses. Now that a long-term economic downturn has made for starker realities, the effects of this basic set of facts seem inevitable.
The Conversations We're Not Having — Overcoming Uncertainty, Chilling Effects, and Open Access Complacency
While open access remains a hot topic in our industry, we may not be discussing the most difficult aspects. Worse, OA proponents themselves may not be answering some of the questions that are now arising as a broader swath of academics, scientists, and administrators become aware of OA.
Are We In a Rut? Explaining the Increasing Homogenization of Scholarly and Scientific Publishing
The Internet promised a revolution, but we may have only deepened our rut as a number of factors have combined to constrain innovation and change our customer focus.
What the Heck Does a Book Cost?
The sheer number of new marketing programs for books makes it hard to determine just how much a book costs. This post details all the factors involved with pricing.
CC-Huh? Fundamental Confusions About the Role of Copyright and the Reuse of Data
A fundamental confusion between articles and data leads to a call for more CC licenses and less copyright. But why are data being closed down while articles are being opened up? Is there a fundamental misunderstanding of copyright, licensing, and rights?
Welcome Our Newest Chef, Alice Meadows
I’m pleased to welcome our newest Chef, Alice Meadows of Wiley. Alice heads up Wiley’s society relations team, supporting more than 800 scholarly and STM organizations for which Wiley publishes. She has a marketing background, and founded a small business […]
Why E-books Are Turning the Library and Publishing Worlds Upside Down
Old intersections of libraries and book publishers don’t work in the e-book era, and the rapid adoption of e-readers has shown that new bargains are inevitable. Whether libraries and publishers belong together in that future isn’t clear.
Paper and Press — How Vanishing Technologies Become More Precious
Two shops from a bygone era fight for survival in downtown Los Angeles. Moving into the future doesn’t guarantee that things improve or become more edifying, as this video shows.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Plagiarist
Is plagiarism of fiction less of a problem for publishers? Another tale of pilfered prose seems to indicate that checking for plagiarism isn’t something book publishers care about . . . yet.
Blogs Meet Academic Biases, Are Offered an Ironic Prize for Good Online Content
A new initiative to feature online content shows its cards when it names the ultimate honor it can convey on selections.