SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING: Who Needs Books?

Read the full review of the book, Books in the Digital Age: The Transformation of Academic and Higher Education Publishing in Britain and the United States by John B. Thompson.

Thompson argues, with perhaps a little hyperbole, that book publishing is now undergoing its most fundamental transformation since Gutenberg. What is changing? Thompson identifies four key factors. (i) The rise of computers and the Internet has changed publishing in myriad ways--from the way publishers edit, typeset, and print books to the way people buy, read, and process information. (ii) Booming sales through Internet booksellers and shriveling budgets for books at academic libraries have reshaped the book market. (iii) The number of commercial scholarly publishers has shrunk even as the number of books published grows every year. (iv) Publishing now takes place in a global environment where students at Yale can find themselves buying textbooks that have been acquired from a Dutch professor by an English publisher, composed in India, printed in China, sold in cheap versions to Pakistani students, and then sold back to Yale students on the hunt for a bargain.....

"What distinctive value or expertise....is the publisher adding? Thompson argues.....that publishing is at its heart about intellectual and financial risk-taking. Good publishers see an extraordinary idea that might take hold of a field. Or they spot an outstanding young scientist, and they take a risk on that hunch--investing a few thousand dollars to edit, design, produce, and promote a book. Frequently the book is a failure. The idea doesn't take off, the scientist doesn't get recognized, and the publisher loses money. But when a book succeeds, it can recoup the publisher's initial investment many times over and turn a bright idea into an intellectual movement.