The emerging importance of the e-book and its impact on publishing Dyck Sturgess 2011

04Jun12

Academic paper prepared by Judith Dyck and Teresa Sturgess. For presentation June 7, 2012 at the Media Ecology Association Conference, Manhattan College, New York.

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4 Responses to “The emerging importance of the e-book and its impact on publishing Dyck Sturgess 2011”

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1 Anton Hart (@elongwoods) on June 4, 2012 said:

Book publishing will probably take twists and turns that will astound us. Even steadfast print readers are turning to electronic versions as papers / journals / books are blurring in the process. Some demand print but buy “e” — or worse they feel entitled to free versions. But we still buy magazines. We still go to movies and it’s hard to replace a good novel at the cottage with a tablet. But who knows. Thanks for this. Hope you will keep the project alive and follow us through the fog of time. And maybe lead us through it. . .

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- 2 judithdyck on June 4, 2012 said:
  
  Thanks, Anton. Longwoods has always been a leader in providing electronic access and print alternatives – the special edition I worked on with you is case in point. I have the print version sitting within arms reach in my office and the last time I wanted to reference an article, I went online to search it out. We think we want paper; we really want the information. The answers will be different for different parts of the publishing world – hard to see much call for print only journals, but paying for and recognizing the work involved in pulling together a quality e-journal is going to take some rethinking. Trade? The sharing nut is going to be a tough one to crack. I think we may have seen the tipping point on trade books, though. People are bringing iPads to book club these days…
  
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  - 3 Anton Hart (@elongwoods) on June 5, 2012 said:
    
    [a mini case] Longwoods is currently compiling a book. Half is from our own products the other half coming from many sources. Lots of copyright agreements – with terms all over the map. All in all the ebook facilitates that and publishers can do it to fill demand while students can do it to enable course work. Copyright, we learned can be very costly and “on the clock” meaning you pay a high monthly “subscription” for the use of a piece of literature. As a result the limited-run print version will include some papers we are excluding from the ebook where only the link is made available. A new twist for us.
  - 4 judithdyck on June 7, 2012 said:
    
    I agree with Lawrence Lessig that we need to work through new copyright rules for the digital era. Lockdowns restrict knowledge flow and really only penalize those who won’t hack in. The moves to open access in UK and EU are interesting, but I haven’t looked closely enough at the provisions for ensuring that we maintain the curation and synthesis functions publishers provide.