An iTunes model for academic books?

A few facebook friends recently drew my attention to this article in The Guardian about "how academics are being hoodwinked into writing books that nobody can buy."

It's not entirely clear from the article whether the author is merely targeting predatory presses--which churn out bad books no one will read simply to make a profit (which does seem to me to be the kind of press the author focuses on)--or whether the author is targeting academic presses in general. If the concern is about predatory presses, then I'm sympathetic. However, if the concern is with academic presses in general, then I'm not. 

As an author who is currently in the process of publishing with an academic press, I don't feel taken advantage of in the slightest. Authors benefit substantially from publishing with good academic presses: greater exposure and dissemination of their work, prestige, etc. And indeed, my own experience with legitimate academic presses so far has been very positive. The people who work at legitimate presses are enthusiastic, want to publish good work--and I understand why they price academic books the way they do. Because members of the general public do not buy many academic books, but libraries and university bookstores do (for university courses), the high price-points academic publishers use make business sense. Further, if an academic book is well-received in the discipline, there are all kinds of ways for them to sell and/or get read: namely, by ending up in libraries (where academics and students can check them out), required texts for university courses, etc. In short, far from "hoodwinking" authors into "writing books no one will buy", legitimate academic book publishers seem to me to be practicing good business, to the advantage of themselves and the authors who publish with them.  

All that being said, I wonder whether a new business model--one akin to iTunes--might be in both authors' and publishers' interests. Currently, many publishers offer a "sample chapter" from the books they put out there--with the presumptive aim being to (A) allow readers to view part of the book, so as to (B) decide whether they would like to purchase the entire book. 

Here, though, is another alternative: why not sell online access to individual book chapters a la carte, much as iTunes charges $1 per song on an artist's album? For instance, suppose a press sells a hardcover book for $95. Why not give purchasers an online option to purchase individual chapters at $10 apiece? Here is why I think this might work, and be in publishers' and authors' interests. Suppose I find a book intriguing, but I'm not willing to shell out $95 for a copy. This personally happens to me a lot, in part due to "bad investments" on books I've made in the past. What kinds of investments? In the past, I bought a few books that "looked good" before I bought them: I knew the author had a good reputation, or had heard good things about the book, or read a sample chapter online and liked it. Then I actually got the book, read beyond the first chapter, and thought it wasn't good at all. Indeed, in several cases, I regretted my purchase: I wish I'd never bought the book in question. And so--because books are so expensive--I've become reticent to buy new books.

Now, however, suppose I were given an iTunes-like option to purchase book chapters online individually for $10 per chapter. I am almost certain this would lead me to make a lot more purchases than I currently do. Indeed, I think I would probably sample and buy more books. For instance, if I came across a book that had a free sample chapter that I liked, I would probably be willing to pay $10 to read a second chapter. If I read that chapter and liked it, I would probably either buy the book or pay $10 to read a third chapter. And, if I found I liked all of the first three chapters (having only spent $20 so far), I would much more likely to buy the whole book. Finally, suppose (as is the case with iTunes), publishers counted "purchased chapters" as credits toward purchasing the whole book--as in, if one purchases three chapters online at $10 apiece (i.e. $30), that $30 would count toward purchasing a hard copy (reducing the price of a hard-copy from, say, $95 to $65).

This seems to me a "win-win" proposition for authors and publishers. On the one hand, the advantages to authors seem obvious. First, due to the significantly lower price-point of purchasing chapters a la carte, more people are likely to read at least part of books academic publishers put out. Second, due to the "sunk costs" phenomenon, people who purchase part of a book at a lower price will be more likely to buy more of the book. This is just how iTunes works. One "tries out" a song by an artist, and, if you like it, you buy more songs.

Similarly, the model seems to me as though it would benefit publishers. Currently, academic publishers sell most of their books to libraries and university bookstores (for courses). I don't see how an iTunes model would cut into these sales, as libraries would still purchase the books and books would still be assigned in courses (and so, purchased by bookstores). What an iTunes model would plausibly do is increase sales in other areas: namely, to academics, like myself, who aren't willing to shell out $95 for an academic book without a good idea, before purchasing it, whether it is any good. It seems to me an iTunes model would plausibly increase sales in two ways: (A) sales of individual chapters a la carte, and (B) full-price book sales (as again, once a person likes a few chapters, they will be likely to want the whole book, may be more likely to assign it in their courses, etc.).

What do readers think? Perhaps I'm missing something. I must be, right? Otherwise academic publishers would have gone this route already, presumably. So, where does the model go wrong?

Comments

[Carlo Ierna]

As far as I know, Springer already has been selling individual chapters from collected volumes _and even monographs_ for quite some time. It's still hideously expensive though ... The remarkable thing is that they do give away for free the "frontmatter" and "backmatter" of every volume. In the case of the Husserliana editions this means that you get the extensive introductions by the editors as well as the critical apparatus for free.