Re: Snooze/lose (Was: Academics and coursepacks)

On Thu, 27 Aug 1998 Bernard Katz <bkatz[_at_]uoguelph.ca> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 26 Aug 1998, Albert Henderson <noblestation[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
> >
> > The trend of academic books and journals since the proliferation of the
> > Xerox 914 in the 1960s has been falling sales balanced by rising prices.
> > Typical printings of learned monographs once ranged between 1500 and
> > 2500 copies sold primarily to libraries. Today editions are half or
> > less that number in spite of a doubling of people with advanced degrees.
> > Interlibrary (photocopying) loan, coursepacks, individuals substituting
> > copies for purchases, and loss of library purchasing power all
> > contribute. Underlying the degenerative cycle is the administrative
> > preference for copy machines over books.
>
> There are still more factors to add to Albert Henderson's list, though
> it is a good beginning. I suggest: a) the change in tax regulations in
> the U.S.A., which cut the ability of publishers to add cost of storing
> unsold copies as a form of depreciation or overhead expense (I don't
> recall this exactly) and led to much shorter print runs and much earlier
> remaindering;

This was Thor Power Tool Co. V. Commissioner. 439 U.S. 522 (1979). The Supreme Court ruled that an inventory write-down was not allowed where it was based on subjective estimates rather than objective evidence and the inventory items continue to be held for sale at their original prices. I don't think this affected the substantial number of non-profit publishers who dominate learned publishing.

> and b) the well documented (from their own mouths - cf. Publishers
> Weekly) thrust of some publishers for a substantial level of return
> on investment, regardless of what else was going on in the world.

Again, not too many learned publishers here.

> However, I would not attribute so much causal weight to the photocopier
> as he does. It is fair (imo) to state that various advances in copying
> (and printing) technology, scanning and creation of text and
> illustrations using computers has also reduced the cost of production
> to a significant degree.

But then, popular theory has it, that reduced prices would attract sales and lead to larger printings. It didn't happen.

Author-prepared text and photoffset printing started to replace hot type and letterpress about the same time (i.e. 1960s). A dip in average constant dollar prices indicated by analysis of the Blackwell North America database can probably be attributed to production savings. The effect on prices was temporary as publishers were forced by the impoverishment of academic libraries to reduce print runs. (Wagner, Celia Scher. 1993. STM monographs - a twenty year retrospective, in Against the Grain. June, 1993).

Albert Henderson, Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY <70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Fri Aug 28 1998 - 15:44:19 GMT