New Approaches to Archival Publishing

This substantial guest post was contributed by Peter Hirtle, one of the archival and library community’s leading experts on copyright and an all-around smart guy. Once I found out about how he and his co-authors had approached the publication of their new book on copyright, I knew it was something that more people should know about. So, take it away, Peter!

Kate was kind enough to ask how best to purchase a print copy of my new book, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums. She also suggested that a description of the options and decisions we faced would make for a good guest blog entry. I am happy to oblige.

When it came time to think about how to publish the American edition of a manual first published in Australia by my co-authors, Emily Hudson and Andrew T. Kenyon, we knew we had some fundamental principles. Most important of all was that we wanted it to be available as a free PDF download as well as being available in print format. The Australian original was distributed this way, and it was because it was freely available that I could get my hands on a copy and realize how useful an American version would be. We thought the book would be useful to anyone in a cultural institution, and our primary goal was to make sure that they had ready access to the title. In furtherance of this goal, we licensed the text under a fairly generous Creative Commons license. We also wanted there to be a printed version, however, because we recognized that a print version might actually be easier to use.

We identified a number of different publishing options, but my first choice, the Cornell University Library’s press, leapt at the opportunity. The Library had gradually moved into the publishing arena over the past decade, producing both new work (i.e., Carol Kammen’s First Person Cornell) printed in a traditional manner as well print-on-demand (POD) reprints of public domain titles, available through Amazon and the Library’s Amazon store, http://bookstore.library.cornell.edu/. Thus it had some internal publishing expertise, which was invaluable.

The Library agreed to front the money needed for copy-editing, book design, cover design, and other incidental expenses – about $5,000. We hoped that we could sell enough print copies to make back this back in royalties. In order to minimize up-front costs (and to make sure that we were not stuck with hundreds of unwanted copies), we decided to use the POD system to fulfill orders. Amazon was in the process of phasing out its BookSurge subsidiary which we had been using for the public domain POD titles in favor of its CreateSpace subsidiary, and so we went with the latter.

Why did we stick with Amazon? There are lots of POD options now, many of which would have been cheaper or offered better royalties. The Library already had the connection with Amazon, however, and had an Amazon store in place. CreateSpace did not require an up-front money for publishing (unlike some POD publishers), and we knew that their printed product was high quality. And CreateSpace was part of Amazon’s massive distribution system; CreateSpace titles are listed in Amazon, the place where many people look for a book.

The publishing process was relatively simple. The finished copy-edited and designed PDF was uploaded to CreateSpace. Once we approved the results of the proof copy (for which we paid a nominal amount), the book was available through CreateSpace’s store. Several weeks later its information was transferred to Amazon, and shortly after that the title became part of Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” feature.

What about royalties? We encouraged people to purchase the book directly from CreateSpace’s store because that generated the largest royalty for Cornell. Amazon took a cut on orders placed directly from Amazon (though some of this was rebated to us if it came from our Amazon store). Thus we get different royalty amounts depending on whether it was sold by CreateSpace, Amazon, or the Cornell Library Amazon store. We are also able to place a bulk order at cost with CreateSpace that we can then resell to other vendors at whatever cost we want. The SAA Bookstore placed the first large order with us, and you can buy it from them (and support SAA in the process). The Library does not have an interest in being a distributor itself, though we may make an exception if, for example, a school wanted to place a bulk order for use in a class.

So what is my assessment of the process? As with everything in life, there are pluses and minuses (as well as unanticipated issues):

Pluses

• The product from CreateSpace is a high-quality publication. It would be hard to tell this came from a POD process if one did not know this already.
• Because the Library commissioned editorial services, we did not have to use CreateSpace’s own for-fee editing, marketing, and design services. (We guessed, but do not know, that doing it ourselves was cheaper).
• Our hope that the Library could recover its out-of-pocket expenses was met. We have sold enough copies to pay for the copy-editor and designers (though not for the internal staff who oversaw production nor my time).
• Free availability has proven to be the blessing we envisioned. In the first month it was available, it was downloaded over 3,300 times from the two download sites (SSRN and eCommons, Cornell’s institutional repository). It is currently the 3rd most downloaded paper in SSRN’s Legal Scholarship Network over the last 60 days – and 2/3rds of the downloads have come from eCommons.
• It is great that we don’t have to worry about printing and distribution.
• We have a file that we can use in new ways. Early this next year, we will be making an ePub version available for use on mobile reading devices. We are also looking into how to make a constantly updated version available online. CommentPress from the Institute for the Future of the Book might work, but I am not sure that it can handle graphic layouts the way we want. We are investigating…

Minuses

• I wish that the CreateSpace store and Amazon accounts were linked. Even though CreateSpace is a subsidiary of Amazon, people still had to create new accounts in order to buy from CreateSpace. This was an unnecessary headache.
• There were certain short-cuts we made in order to save production costs. For example, we did not include an index, figuring full-text availability will solve the problem. This may have been a mistake.
• Without a proven publisher, marketing has proven to be difficult. We sent out press releases and announcements to relevant lists announcing the availability of the title, but it has been harder to get into traditional channels. Now that we have broken even, we have decided that we can afford to send out a few complimentary copies to book reviewers, for example. I am still worried, however, that not everyone knows about the title – or that those who are aware of the title know how to request that a copy be purchased by their institution.
• It is hard to know how to price the title when you don’t know how many copies will sell. We did wanted it to be lower than the $80-$150 that many commercial publishers charge (one assumes on the assumption that only libraries will be purchasing the title), but we didn’t think that we could risk offering it at $20, which Oxford UP is charging for John Neuenschwander’s excellent new expanded edition of A Guide to Oral History and the Law (which everyone who has oral histories needs to get).
• We broke even this time, but who knows how much longer this model might work. For example, someone asked if they could print the book on an Espresso Book Machine. As long as the book was being used for noncommercial purposes, the Creative Commons license allows this. And the Espresso machine produces a book that is almost as high a quality at a lower price. When Espresso machines are ubiquitous, will there still be demand for copies sold via a POD printer?

Bottom Line

In general, I have been very pleased with the publishing process. We have produced a professional quality book that has recouped its out of pocket expenses but most importantly, it is widely available for reading and use. Archivists write not to make money, but in order to be read. New technologies, specifically the POD option combined with free downloads, offers hope that we can broaden access to our work outside of the traditional context of commercial information publishers.

2 Comments

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  By Jackie Dooley, January 6, 2010 @ 6:51 pm

  Thanks, Peter! Your writing this up is a real service. Glad to hear that the experience was so generally positive, and especially that so many copies are out there. Above all, congrats on the book!!

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  By Peter Hirtle, January 8, 2010 @ 8:10 am

  Thanks, Jackie. I realize that the approach we took with this book might not work with everything (for example, I just had the library order a copy of Kate Theimer’s new book), but I am pleased with the experiment we have had. As of 1 January, 308 print copies have been sold, but the book has been downloaded almost 4,000 times. This suggests to me that if one wants to be read, one needs to make the text available for free.

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