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Five years as an open access press: a self-reflection
Building: Amoxcalli Buildings (Science Department)
Room: Auditorium (Carlos Graef)
Date: 2013-08-21 03:40 PM – 04:40 PM
Last modified: 2013-06-24
Abstract
We have come a long way as we approach publishing our 100th book since we set foot in the open access publishing world. There were many questions and unknowns at the time when we started. Will we be alive in five years? We will be able to sell books while giving away content for free at the same time? Is it even possible to do so? How does the consumption of an open access online book change over time? Does it affect the print version and its possibility of reprint? Those are legitimate questions that are often asked and topics of much conjecture and even debates in the publishing field. While we cannot provide answers to all such questions, we can at least attempt to answer some of those questions based on our experience. This is a small attempt to share our experience with others who may be wondering about similar questions related to open access in scholarly publishing.
Our publications are freely available online as open access versions, but we also have printed versions available for purchase. Value-added electronic versions such as ePub and universal PDFs are also available for purchase through electronic distributors. We have found that the demand for printed books and the value-added electronic versions remains strong despite the free availability of the books online.
We have also found that marketing effort is crucial for wider readership and distribution of books even when the books are freely available. In other words, free availability does not necessarily translate into greater readership. Many readers find our books through more traditional avenues like libraries that subscribe to online databases and aggregators.
Online free readership (measured by download counts) seems to follow similar characteristics as printed books. The downloads depend almost entirely on the subject areas of books, authors, and course adoptions - the same factors that would influence printed book readerships. Because of our commitment to open access, it is not easy for us to draw conclusions as to how the sales of open access books would compare with the sales of non-open access books, as all our books are open access. However, we can safely say that there is a significant variation in the book sales and downloads even among open access books. For example, subject ares like distance education and instructional books have higher sales and download numbers whereas poetry books have low sales and download numbers. The downloads of a particular book over time after its publication also seems to be consistent with its sales figures. In general, books with higher downloads seem to be also have higher sales, indicating that downloads and sales are not working against each other, if not complementing.
Our publications are freely available online as open access versions, but we also have printed versions available for purchase. Value-added electronic versions such as ePub and universal PDFs are also available for purchase through electronic distributors. We have found that the demand for printed books and the value-added electronic versions remains strong despite the free availability of the books online.
We have also found that marketing effort is crucial for wider readership and distribution of books even when the books are freely available. In other words, free availability does not necessarily translate into greater readership. Many readers find our books through more traditional avenues like libraries that subscribe to online databases and aggregators.
Online free readership (measured by download counts) seems to follow similar characteristics as printed books. The downloads depend almost entirely on the subject areas of books, authors, and course adoptions - the same factors that would influence printed book readerships. Because of our commitment to open access, it is not easy for us to draw conclusions as to how the sales of open access books would compare with the sales of non-open access books, as all our books are open access. However, we can safely say that there is a significant variation in the book sales and downloads even among open access books. For example, subject ares like distance education and instructional books have higher sales and download numbers whereas poetry books have low sales and download numbers. The downloads of a particular book over time after its publication also seems to be consistent with its sales figures. In general, books with higher downloads seem to be also have higher sales, indicating that downloads and sales are not working against each other, if not complementing.
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