From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 23:40:31 -0500

If there is reason to believe that librarians are reluctant to buy
revised dissertations, then indeed providing that information is doing
a disservice to authors because librarians are not acting on as much
information as the publishers themselves have about these books.

Michael Zeoli thinks it is "urban legend" that revised dissertations
do not sell as well as regular books, but a former colleague of his
told me in 2007 that YBP's own data showed that revised dissertations
sell 20% to 25% fewer copies than books not based on dissertations. I
do not think university presses would regard that kind of reduction as
only "very slightly" below the average for sales of other monographs.

Perhaps it is also the case that the average for other monographs is
lower than it might be because YBP itself cannot always identify which
books are based on dissertations and is counting some books of that
kind as though they were not in that category.

Sandy Thatcher


> From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2013 03:23:35 +0000
>
>> Your analogy breaks down, Rick, because the book that originated as a
>> dissertation does not really list its "ingredients" anywhere.  There
>> is no explanation to be found in any such book as to exactly what
>> revisions were made to turn the dissertation into a book.
>
>
> You're distorting my analogy, Sandy. No one is asking publishers to
> provide a list of revisions made to their dissertation-based books. What
> YBP is asking Tony's press to do is provide some very basic information
> about their books -- are they conference monographs, are they reprints,
> are they revised dissertations, etc. Tony is objecting on the basis that
> providing such information will tend to drive down sales.
>
> Am I really the only one to whom this response seems patently perverse?
> Tony is making it seem as though the more people know about PSUP's
> books, the less likely they are to buy them.
>
> ---
> Rick Anderson
> Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library
> University of Utah
> [log in to unmask]