From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:13:36 -0500

The figure is outrageous for an individual to bear.  I would add that
as someone who knows how books are put together, I don't see how
Palgrave can make any money at that price.

There is a basic asymmetry in publishing, namely, there are more
readers than authors.  An economic model that spreads costs across a
publication's readership minimizes the cost to any individual.  That
model is usually called traditional publishing.  A model that has all
the cost borne by one individual is usually termed Gold OA.

This asymmetry is not felt as strongly for single articles in narrow
fields.  It is felt keenly for larger works and especially in areas
where there are broad markets.

It's often remarked that the output of university presses should be OA
because their efforts are supported by their parent institutions.  But
U. presses earn about 90% of their revenue in the marketplace.  The
total subsidy to the U. press community is in the range of $30-$35
million, about what it costs to run a single large library.  I do not
see any appetite for the parent institutions to pick up the other $300
million that presses now derive from their customers, only about 25%
of which comes from libraries.

There is, in other words, no known economically viable way to
establish a comprehensive OA program for scholarly monographs.
Niches, yes (I am working on one such project now), but not more than
that.

Joe Esposito


On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 6:06 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:36:55 -0800
>
> I learn from humanities friends on Facebook of Palgrave Open:
> http://www.palgrave.com/open/ -- and their attention was riveted by
> this item on the FAQ:
>
> How much is the open access publication charge?
> Monographs: £11,000 / $17,500 + VAT/taxes where applicable
>
> I would characterize their reaction as variously gobsmacked, outraged,
> and spluttering.  That order of magnitude of money for publishing a
> book is not something they can imagine committing to.
>
> Jim O'Donnell
> Georgetown U.