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What is the future of book publishing?

In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

What do TPC readers think the future of book publishing looks like? Recently I’ve had a book proposal declined by multiple presses that seemed, on paper, like natural fits given their past titles. Some of the rejections have cited financial difficulty with projects like mine mainly as a function of the current publishing landscape (for instance, reduced institutional/library demand for a print run in the age of digital media). It’s a real shame that worthwhile research projects may be killed in the womb, not for lack of merit, but for lack of a viable market.

Do any readers have any helpful insights to share?

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6 responses to “What is the future of book publishing?”

  1. Anonymous

    This is a great question. I have published a few books, monographs and edited volumes. And I hope there is still a place for books in our field. They are a special kind of contribution to scholarship – one can do something in a monograph that one cannot do in a few related articles.
    But your worries are well-founded. Look at how many books you have on your shelf, and how many you buy each year. I suspect people are not buying many anymore. (I still buy quite a few … and I get many for free because I referee for book publishers, etc.). Clearly, this makes producing books less profitable. Further, many people are just illegally downloading books – I hear this from people all the time: “I downloaded your book from Kazakhstan”. This too cuts into the profits for book publishers.
    I ask everyone who has not yet published a book: guess how many copies of a philosophy book a publisher sells? And, for those who have published a book, you should post the number of books you have sold on this site. It will be a reality check for people.
    But let us hope that philosophers can still publish books.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      “And, for those who have published a book, you should post the number of books you have sold on this site.”

      Okay, so how many have *you* sold?

      Reply
    2. Anonymous

      To be fair, books are insanely expensive. I’m just a grad student and it’s impossible to buy them when they go over $100 USD. I don’t really believe that this is entirely because of production costs. Book publishers have a monopoly and are trying to milk it as much as they can (see for instance the ridiculous prices for textbooks or even the cost of an activation key). They are bringing this on themselves.

      I bet they would sell more if they sold the books in bookstores too.

      Reply
  2. Michel

    B1 has sold 476 copies. I think someone has picked it up as a textbook, because it continues to sell a few dozen a year.

    B2 has sold 4 copies, but I don’t have the numbers for last year yet, and the press was bought and sold twice, which may have interrupted things. They don’t seem to have approached libraries, which they should have, because it’s for a pretty niche audience (…but of more than four). It’s also far too expensive; at $100, it will struggle. If it had been priced at $20, I’m convinced it would have sold a decent number

    B3’s sales are unknown, because I don’t have the numbers yet. I imagine it will be between 40-100, mostly library sales (which is what B2 should be). It’s also quite expensive, though.

    Books 4-6 are with their publishers. I expect them to be in the same range, though B4, which is out next month, will have broad interdisciplinary appeal, so should do a bit better.

    I’m writing B7 now, and I think the topic is exciting enough that, so long as it’s reasonably priced, it should sell more like B1. We’ll see.

    Reply
  3. AGT

    I suppose the correct question is: what is the future of book publishing in a system oriented toward maximum profit at lowest possible costs? To THIS question, the answer might well be: none.

    But this isn’t the same question as whether we SHOULD be publishing book, whether it makes sense to write books. To THIS question, assuming free human inquiry is a worthwhile endeavour (and I think it is), the answer is affirmative.

    So, the real question is more like: why are keeping the present profit-oriented, business-like form of book publishing in place?

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I’ve published no books (yet?), and don’t like books for financial reasons. Unless they are subscribed by my institution (like many OUP books), given that there is way more stuff for me to have time to read, unless reviewers specifically ask me to cite something, I wouldn’t want to pay for what I have to read.

    On a seperate manner, a friend of mine told me that he was really upset that the publisher only sold hardcover versions of his book. This made his book expensive and adversely affected his readership.

    Reply

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