Digital Publishing in the AAUP Community

Survey Report: Winter 2009-10Peter Givler, Executive Director

Association of American University Presses

Survey Participants

• 59 Presses (45% of membership)

• 29 with annual sales up to $2 million

• 21 with annual sales from $2-$6 million

• 4 with annual sales from $6-$15 million

• 5 with sales over $15 million

Seven Questions About Their Digital Book Publishing Program

1. “Our press is pursuing the following general digital publishing strategies”

• Backlist SRPD/POD 54 (92%)• E-books through aggregators 52 (88%)• Front-list SRDP/POD 41 (70%)• E-book individual sales 39 (66%)• Full-text Search and Discover 30 (51%)• Online Full-text OA 25 (42%)• E-book Collections 20 (34%)• Other: Companion sites, e-reference, e-book

rental, print/e-book bundling, “just starting” (2)

2. “Our press participates in the following digital discovery programs.”

• Google Books for Publishers 54 (92%)• Amazon Search Inside 45 (88%)• B&N See Inside 23 (39%)• Summon Unified Discovery 6 (10%)• None 4 (7%)• Other: Chapters/Indigo See Inside, HathiTrust,

OAPEN, MS Live Search, Dial-a-Book

3. “Our press makes content available in the following formats.”

• PDF 55 (93%)• AZW (Kindle) 18 (32%)• EPUB 17 (30%)• MOBI 8 (14%)• iPhone Apps 2 (4%)• LIT 2 (4%)• DAISY 1 (2%)• None 1 (2%)• Other: HTML, XML; EPUB, iPhone Apps, Kindle

“available soon.”

4. “We provide digital access through the following vendors or aggregators.”

• NetLibrary 47 (84%)• Ebrary 47 (84%)• Questia 35 (63%)• ACLS Humanities E-book 23 (41%)• IngramDigital 20 (36%)• Bibliovault/Adobe Digital Eds. 17 (30%)• Tizra 4 (7%)• Impelsys 4 (7%)• Other: many. Dawson UK, Canadian Electronic library,

Scribd, eBooks.com, Follett Digital, MyiLibrary, etc.

5. “We offer the following types of free content/access through our website.”

• PDF (excerpts) 30 (53%)

• Readable/Searchable text (excerpts) 17 (30%)• PDF (full text) 12

(21%)• Readable/Searchable full text 8

(14%)• None 11 (19%)• Other: many individual comments

7. ”We are incorporating XML into our production workflow to the following extent”

• XML-first workflow 12 (22%)• XML output from InDesign 9 (16%)• XML output from typesetter 7 (13%)• Post-prod. XML conversion 15 (27%)• None of the above 31 (56%)

14 individual comments

6. “How great are the following concerns for your press in pursuing digital publishing strategies?”

• Resources• Production/Platform Issues• Rights• Online Piracy• Digital Assets Management• Business Model

One Press skipped this question

58 Presses chose among the following responses

• “Not a concern”• “A mild concern”• “Cause for serious concern”• “Stops us in our tracks”

Summary of Responses, 1

“Not a concern/Stops us in our tracks”

• Resources 3/9 12• Prod/Platform Issues 5/3 8• Rights 4/4 8• Online Piracy 6/2 8• Digital Assets Management 4/1 5• Business Model 2/6 8

Summary of Responses, 2

“Mild concern/cause for serious concern”

• Resources 14/31 45• Prod/Platform Issues 20/29 49• Rights 13/37 50• Online piracy 30/20 50• Digital asset management 23/30 53• Business model 8/42 50

Individual Responses

• On Resources:

“UPP Digital Editions was funded by library resources; we would not have had the resources to scan 500+ backlist titles on our own.”

“Small and midsize presses are at a distinct financial advantage in committing to the digital world.”

Individual Responses

• On Resources:

“Most importantly, as we are a small publishing house, there are usually no resources available to scan books, pay for two workflows, allow for digital editions, review contracts with a new digital asset aggregator, or consider the big picture in terms of digital publishing and open access.”

Resources

• 92% of the respondents to the questionnaire (54) ranked resources from “a mild concern” to “stops us in our tracks.”

• 68% of the respondents (40) ranked resources as “cause for serious concern” to “stops us in our tracks.”

Individual Responses

• On Business Models:

“Business models are problematic inasmuch as there are currently too many options, rather than too few.”

“The fact is that we’re fretting about all aspects of digital publishing. But the appropriate business model is our biggest concern.”

Business Models

• 97% of the respondents (56) ranked the business model for digital book publishing from “a mild concern” to “stops us in our tracks.”

• 81% of the respondents ranked it from “a cause for serious concern” to “stops us in our tracks.”

Participants—Recap

• 50% of the respondents (28) had sales less than $2 million/year.

• 85% of the respondents (50) had sales less than $6 million/year.

Sources

• “Digital Publishing in the AAUP Community”

http://www.aaupnet.org/resources/electronic.html

.

• Directory of Digital Publishing Projects

http://www.aaupnet.org/resources/electronicad.html

.

Watch This Space!www.aaupnet.org

Thank you.