Book sales
Amongst the guides, there is broad consensus that while book sales are likely to be an important part of a publishers’ revenue stream, it is unlikely to be sufficient to meet the costs of Open Access publishing. Most Open Access publishers use print-on-demand publisher services to support their book sales. This involves individual books being published only when they are sold, with the print on demand service being linked directly to distributors and/or online ecommerce platforms. Commonly used services include Lighting Source/IngramSpark, Amazon Kindle Digital Publishing Platform, and Lulu. This model eliminates the need for large print runs, which not only involves a high up front cost, but also risks multiple copies of a book being produced, which then need to be sold in order for the financial outlay to be recouped. Some publishers generate additional sales revenue from the sale of books in additional digital formats, while providing at least some versions freely available as Open Access texts.
The sale of print books may open up important questions about where such income should flow. Publishers often make decisions as to whether to pay royalties on a case by case basis depending on authors’ expectations. For example, for Ubiquity Press “80% of the proceeds from book sales are returned either to the author as royalties, or paid into a waiver fund for developing country authors” (interview with Brain Hole, Jisc). Open Book Publishers typically pay 50% of net profits from sales, but only for the titles which generate significant royalties (Jisc interview with Gatti). African Minds do not pay royalties: ‘African Minds’ priority is dissemination, not financial returns, and in bringing to print non-commercial works that may not otherwise have been published. In accordance with our mandate and values, we would rather invest any surplus from sales back into marketing and dissemination’ (Business models for OA books).
Case studies
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For punctum books, sales are now a stable part of their revenue – based on recent figures, currently around 20%. punctum’s books are sold via Amazon and other on- and offline booksellers, as well as via wholesale distributors (e.g. Ingram). When punctum press began, the press was able initially to function without external funding due to revenue from its print-on-demand sales, by keeping overheads to a minimum and depending on the free labour of its academic founders. Over time, book sales, donations, author contributions, and more recently revenue from its library membership programme has allowed the press to diversity its revenue streams and to grow (Business Models for OA Books).
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Open Book Publishers