Language barriers --- financial barriers

[Jonathan Silk]

A small note on Birgit's thoughtful contribution:

On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 7:36 AM, Birgit Kellner
<birgit.kellner at univie.ac.at>wrote:

> ...



>
> What I am wondering specifically in connection with Indological studies:
> whence the "enormous cost of publishing books an all types of 'oriental'
> topics in the so-called developed countries", as Michael Hahn puts it? Why,
> for instance, does the set of Oskar von Hinüber's "Kleine Schriften" that
> was recently announced cost 178 Euros? Do the publishers take such great
> care with editing, layout and design as to justify such a price? (The
> technology required to typeset books in Asian languages can no longer
> justify such prices.) And if not: Why do authors decide to publish with
> publishers when they know exorbitant prices will be charged for their books?
> Is it because the publication with a major established publisher is believed
> to make more impact than a cheaper publication with one that is lesser
> known? Is it the publisher's reputation that people hope will also reflect
> on the reputation of their books? Is it the expected professionality of
> distribution, is it a hope for fame? Is it just habit, a lack of knowledge
> that other possibilities might exist?
>

What Birgit delicately does not mention (apophatic discourse?) is that of
course with the exception of the introduction and Table of Contents, and
sometimes index, in these Glasenapp volumes, the entire thing is no more
than a photoreprint of already published materials (sometimes, in the case
anyway of Weller's work, for example,  in barely legible copies). In Japan,
we find  the mere binding of computer printouts. The recent volume on the,
if I recall correctly, Samyuktagama, from Sankibo costs 8000 yen, about 70
Euros or so, for a paperback volume that could have been distributed by the
author in *exactly the same form* (in pdf, allowing readers to print and
bind it themselves) entirely freely. Why? (All the more so for fancy LaTex
stuff...)

It may be that we need to work at changing the culture of value, that we
need to break the link between big-name publishers and scholarly value.
Heaven knows, each and every one of us could come up with an extensive list
of just bad books published by 'reputable' houses...

I would like to emphasize that, like many of us, I *love* books, as physical
objects among other things, and I am *not* arguing for doing away with them!
But when you've got publishers publishing books with huge subventions from
funding bodies, and still charging outrageous prices, (and I confess I am on
the board of one such series), this is just, as we say to our kids, "not
OK." Maybe, as again Birgit says, the/a way to start is with funding bodies.
Already they stipulate from time to time exactly how much 'skim'
universities may take from grants. Maybe we should ask them to require free
or 'reasonably priced' publication of all works for which they pay in the
first place? (Then, how to define 'reasonable'?)

sorry--the small note became not quite so small...

jonathan


J. Silk
Instituut Kern / Universiteit Leiden
Postbus 9515
2300 RA Leiden
Netherlands