Language barriers --- financial barriers

[Dominik Wujastyk]

> 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?

I have it from senior figures in the publishing business that the cost of 
typesetting and production is a small part of a publisher's costs with 
respect to the overall budget of publishing a book.  Marketing, storage, 
distribution, and advertising form the major expenses.  Hence, on-demand 
printing is being explored as a way of reducing warehousing costs, for 
example.

Publication with a major established publisher certainly does make a 
difference to reception and judgement.  While we all prefer the idea of a 
pure-knowledge approach, that we will read and value something important 
and well-written wherever it was published (or in whatever language), the 
indisputable fact remains that a high-profile press such as Princeton, 
Chicago, Berkeley, Cambridge or OUP will still carry weight.  The 
production values are high, and people assume there has been a diligent 
selection and editing process preceding publication.  This is especially 
true for people who are not themselves in the research field, but often 
have to make judgements that affect jobs, promotion, etc.  These high-cost 
publishers have Brand Presence in the market, and that is where the money 
goes, at least partly.  Brand awareness is an extremely serious matter in 
the world of business, and it costs to create it and to maintain it.

And publishing companies have to provide profits that satisfy their 
shareholders.

As Birgit says, we are living through a huge change, and Open Access 
journal publishing is going to affect us all directly.  It will take some 
years for all this to settle down into a new model of scholarly 
production.

Bear in mind that although OA is great for the reader, it means the author 
bears the cost of publication.  To have an OA article in a Springer 
journal costs €2000 at the moment.  To have an OA article in the Lancet is 
£400 per page.  PER PAGE!  These prices are typical of the big houses, 
Springer, Elsevier, etc.  But not all journals are this expensive, and it 
does seem possible to run an OA journal publishing business on fees of 
about $400-$500 per article.  Nevertheless, what about academic authors 
who do not have institutional budgets behind them to support their 
publishing?

For scholars in developing economies, OA provides better read-access, but 
raises new economic barriers to getting work published.

There are some business models that seek to solve this issue, but they 
have not been implemented by any publisher I know.

Best,
Dominik