[INDOLOGY] Fwd: New publication

[Dominik Wujastyk]

I have a lot of sympathy for all the views expressed here about the high
prices of Brill books.  I'm ambivalent myself, about being an editor of a
series published by Brill.  When I founded the series (with Paul Unschuld
and Larry Conrad) we argued strongly about keeping prices down.  And at
first that seemed to work, sort of.  But now prices are extremely high, and
we're in a problem situation. €299 for Zysk's book is very much, although
one does get two volumes, and there is a huge amount of work in the
volumes, both Zysk's scholarly labours and multiple refereeing,
proof-reading, good paper, typesetting, binding, marketing and
distribution.  It's a very nice physical object, it has to be said.  And it
will be on the shelves in a century, when many books less-well produced may
no longer be useable.  That sort of thing has to be paid for.  Nevertheless.

I have advocated Open Access publishing for journals.  I'm less sure about
books.  It's worth discussing.  Books are very different animals
(usually).  I'm not sure the OA model translates to books, although I am
sure it's very good for journals.  I especially advocate authors keeping
their copyright.  The idea of Open Source, mentioned by Antonio, doesn't
apply to academic writing, although I also like the concept.

Antonio also mentioned that Brill hasn't endowed a professorship in
Indology.  It would be interesting to know what they do fund,
academically.  I know one colleague personally who edits a series for
Brill, and whose university receives an annual payment of several thousand
dollars from Brill that buys him out of some teaching because of his
editorial duties.  Perhaps Brill pays for more that we're not aware of?  It
would be worth asking them.

It's always been clear that Brill's business plan is to market to academic
libraries, and only incidentally to individuals.  With modern inter-library
loan, it's normally not too difficult to get hold of a volume one wants to
read.

Best,
Dominik


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