A New Model for Publishing Research Monographs

The standard model for publishing research monographs (graduate-level 
textbooks) in computer science is to use a publisher. The goal of these 
publishers, whether for-profit or non-profit, is to maximize their revenue,
and so they price their books accordingly. For example, "Finite Model Theory
and Its Applications", published by Springer at 2007, is priced at $109. At
this price, the book is purchased mostly by research libraries rather than 
individuals.  

In a conventional publishing agreement, the authors typically receive 
royalties at the rate of %15 (typically) from retail sales.  Since sales 
are usually quite modest, authors derive very minimal income from publishing
research monographs.  Indeed, most authors would prefer to forgo income in 
order to maximize dissemination.  After all, research monographs are 
published for scholarly impact.

Richard Baraniuk and I are developing a proposal for an alternative approach
to monograph publishing, based on the "freemium model".  In this approach, a
version of a published book is made freely available on the web in a basic 
format (e.g., html); we are planning to use the Connexions repository (see 
www.cnx.org).  A premium version (ePub, pdf, or print-on-demand) will be 
sold at a nominal price through all of the usual channels; for example, a 
soft-cover edition of a 300-page monograph can be priced around $15.  The 
goal is to cover the expenses of publishing (copy editing, graphical design,
etc.) rather than make large profits.  Once the expenses are covered, 
future income will be shared between the authors and the publisher.

We are trying to gauge interest in this model of monograph publishing.  If 
you are thinking of publishing a monograph and are interested in exploring 
this model, please contact me at vardi@cs.rice.edu.

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