Is is normal for a niche academic publisher to ask for a subsidy?
August 27, 2013 7:00 PM Subscribe
I am concerned about the potential stigma associated with paying for publication and would appreciate some advice - is this something that is normal/becoming more common? Do people just avoid talking about it?
More background: this is an edited book which has been accepted by a small press (in the arts), subject to the editors contributing around $15000 towards costs which will include marketing (book will be around 100000 words, 100 images). The press is selective and has produced a number of well-regarded titles. Our book has contributions from several well-known authors and submissions have been peer-reviewed (double blind).
More background: this is an edited book which has been accepted by a small press (in the arts), subject to the editors contributing around $15000 towards costs which will include marketing (book will be around 100000 words, 100 images). The press is selective and has produced a number of well-regarded titles. Our book has contributions from several well-known authors and submissions have been peer-reviewed (double blind).
I think there are a lot of factors I would want to factor in before making a decision to spend money on this. What is the field, to begin with?
I guess I'm asking this because for $15,000 I could pretty easily call myself a "niche small press" in the "arts" and print out your document for you.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:05 PM on August 27, 2013
I guess I'm asking this because for $15,000 I could pretty easily call myself a "niche small press" in the "arts" and print out your document for you.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:05 PM on August 27, 2013
A colleague of mine is printing a book with a university press and needed to gather some funds to add to the pot in order to realize that project. She applied for and won a state grant that is partially being allotted to printing (the rest covered a semester sabbatical and touring exhibition expenses).
posted by vegartanipla at 7:11 PM on August 27, 2013
posted by vegartanipla at 7:11 PM on August 27, 2013
I can imagine a subvention being required for image permissions and/or color printing for the interior of an art book, but barring that particular scenario a reputable press should not be asking for any kind of financial contribution from authors, especially not for routine costs like marketing--unless the authors are demanding (and willing to pay for) something outlandish like a lavish launch party/national tour/paid television advertising. (I am an editor at a university press but not your editor, etc.)
posted by agent99 at 8:11 PM on August 27, 2013
posted by agent99 at 8:11 PM on August 27, 2013
That seems like a huge subsidy. I have published with quite a few academic presses (including at least one "niche" one) and it is more common to
(a) not get any royalties
and/or
(b) require the author to pay for indexing and/or proofreading, both of which I have done. The presses that required this differed slightly. One allowed me to find my own proofreader and pay them directly. The other had a set hourly rate for proofreading and indexing, and sent me the employee's invoice. I have also heard of a set fee for these things no matter how long it takes, but I have never heard of it being higher than about $4000, and that's for both indexing and proofreading of extremely long or complicated books.
I also know presses that publish as "open access", i.e. an e-book of the publication is freely available online, and they require quite large subsidies (although still $15,000 is more than I've ever heard of.) My own university press is one of these, and I think their subsidy is around $5000 or $6000. Authors usually manage to get small grants to cover it, or have it as a budget line in a larger grant project.
posted by lollusc at 1:29 AM on August 28, 2013 [3 favorites]
(a) not get any royalties
and/or
(b) require the author to pay for indexing and/or proofreading, both of which I have done. The presses that required this differed slightly. One allowed me to find my own proofreader and pay them directly. The other had a set hourly rate for proofreading and indexing, and sent me the employee's invoice. I have also heard of a set fee for these things no matter how long it takes, but I have never heard of it being higher than about $4000, and that's for both indexing and proofreading of extremely long or complicated books.
I also know presses that publish as "open access", i.e. an e-book of the publication is freely available online, and they require quite large subsidies (although still $15,000 is more than I've ever heard of.) My own university press is one of these, and I think their subsidy is around $5000 or $6000. Authors usually manage to get small grants to cover it, or have it as a budget line in a larger grant project.
posted by lollusc at 1:29 AM on August 28, 2013 [3 favorites]
Oh and I had a press require me to cover the cost of permission to reprint an image from a library collection (around $200) out of my own pocket too.
posted by lollusc at 1:31 AM on August 28, 2013
posted by lollusc at 1:31 AM on August 28, 2013
It is standard to require authors to pay for things like indexing (there's a reason I'm currently doing my own...) and images. Many non-US presses require subventions as a matter of course--a friend of mine who was offered a contract with a major Canadian press was told he needed $3K in order to publish. $15K is absolutely not unheard-of if the book is image-heavy or requires unique layout.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:42 AM on August 28, 2013
posted by thomas j wise at 5:42 AM on August 28, 2013
i work for large medical publishers. we've started nickle and diming authors, but we mostly just ask them to pay for permissions fees.
the open access thing that lollusc mentions is becoming more common. like, if you publish a journal article and want it to be open access--you know, for the good of society and learning and all that jazz--you have to pay a fee to do that because the publisher will be losing some pay-per-view money.
but what on earth does your publisher want $15K for? i would ask for an itemization and then see if you can get a grant. if you're not going to get royalties and you're paying that much money out of pocket, i would try to find a different publisher as that seems really out of line.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:50 AM on August 28, 2013
the open access thing that lollusc mentions is becoming more common. like, if you publish a journal article and want it to be open access--you know, for the good of society and learning and all that jazz--you have to pay a fee to do that because the publisher will be losing some pay-per-view money.
but what on earth does your publisher want $15K for? i would ask for an itemization and then see if you can get a grant. if you're not going to get royalties and you're paying that much money out of pocket, i would try to find a different publisher as that seems really out of line.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:50 AM on August 28, 2013
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posted by umbú at 7:05 PM on August 27, 2013