• What is Your Threshold? The Economics of Open Access Scholarly Book Publishing, the “Business” of Care, and the Case of punctum books

    Author(s):
    Vincent van Gerven Oei (see profile)
    Date:
    2023
    Item Type:
    Article
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/jp0z-6m69
    Abstract:
    What happens when one launches an independent academic press without the resources that an already existing university press (UP) has, without institutional backing of any kind, and without a so-called angel investor or private foundation grants? punctum books had none of these things when it started in 2011, but it had Eileen’s retirement savings and partners who paid most (but not all) of the bills to give her the security she needed to resign her tenured professorship and work on punctum full-time. But this could only ever be temporary. When it became more urgent in 2015 to be making more money outright, Eileen spent a lot of time seeking institutional and private foundation support and crafting different strategies to generate steadier income by other means, mainly to no avail (more on which below). Many friends helped along the way, but the road was long and hard and laced with personal exhaustion, anxiety, and depression, and Eileen seriously considered shutting down the press more than once. …
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.3998/jep.3627
    Publisher:
    University of Michigan Library
    Pub. Date:
    2023-5-24
    Journal:
    The Journal of Electronic Publishing
    Volume:
    26
    Issue:
    1
    ISSN:
    1080-2711
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 months ago
    License:
    Attribution
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