Recently, I happened to stumble upon the news that the University of Chicago Press offers a different book each month as a free ebook download. (This month they’re giving away Adrian Johns’ The Nature of the Book.) Furthermore, Chicago UP gives readers 3 “licensing options” for all of its ebook titles:
Like many publishers, Chicago UP has chosen a file format that requires readers to download free software from Adobe, in this case Adobe Digital Editions. This software is designed to provide a reader-friendly environment for the consumer who owns several digital editions of texts (hint: it’s not Adobe Acrobat Reader) as well as DRM for the publisher. And it will run in the Mac and Windows environments as well as on a a range of ebook devices. Notable absences: any device running Linux as well as the Amazon Kindle. (Fear not, Kindle owners, Chicago also sells Kindle versions of many of their titles on Amazon.)
Are other university presses embracing electronic publishing of monographs? A quick and dirty Google search suggests that the answer is “Yes.” Consider the following random selection:
And a Publisher’s Weekly article from last summer reports “University Presses Stepping Up e-Book Efforts.”
These developments lead me to ask a number of questions:
- What do publishers gain from these developments? What do they lose?
- What about authors? What are the advantages and disadvantages of more titles being available as e-books?
- Finally, what are the positive and negative effects of e-books and electronic publishing for readers?
If you have some thoughts on these issues, please leave them in the comments below.
[Creative Commons licensed flickr photo by D’Arcy Norman]
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