Journal of Electronic Publishing

The Short-Term Influence of Free Digital Versions of Books on Print Sales


John Hilton III and David Wiley

Increasingly, authors and publishers are freely distributing their books electronically to increase the visibility of their work. A vital question for those with a commercial stake in selling books is, “What happens to book sales if digital versions are given away?” We used BookScan sales data for four categories of books (a total of 41 books) for which we could identify the date when the free digital versions of the books were made available to determine whether the free version affected print sales. We analyzed the data on book sales for the eight weeks before and after the free versions were available. Three of the four categories of books had increased sales after the free books were distributed. We discuss the implications and limitations of these results.
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UP 2.0: Some Theses on the Future of Academic Publishing

Phil Pochoda

Much attention has been focused recently on the transition from the printed to the digital book, and some of these reactions—and invariably the ones featured in the media—have been extreme, ranging, at one end, from teeth-gnashing proclamations on the end of culture, if not civilization, as we know it and, at the other end, to apocalyptic euphoria verging on Rapture. To the true believers, the digital book, and the seamless connectivity it seems to make inevitable between everything ever written and everybody still reading, appears either as the final dagger in the heart of the literary culture or as the realization of the globalizing, utopian visions of writers such as Teilhard de Chardin, Marshall McLuhan, or Internet guru Ted Nelson. Both extremes, but with opposite affect and attitude, seem to take for granted the imminent precipitous decline, if not outright demise, of the printed book, notwithstanding that such books have held sway for four and a half centuries, during which they have been integral to and instrumental within immense religious, political, social, intellectual, scientific, and cultural reformations, revolutions, and upheavals.



Our Blook

Sandra Ordonez

This article describes the creation of OurBlook.com (http://www.ourblook.com), an online forum created for the exchange of research, information, and dialogue on today’s national and global issues. The goal of the site is to gather opinions from today’s leaders in the hopes of collaboratively finding tomorrow’s solutions. The “blook” format aims to bridge the gap between a blog and book, combining the flexibility and accessibility of the Web with the strengths of traditional book publishing protocols focused on documentation and shelf life. The site also offers various Web 2.0 tools to the public through the use of its community center. To date, the Web site receives a little over 9,000 visitors a month, while the site’s projects have begun receiving coverage by respected publications. The most recent project, the Future of Journalism, includes interviews with journalism and new media experts, and will be featured in the next issue of Media, a magazine published by the Canadian Association of Journalists.



Launching (and Sustaining) a Scholarly Journal on the Internet: The International Journal of Baudrillard Studies

Gerry Coulter

This paper is written by the founding editor of the electronic scholarly journal the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies (IJBS). While it will be of interest to persons with a general interest in electronic publishing, it is aimed primarily at those who may be contemplating the launch of an electronic journal. The paper focuses on several key interdependent factors in pre-launch planning: a good idea confirmed by peers, an editor committed to the success of the publication, gaining acceptance in the field, finding high-quality content, publicity, resources, building long term success into initial planning, and technical and language issues. The paper also considers some of the rewards and opportunities that involvement in this project has conferred upon its editor. In the case of IJBS the editor happens to be its founder but this need not always be the case. This is the experience of one journal, not an attempt to establish rules by which all journals should operate.



Justify Just or Just Justify

Mohamed Elaakoubi, Azzeddine Lazrek

This paper describes a formalism for the justification of texts written in an Arabic alphabet‑based script, within some approved calligraphic rules, that would produce better typographical quality than current publishing systems. Specifically, we improve the optimum-fit algorithm by taking into account the existence of allographic variants and stretched forms with kashida (a feature in some cursive alphabets) provided by the font. This sophisticated algorithm breaks the paragraph into lines in an optimal way; it does not just justify each line. Thus, it allows selecting the optimal version among several variants. This approach could be extended for the composition of multilingual texts.



XML Production Workflows? Start with the Web

John W. Maxwell

Book publishers have struggled in recent years to find ways to adopt XML-based editorial and production workflows. Complexity, unfamiliarity, and uncertainty about implementation details contribute to a kind of impasse among publishers—particularly small and medium-sized firms that lack the resources to maintain innovative IT departments that might push them into 21st-century processes. While the benefits of XML-based processes are trumpeted widely, and the general business case for adopting and investing in XML and related technology has existed for 20 years, gathering the energy and resources to move into an XML-based environment has eluded many. Could it be that XML-based workflows are simply too complicated to be readily adopted by smaller publishers? And if that is so, what are the implications as we move into the digital era?