RE: Digital publishing and university presses

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

I retract my previous confession of a mistake. What I was trying 
to compare--without being clear enough about it in my original 
message, which therefore Kevin understandably misinterpreted--was 
the cost per page of printing done in the course of manufacturing 
a book as compared with the cost of printing done via desktop 
printers.  And so I stand by my original figures.  The average 
per unit manufacturing cost (which also includes binding for the 
paperback, besides paper and printing) in producing a paperback 
by digital printing today is about $5 (the range is between $4 
and $6 for most books). Hence, a 300-page book would have a per 
page printing cost of 1.6 cents.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


>I think we need to be careful about what we claim that "everyone
>knows."  For a three hundred page book to cost just a few cents a
>page would  require a retail price around $10 - $15.  It has been
>many years since  academic books cost so little.  A quick check
>of five titles selected  randomly from the web site of Penn State
>University Press yielded an  average per page cost of .23 -- far
>more than the expense of local  printing.  There may well be good
>reasons for this, but we should base the  discussion on a
>realistic view of prices.
>
>Kevin L. Smith, J.D.
>Scholarly Communications Officer
>Perkins Library, Duke University
>PO Box 90193
>Durham, NC  27708
>919-668-4451
>kevin.l.smith@duke.edu
>http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/
>
>
>Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu> wrote:
>
>>  Everyone in publishing knows how highly inefficient it is to use
>>  local printers to produce hard copy. The per page cost to the
>>  consumer for most academic books ranges from under a penny to a
>>  few cents, whereas using a standard desktop printer probably
>>  costs twice that amount.  The shift to having people print out on
>>  their own, or library, printers adds significant costs to the
>>  entire process -- which, of course, are rarely tallied when one
> > hears about the supposed lower costs of publishing online.


-- 
Sanford G. Thatcher, Director
Penn State University Press
USB1, Suite C
820 N. University Drive
University Park, PA 16802-1003
e-mail: sgt3@psu.edu
Phone: (814) 867-2220
Fax: (814) 863-1408
http://www.psupress.org

"If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying."-John Ruskin (1865)

"The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people
who can write know anything."-Walter Bagehot (1853)