by Kim Miller
On Friday, May 11, 2007, Michael McCutcheon and I attended
Professional, Scholarly & Academic Books: The Basic Books Boot
Camp. Organized by PSP (the Professional and Scholarly Publishing
Division of the Association of American Publishers), the Books Boot
Camp is a one-day intensive overview of the book industry intended for
people with less than three years of experience in the professional and
academic publishing sector.
Attending this program was a great opportunity for
Michael and I to both gain insight from some of the leading
professionals in the area of academic publishing; and to interact with
our publishing peers. The seminar was moderated by Beth Schacht
(Director of Marketing, McGraw Hill), who did a great job of keeping
things timely and in order. John A. Jenkins (Senior Vice President and
Publisher, CQ Press) presented an overview of the industry and the
differences between publishing sectors.
Gregory M. Britton (Director, Minnesota Historical
Society Press & Borealis Books) was one of several AAUP members
sharing their experience. Britton explained the role of acquisitions in
academic publishing, taking us through the stages of manuscript
development in a way that was both informative and entertaining. Cathy
Felgar (Associate Production Director, Academic, Cambridge University
Press) spoke openly on what the production department typically does
and introduced some information on the changes to come in the area of
production. Elizabeth Sheehan (Marketing Manager, EE/Technology,
Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing, John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.) gave a spirited talk on what a marketer does, and explained
marketing through a book’s lifecycle.
Paul G. Manning (Vice President, Book Sales,
Springer) had the arduous task of having to speak to us directly after
lunch, but in spite of that, was still able to convey valuable
information about sales. Molly Venezia (Assistant Director and CFO,
Rutgers University Press) spoke, as many in AAUP will be familiar with
from her work on various “Finances for Non-Financial Folks,” quite
candidly and in layperson’s terms about her work in the area of
business and finance.
A personal highlight for me, was participating in a
group project. Like at the higher-level and longer-format PSP Journals
Boot Camp, attendees divided into teams over a working lunch to create
a plan in response to various hypothetical publishing problems. My
team’s assignment was to deal with a potentially disastrous situation
with an author. Has this ever happened to you? There’s a meeting, and
it is very important for the author to be in attendance with his or her
latest title; but to everyone’s horror, there are no books available in
the warehouse or anywhere else to send to the meeting. What would you
do?
Our solution involved a range of activities that a
publisher might pursue to rescue this scenario from disaster. A large
size poster of the cover, with special order forms, was the first
priority, along with—if possible—a galley for browsers to flip through.
An innovation to this was the idea of offering autographed copies of
the book to anyone who ordered at the meeting. Scaling up the plan in
case this author’s assuagement is an absolute necessity, we also
suggested an in-booth reception with the author and the book (or
poster, at least) as a centerpiece.
The team challenge was key to making this a valuable
learning experience, allowing us to combine our own experience of
publishing with the day’s presentations.
The next Books Boot Camp will be offered in San
Francisco, November 9, 2007. For more information go to:
www.pspcentral.org. The intensive four-day Journals Boot Camp is also
being offered later this year, September 26-29, in Philadelphia.
The Chicago Manual of Style Online
by Michael McCutcheon
Communications Assistant, AAUP
Many of our member presses have undertaken electronic publishing projects that are expanding access and generating buzz. Through a series of articles we hope to begin sharing the successes and challenges that come with breaking new ground.
Books and e-books may sound like rivals, but it doesn’t mean they always are. The text of The Chicago Manual of Style went digital in late 2006 and is one of the latest electronic resources on the web courtesy of university presses. Although still a work in progress, the project has been well received and proven complementary to its hardcover-cousin.
Although there was already an online Q&A that accompanied the 14th edition, according to Carol Kasper, Marketing Director for the Books Division at the University of Chicago Press, they decided to put the complete text online after receiving a lot of feedback from users who said that “they would welcome an electronic edition.” And, in this case at least, the press agreed that the customer’s always right.
Published in 2003, the 15th edition went live 3 years later as a subscription-based service. Now, the content of all 956 pages is online and fully searchable with the click of a button. Individual users can have access to the entire text for an annual fee of $25 with different pricing models for libraries and corporations/institutions. Yet accompanying the full text are a number of tools that can still be used for free. Subscribers and non-subscribers alike can peruse the online Q&A, which is both informative and clever, and the citation guide, which provides clear examples of Chicago-style citations. Users have responded with extremely positive feedback.
When the Manual Online was launched in September 2006 there was an initial surge of traffic that has since slowed, but Kasper notes that they are “steadily adding customers…and have tripled since the first big wave of subscribers.” What may be a little surprising is how this electronic resource has affected sales of the print version—it hasn’t. Sales of the book are “behaving the way they did before the electronic version appeared online.” What’s new is that a lot of people seem to be using both resources at once. Kasper said that the University of Chicago Press has done market research and of online subscribers “80% still use the book as well.”
The primary purpose of the Manual Online is not to sell books nor is it meant to drive traffic to the University of Chicago Press website. Although there is some overlap, Dean Blobaum, E-marketing Manager at the Press, states that the Manual Online “intends to be, is on the way to becoming, a self-sustaining online subscription product and destination.” And as with any online project, the work is never really done.
The Manual Online is still being developed as Chicago seeks input from users and focus groups in order to improve future versions. Currently, they have plans to add additional features such as bookmarking, electronic notes, and the ability to create custom style sheets that can be emailed to other users. These features will further personalize the online version and improve the user experience. For those that want an electronic project of their own, be prepared to work both backwards and forwards to develop it.
The difficulty, as Kasper notes, is that the development of an online project isn’t linear like that of a book where it moves from one department to the next. Instead, it is “three dimensional and a lot things have to be done simultaneously.” This requires the “business and development know-how” along with a “revised work flow and chain of responsibility” that can keep up with the continual process of updating the site, responding to users, and marketing the product year after year. Kasper acknowledged that the online Manual was a “long and complicated project” despite a good IT staff and experience with online journals. She recommended hiring a consultant for any first-timers, but the results are worthy of the effort.
Although there is a big learning curve when undertaking a project like this for the first time, afterwards the capacity is in place to do it again. When asked about any closing thoughts Kasper laughed and said, “It’s hard work. It really changes how you’re used to working.” When asked if Chicago had plans to do more projects like this down the road she responded quickly, “Yes, we certainly have plans to do others.”
Chicago Manual of Style Online: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/
Other AAUP member electronic publishing projects: http://aaupnet.org/resources/electronic.html
A Review of the MLA Report on Evaluating Scholarship
by Lynne Withey
Director, University of California Press
By now, most of you will have
read — or at least read about — the report of the Modern Language
Association’s Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and
Promotion. If not, you can find it at http://www.mla.org/tenure_promotion.
It is well worth reading in full, all 80 pages of it. From the
perspective of scholarly publishers, Part I, “Revising the Meaning of
Scholarship,” is the most compelling section. Parts II and III deal with
the responsibilities of hiring institutions and the mechanics of the
tenure review.
It would be hard to overstate the significance of the task force’s
work. After years of debate about the “crisis in scholarly
publishing,” finally, a thoughtful group of scholars has moved beyond
the now-familiar laments about declining sales of monographs, strapped
library budgets, and vanishing subsidies for university presses to ask
the hard questions: do we really need all those monographs? Are there
other, equally valid, ways to evaluate faculty for tenure? Are
tenure requirements becoming unrealistic? The fact that one of the
largest and most prestigious scholarly societies has framed the
questions and offered hard-hitting recommendations is especially
welcome. It increases the odds that the academy will pay
attention. Bravo to the leaders of the MLA who initiated this
project and to the task force members who accomplished it! We
scholarly publishers are in your debt.
The central theme of the report is concern about the future of junior
faculty and, by implication, the future of the profession. The
task force studied the percentage of newly minted PhDs hired into
academic jobs; the percentage of those jobs that are tenure track; the
requirements for attaining tenure, variations in requirements among
different types of institutions, and changes in requirements over time;
and the nature of the tenure process itself. Among the most
interesting conclusions are the following:
Notwithstanding these conclusions, the task force did not shy away from
recommending changes in the current system, even to the point of
challenging the accepted definition of “scholarship.” The
report argues that scholarship should encompass teaching and service to
the profession as well as research. “Scholarship in the
humanities,” the report states, “constellates three activities:
research, interpretation, and reflection. Research is not to be
equated with scholarship; it is a component of
scholarship….Furthermore, scholarship should no be equated with
publication, which is, at bottom, a means to make scholarship public,
just as teaching, service, and other activities are directed toward
different audiences. Publication is not the raison d’etre of
scholarship; scholarship should be the raison d’etre of publication.”
(pp. 23-24) Following from this definition, the report
argues for “multiple pathways to tenure.” Institutions should
establish tenure standards commensurate with their missions and
values. The monograph should not be the only route to
tenure. (See recommendations 2 and 3, p. 70 and in the executive
summary.) The report also recommends that institutions recognize
the legitimacy of scholarship published in digital format (including
collaborative work) but, thankfully, understands that digital
publication is not a solution to the economic challenges of scholarly
publishing. (See recommendation 4.)
The report offers a perceptive analysis of dissertations and their role
in launching the careers of junior faculty. The primacy of the
monograph has ensured that dissertations are viewed as “larval
monographs”—the first step in the book-for-tenure process. But
the trend toward digital publication of dissertations may make it even
more difficult to get that lightly revised dissertation published in
book form, thus adding to the pressures faced by beginning faculty
members. If the revised dissertation is no longer publishable,
will departments require a second, entirely new book-length work for
tenure? The Task Force argues instead that the dissertation
itself and the graduate curriculum should be reconceived.
There is much more in the Task Force report. Twenty
recommendations cover every aspect of the tenure process, in addition
to the publication requirements. For publishers, however, the
report’s compelling message is the need to reconsider the standards for
tenure and, in particular, the elevation of the monograph as the
so-called gold standard in literary scholarship.
The big question, of course, is—what next? Will this report make
a difference? Or will it join the ranks of so many other task
force reports, set aside after a brief flurry of attention?
Coverage in the press has already sounded a note of skepticism, and
rightly so, given that tenure decisions are highly decentralized, and
the importance of “standards” and “reputation” in the academic world
will make it difficult for any institution to take the first
step. But I am optimistic. This report may follow the
typical academic task force model in its length and proliferation of
recommendations, but do not be fooled by the package. The task
force recommends very significant changes and backs them up with
serious, thoughtful analysis. With the weight of the MLA behind
them, there is hope for action.
* The Task Force surveyed 1339 departments in 734 institutions divided
among three categories: PhD-granting institutions, masters degree
institutions, and four-year colleges. In addition, they interviewed
deans, department chairs, and other senior administrators and solicited
comments from MLA members.
Read the report here: http://www.mla.org/tenure_promotion
David Nicholls, MLA Director of Book Publications, will chair a session
at the 2007 AAUP Annual Meeting to discuss the Task Force’s findings
and recommendations. The session will be held Friday, June 15, 10:45 AM
to 12 Noon, at the Hilton Minneapolis.