[FOM] Out-of-print books

[hendrik@topoi.pooq.com]

On Mon, Aug 04, 2008 at 11:00:25AM -0400, Timothy Y. Chow wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Aug 2008, Roger Bishop Jones wrote:
> > FOM book authors who wish to avoid having their books go out of print 
> > could consider publishing through the amazon "print on demand" 
> > publishing service. This service is economically independent of the 
> > volume of sales, since books are printed and shipped automatically, one 
> > at a time, when they are ordered.
> 
> There are certainly many good reasons to go this route.  The one thing to 
> consider, though, is the long-term survival of the book (in particular, 
> after the author's death).  Many libraries are not in the habit of 
> purchasing such books, and at present, there is little guarantee that the 
> book will still be available from the print-on-demand company fifty or a 
> hundred years from now.

This won't generate revenue, but it's also possible to release it under 
a suitable creative commons licence.  This would mean that enyone with 
an electronic copy of a book is free to redistribute it.  You can do 
that *and* make it available with print-on-demand publisher(s).  How 
much this would count toward tenure is anyone's guess.

-- hendrik