Lulu launches academic alternative | The Bookseller

"Amid the plethora of new models for academic publishing comes Glasstree, a DIY offering from US self-publishing company Lulu.com.

Glasstree is targeting scholars disaffected with traditional academic publishing, and is not afraid to stoke that fire. Publishing senior vice-president Daniel Berze (pictured) announced the venture in bullish fashion: 'For years, academic communities have suffered under the exploitation of major publishing houses. Scholars researched, wrote and edited their work for little and, in many cases, no financial reward.

'The academic publishing community has long been viewed as a guardian of quality academic dissemination but, behind closed doors, publishers reap vast profits, publishing content of variable quality. This outdated model will now be forced to change with the introduction of Glasstree, which provides authors, educators, students and scholars with a means to independently publish and prosper.'

Using Glasstree, authors will retain the intellectual property (IP) of the books they publish, and pocket 70% of the profits. Publishing is currently free for an unspecified limited trial period; however making use of the Glassleaf Publishing Services it offers (including 'one-on-one author support', copyediting, ISBN application or cover design, provided via long-established publishing services company MPS, plus marketing and PR options) comes via a variety of paid-for packages, with prices starting from $2,625 and ranging up to $7,875.

An Open Access (OA) e-book service, in partnership with Creative Commons, was launched last month; in its basic form it offers academics the chance to publish within hours, at a cost of $20. The 'full-service' OA option, which adds copyediting and the assignment of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), double-blind peer review and bibliometric and citation tracking (supplied via a partnership with Kudos) is priced at $3,000."