COPIM Publishers Workshop: Cost and Revenue Models | Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs

by Martin Eve

This work package (WP3) and the questions associated with it surrounded potential revenue streams in an open-access world. Participants were asked to reflect on their experiences of revenue models, but also cost models, in an open-access world of books.

Print and its subsidy or otherwise was a recurring theme in our discussion. Conventional university press publishers noted that they had seen year-on-year decline in print revenue sales volume. On the other hand, new OA startup university presses had seen a steady increase in their sales of print alongside the OA edition – perhaps unsurprisingly given that they were starting from zero. It was notable, however, that these presses had seen sales of print, even though they had begun from a point at which a digital edition was available openly. That said, it was noted that acquisitions librarians were becoming more sceptical of print purchases as they contended with shelf space and other ingest requirements leading to the humorous suggestion that a potential business model for open-access books could be: pay us, or we’ll send you a print copy!