It is true that print scholarly book sales have declined. Recent research published in the Journal of Electronic Publishing finds that sales now average 200 for each title, as opposed to 2000 in 1980.
Downloads from relatively new university E Presses tell a different story however. Titles published by ANU E Press had an average of over 1,000 downloads this year alone. Studies such as Indigenous expert Adam Shoemaker’s Black Words White Page, the first comprehensive treatment of the nature and significance of Indigenous Australian literature, has been downloaded over 18,800 times so far this year, reaching a wide audience around the world.
The Council of Australian University Libraries (CAUL) also argues that Open Access e-book publishing brings new and international readers to works by Australian authors.
But new business models are required – crowdsourcing is being used by some academics and other writers. And they are having some success, receiving small contributions from many supporters. Crowdsourcing service Kickstarter, for example, helped author Ryan North raise more than $500,000 from over 15,000 contributors in just a few weeks to publish his latest book.
Libraries, too, are working together to develop new models to fund publications. One example is Knowledge Unlatched where library subscriptions fund access for all to scholarly works. Copyright is a critical issue for writers. The claim that Open Access publishing undermines copyright is simply untrue. Publishing Open Access works in fact increases intellectual property protection for authors because their works are highly visible, clearly identifying their scholarly writing. Dr Nathan Hollier, Director, Monash University Publishing,
has quite rightly commented that 'The existence of open access publishers in no way coerces authors into publishing with them or into not publishing with a commercial publisher. There is also no evidence that Open Access publishing is incompatible with commercial publishing, and growing evidence that they can easily coexist.'
Australian university presses have an important role of providing access to scholarly works for non-academic readers. And Open Access publishing by Australian universities has also contributed to the high international access of this nation’s research (over 65% of downloads of open access Australian university press books are from overseas). Studies have also shown that the return on investment for works published via Open Access funded by the Australian government is up to 10 times greater than for works that are not open access. There is also the criticism that university ePresses are only for academics whose research is too limited or specialised to attract commercial attention. But is this valid? Books published by university presses run by libraries have won national and international awards. Peter Fitzpatrick’s book The Two Frank Thrings published by Monash University Press, for example, won the National Biography Award 2013. Jill Matthew’s chapter 'Modern nomads and national film history: the multi-continental career of J. D. Williams' in Ann Curthoys and Marilyn Lake’s Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective won the the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand’s “Best Book Chapter” award.