RE: open access to dissertations

["Michael Zeoli" <mzeoli@ybp.com>]

Sandy,

Helmut Schwarzer is a rare wit - at lunch last week he asked if I 
ever had contact with you or his "dear friend" Patrick Alexander. 
His numbers are reliable, of course (few would dare contest 
Helmut's knowledge of publishing), when considering dissertations 
from all publishers.  As my numbers showed, UP *Revised* 
dissertations sold an average of 85 copies while the Trade Press 
dissertations sold fewer than half that number.  As a percentage, 
UP's fared much better after jettisoning the ballast of the Trade 
ones (Trade Revised Dissertations sell less than 50% the number 
of their titles generally).

As to your challenge, I did look (but must admit I cheated ;-)). 
Library collecting of Penn State University Press is excellent 
(higher than the average UP sales by almost 20% on a per title 
basis) - a credit to you and your colleagues.  Last year YBP 
profiled 77 new PSU titles. 58% of YBP sales of PSU titles were 
via 'auto-ship' approval.

There were 17 Revised Dissertations (no Unrevised Dissertations). 
52% sold on auto-ship approval.  There were 17 titles with a 
Latin American focus.  62% were acquired by libraries as 
'auto-ship approvals, and the 3 Revised dissertations in the 
group sold 52% on auto-ship approval.

The worst PSU sellers were a reprint, a journal monograph, a 
periodical anthology, personal narratives ('autobiographies' by 
people such as me), and titles focused on individual U.S. states 
(there were 8 of these and one was a reprint, a double whammy).

The best-sellers were brilliant, particularly in the fine arts - 
one winning the ALAA 2011 Art Book Award and a notable percentage 
on YBP Core Title lists.  As for your challenge about the 
"narrowness" of the Latin American titles, library acquisition of 
them proves you are right - and the librarians know it!  [If 
you'd like the spreadsheet with this information, Sandy, just let 
me know where to send it.]

Mike

**************************************
Michael Zeoli
Director, Global Consortia
YBP Library Services
mzeoli@ybp.com
(603) 748-3529


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sandy Thatcher
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2011 4:01 PM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: open access to dissertations

This is very helpful, thanks. My information originally came from
Helmut Schwarzer at YBP:

At 5:45 PM -0400 3/22/07, Helmut Schwarzer wrote:
>Here's the updated word on this issue. Important to distinguish
>between revised and UNrevised dissertations.
>
>1. Unrevised: is the kiss of death for sales. Sales would be 20-30%
>at most of what they'd normally be.
>2. Revised: not all THAT bad, 75-80% of normal sales.

His figures for revised dissertations correspond very closely to
what i discovered when i compared sales of Penn State's books in
Latin American studies, viz., about a 20-25% lower sale for books
originating as dissertations.  Helmut may have considered this
"not all THAT bad," but I assure you that this is a big enough
difference to make acquiring editors wonder whether they should
be considering books based on dissertations.

As for revised dissertations being obviously "highly
specialized," let me challenge you--or anyone else on this
list--to look over the single-authored books in Latin American
studies published at Penn State and, without cheating and looking
at the author's academic level, tell me which ones were based on
dissertations and which not:
http://www.psupress.org/books/book_subject_lastud.html.

Sandy Thatcher
k