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Re: Using Subscription Agents
> John Campbell (Bibliography of Asian Studies) asks the following: > __________________________________________________________________ > > I have another question. A couple of librarians have asked if we will > accept subscriptions through agents, such as Blackwell's. Of course we do > that for our Journal, and we can for the BAS although it seems to me that > direct contact when renewing has its advantages for keeping the IP > addresses up to date and so forth. But this subscription can be as high > as $1200 for a big research university, and the idea of our paying > somebody $120 a year for sending in a little form seems excessive to me. > On the other hand, I can understand that this way is convenient for > librarians (and for all I know the agents might generate some > subscriptions for us. > > Can librarians again give me some useful advice? A reply to the group > is okay since I'm a member. > > ____________________________________________________________________________ > John Creighton Campbell, Prof. of Political Science, University of > Michigan, and Secretary-Treasurer, Association for Asian Studies. > University address: Corner House, 202 S Thayer St, Ann Arbor MI > 48104-1608. Tel 734 998 7558; Fax 734 998 7982. > ____________________________________________________________________________ Reply to John Campbill, Prof. of Political Science, U. of Michigan Regarding your understandable concern about paying a subscription agent $120 for a $1,200 subscription to your Bibliography for Asian Studies, may I point out that notwithstanding what agents may say, from my experience in publishing they generally cannot afford to refuse to fill orders from their steady clients just because they do not get the 10% commission they like to consider "standard". Increasingly, as prices for subscriptions have risen, publishers have dropped commission percentages, some to 5%, a few to less. After all, it takes just as much [mostly computerized] effort on the part of the agent to renew a $100 subscription as it does a $1,000 subscription. If the agent feels pinched, he usually adds a bit to the price billed to clients. Some do not. As for generating sales for you, in my experience agents talk a great line, but generate little if anything in incremental sales. Their margins and internal structures do not permit anything like real marketing. Their role is basically to save libraries and other clients paperwork by consolidation. They also save publishers similar [mostly computerized] efforts for renewal of subscriptions. Whether such putative savings to a publisher are worth the commission cut in this computer age is debatable. -Alan M. Edelson, Ph.D.
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