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RE: Does free lead to paid?



As Sandy Thatcher has pointed out, there are significant 
differences between academic books and trade books.

The key difference, from my perspective, is the purpose of the 
book. For academic books, the purpose for writing, very similar 
to articles, is to disseminate new knowledge.  The difference in 
access between open access and today's typical academic book 
print run of a few hundred copies is huge.

In other words, the important criterion for success of an 
academic book is not whether access is "paid", but whether the 
book is read.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
PhD Student, SFU School of Communication
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com