Electronic OA plus print on demand model for books

[Heather Morrison <hgmorris@sfu.ca>]

Joe Esposito wrote:

Book professionals are now forecasting that in five years, 25% of 
the book market will be electronic. How can anyone expect to sell 
print under these circumstances?

Comment:

Assuming that this forecast is correct - that 25% of the book 
market will indeed be electronic in five years, does this not 
mean that 75% of the book market will be print?  If sales of 
e-book editions take off, this does not necessarily mean a 
corresponding decrease in print - the 75% could be 75% of a 
larger market.

Within the next few years, it should be possible to greater lower 
the cost of print books through print-on-demand.  It makes sense 
to me that people would make use of a book espresso machine at 
their university library or bookstore, and pay a modest fee for 
the book production and print-on-demand rights, as the high cost 
of attempting to distribute limited edition academic books on a 
worldwide basis are thereby eliminate, as are all sales and most 
marketing costs.

Another possible model is a completely free internet-based 
edition, with revenue generated by value-add electronic versions, 
i.e. the web browser version is free, but there is a modest fee 
for the Kindle version.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com