Download Academic Books For Free Pdf
Deidra Mehis
This may seem like an odd question, but if we are going to debate the future of something, it seems like a good idea to know what that something is. One definition that can be used for the academic book is that it is a long-form publication, as opposed to a short-form publication like an article, and is the result of in-depth academic research, usually over a period of years, making an original contribution to a field of study.
An academic book can take many forms. In the past, these forms would generally have been represented in print, but increasingly print formats are being accompanied or sometimes replaced by digital versions, and digital formats are becoming increasingly functional. However, other analogue forms like film or photography have also been considered long-form research publications in visual disciplines; and these are increasingly digital.
Ebooks are usually straightforward representations of print books with some limited added functionality such as annotation, dictionary lookup etc. There are a number of formats available besides the ubiquitous PDF, but they all offer much the same reading experience which tries to mimic fairly closely the print experience. So monographs and other conventional works presented as ebooks differ only in details of presentation from their print equivalents, rather than in matters of substance
Given the expanded possibilities of the digital edition, these often grow into an archive around a work or a writer, for example the Walt Whitman Archive ( ) which presents a plethora of information about the poet and his works. One problem of defining certain digital editions or archives as academic books is that they are often deliberately mutable and unfinished, with additions and corrections made regularly, often by a large and interlinked team. Some scholars proclaim this as a benefit, given that errors can be corrected instantly, new ideas, readings or witnesses added at will, but this is antithetical to the kind of scholarship that requires stability of referent in order that scholarly debate can take place around a known and stable body of sources.
Digital technology, high definition screens, and new critical modes of enquiry mean that our traditional definitions of academic products need radical rethinking. A long-form research output can now take many new forms and constraints upon certain avenues of research and publication are loosened. Take for example, Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity: The Late Roman and Byzantine Inscriptions by Charlotte Roueché. The first edition of this was published in 1989 in print form, incorporating photographs of the inscriptions, transcriptions and commentary. The second, online, edition appeared in 2004, (www.insaph.kcl.ac.uk/ala2004/index.html) now allowing much more commentary and a new approach to the organisation of the materials that strained uneasily against the print format. At the touch of a button the inscriptions can be viewed by type, by find spot, by date, etc.
Other publishers are creating innovative models of publication in digital form of existing print materials. The Oxford University Press Oxford Scholarly Editions Online initiative ( ) is a way of bringing the academic book of the past into the present and the future: major scholarly editions published by Oxford and other academic presses are rekeyed, marked up, and interlinked into complex online editions. Cambridge University Press have developed parallel editions in print and digital form, for instance the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson ( ).
And if you think that the printed book is dead, have a look at Arion Press which produces sumptuous books illustrated with original art, and printed on specially produced paper. Their version of The Waste Land retails for $600, and the two volumes of Don Quixote for $2000 each. ( )
I've always been fascinated with folklore, mythology etc. But never was able to take a class that gave me a sense of historical context or a way of analyzing them. I'm kind of super into analyzing this kind of stuff and was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for books that might be like what I'm looking for, maybe something you've read in a class or just found on your own. Feel free to read into the title loosely!
It is worth looking at it in slightly different terms. Most of my fellow academics are working on fixed budgets for book purchases, usually related to their institutional book allowance. Libraries, too, have fixed budgets. This means that, if a publisher increases the price of their book, they are unlikely to increase their share of that fixed amount that is being spent on books. In fact, their total income might well reduce; if a book is expensive, I might consider it only if it is right in the centre of my research interests. If it is in a related area, then I will be tempted to buy it if it is affordable.
And why not sell it digitally for a very affordable price? Im sure many academics now happily read on their ebooks or tablet devices. This takes out the huge cost of a print run.
Having worked in educational publishing i know that very little of the cost of producing books goes into the edit and paying authors compared to printing it!
Bloomsbury/T&T Clark have been publishing much less expensive paperback versions of some of their books a year or two after the hardbacks were released. I assume the more durable hardbacks go to professional libraries, the paperbacks to readers. I have three LNTS volumes on my desk at the moment, two are hardbacks for review, the other I bought at SBL for a quarter the price of the hardback.
However, some of the commentators here do not seem to realize that a lot more expenditure goes into producing a book than printing costs. True, PoD has made it cheap to produce printed books, which is reflected in the rise of self-publishing. However, it is naïve to think that if only we all embraced digital technology books would be practically free.
Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Adjunct Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
I don't really like most fiction, when I read I want to learn (history is my forte), and right now, I want to learn about the history of the Persian Empire. I was looking for good, authoritative texts on the subject and came across this one, which seems to be one of the best of the criminally sparse lexicon of books about the Persians:
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The academics I have met who write books seem to assume one of two things. The first assumption is that publishers are doing authors a favour by publishing their books. The second is that the royalties offered are a set figure. Both of these assumptions are wrong.
Publishers often belong to parent companies that are very, very rich. For example, the company Informa plc has four operating divisions: business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge, and events. Its academic publishing division covers the humanities, social sciences, and STEM subjects, and includes publishers such as Taylor & Francis, Psychology Press, Cogent OA, and Routledge. In 2016, the latest year for which figures are available, this division made an adjusted operating profit of 187.2million. Informa as a whole made an adjusted operating profit of 416.1million.
Does all this negotiation sound icky to you? Get over it. You are going to work really hard on writing your books. It makes sense to do all you can to make your books work as hard as possible for you.
Thanks Helen, this is hugely helpful. A rookie question: do any publishers tend to rescind the contract offer altogether instead of presenting a counter-offer? I guess academic authors are hesitant about negotiation because a draft contract is already a hard-earned victory after several months of blind review etc. Is it possible to risk losing the offer if we negotiate harder than usual? Thank you so much!
Hi Helen,
I have recently been offered a contract for me to publish my Phd Thesis as a book. It is with a German publisher. I have no experience of this type of thing. I have not been offered any royalties on the first 100 books, and only 5% on e-print books. To me this sounds really unfair. However, my supervisor has told me this is standard practice, especially for German publishers. But I feel I should try and negotiate abit. Have you any thoughts? Thank you for your time
Ruben, I think you need to keep your objective in mind: if it is an academic manuscript, you would like to eventually have a manuscript that is compatible with for instance MLA, or comparable academic standards. For such MLA-compatibility, Scrivener is, in my experience, unrivalled.
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