In “Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy,” an article that came out in the Higher Education Network of TheGuardian.com’s September 4, 2015 issue, an anonymous academic gives the lowdown on this racket of some academic publishers: they commission academics to write books to be published in limited editions of 300 copies and sold at the exorbitant cover price of £80 (US$123.42) to university libraries across the world—“not to people with an interest in reading the book, but to librarians who would put it on a shelf and then, a few years later, probably bury it in a storeroom.”
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THEGUARDIAN.COM PHOTO
The anonymous writer says that it’s not as if these academic publishers are after writers with the bona fides and expertise that can truly advance knowledge in particular academic disciplines.
Here’s the anonymous writer’s account of how he found out about their modus operandi after a publisher’s agent had made his pitch to him:
“If you don’t mind my asking,” I said as our conversation drew to a close, “how did you find me?”
A moment of awkward silence, and then: “Um, well, I found your name on your university website.”
At the time, there was no information about me on the university website. No publication list, no information about my research interest, not even a photograph.
So I’d been asked to write a book about whatever I wanted, and this editor didn’t even know whether I’d written anything before. It didn’t matter. It would sell its 300 copies regardless.
What this means is that academics are being hoodwinked by these academic publishers to write books (a) that the authors may not even be qualified to write, (b) that nobody will want to buy or can read; and (c) that only the publishers themselves stand to benefit from the deal financially.
Read “Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy” by Anonymous Academic in the Higher Education Network of TheGuardian.com now! (http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/sep/04/academics-are-being-hoodwinked-into-writing-books-nobody-can-buy)