On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 10:35:19AM -0700, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > Ok, you can be Russell4, > > Your figure of 20K: That includes some $$$ for "staff"? > > Or is that just stuff? I know this is naïve, but do you actually NEED a > printer?
Its pretty much entirely "staff". Other costs are almost negligible by comparison, and can often be absorbed by other activities. > > Is there a "Peer-review-Journal ap" like there apparently is an > academic-conference-running ap? What's an ap? Do you mean an app? What would such a thing do anyway? > > This is something I would like to hear you get into the weeds about. > > Nick > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf > Of Russell Standish > Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 2:00 AM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Self publishing > > Looks like I've been demoted to Russell3 :( > > Pretty much right. The other costs are almost negligible - running a > webserver, email/office equipment etc. > > I estimated that it should only cost around $20,000 per annum to run a > journal... We had the funding at that level. > > Cheers > > On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 06:00:58PM -0700, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > > Russell3, > > > > Other than your time, what are the journal costs? I mean roughly. > > What are the categories of cost? > > > > I am having a hard time imagining any. > > > > Nick > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > > Behalf Of Russell Standish > > Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 3:14 PM > > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Self publishing > > > > I self-published Theory of Nothing after the first 10 publishers > > turned it down for "economic reasons" through BookSurge, which was > > later bought by Amazon. > > > > It has sold somewhere in the region 550 copies to date. > > > > I made my costs back within a year - but the ebook version hardly sold > > at all, even though I insisted on it being DRM-free. So I then > > released it as a free DRM-free downloadle PDF, and it was downloaded > > more than 2000 times before being torrented 18 months later. The > > availablility of the free download had almost no impact on the sales > > of the hardcopy version - one could argue that it even sustained the > > rate of sales, when otherwise it might have trailed off. > > > > If you think how many people actually read your academic articles, > > this is a roaring success story. The one thing it is not, is a viable > > source of income. I can't give up my day job :(. > > > > Late last year, I produced a second edition, correcting a number of > > errors, most trivial typos. At the same time, I produced a Kindle > > version, which is sold through Kindle direct. Surprisingly, this has > > not done so well - surprising because the Kindle is a dreadful > > displayer of PDF documents (particularly with mathematical formulae), > > so the small sticker price should be worth it for Kindle users over and > above the free PDF document. > > > > ---- > > > > My second data point is an electronic journal "Complexity International" > > which was started by a friend of mine in 1993. It is a peer reviewed > > journal in the traditional sense but is purely web based and openly > > available without subscription fees. > > > > It has run with fits and starts until now - at present, I gather, > > they're not accepting submissions, but aim to at least keep the content > available. > > Part of that is due to funding being in fits and starts. Another > > problem was that it never got indexed by ISI. > > > > In 2005 I offered to run the editing of the journal on the basis of > > 0.5-1 day per week workload, for which I would receive a small fee > > from a government funded networking program for complexity science. My > > friend said that I was drastically underestimating the time commitment > > for editing a journal, but I was basing my estimates on what Mark > > Bedau said he and secretary spend on editing Artificial Life. Anyway, > > the upshot was that nothing happened at the time, although he did > > manage to find someone to process the back log of submission and > > conference papers they had at the time. And now, I guess funding has run > out, and the journal is on ice :(. > > > > Cheers > > > > > > > > On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 09:39:20PM -0700, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > > > Hi, everybody, > > > > > > > > > > > > I have signed perhaps a dozen Publishers Agreements over my life > > > time and each one was more onerous, self-serving, and stupid than > > > the one before. My favorite was the publisher who asked me to "hold > > > the Publisher harmless for anything that might occur as a > > > consequence of the > > publishing of the work." > > > I asked a lawyer if this meant I was liable if a printer got his > > > hand caught in the press while my book was running and he answered, > > > "Well, probably not." And then he thought for a moment and said, > > > "Oh, they'ld never come after you for that!" Early contracts limited > > > my liability to the income from royalties, and one publisher > > > actually > > provided authors' insurance for a > > > modest premium. But no more. > > > > > > > > > > > > Well today, I got an author's contract for a paper I am contributed > > > to an academic collection that asked me to warrant that the work had > been > > > commissioned by the publisher and was "work for hire". Now, work for > > hire > > > means that one's surrenders ALL rights to the work including the > > > right to claim it as one's own work. It's the kind of contract you > > > sign when you write jacket copy for a publisher. ( The publisher in > > > this case was Oxford University Press, in case any of you are > > > thinking of doing business with > > > them.) I am a wishy washy fellow, but somehow I could not sign a > > > document that said that my original work was "work for hire." > > > Couldn't do > > it. > > > > > > > > > > > > It's too late for this work. I will have to sign the rights over to > > > my [young] collaborator, because she desperately needs the paper for > > > her career. But MAN! It got me to thinking. WHAT ABOUT self > > > publishing. With, say, Amazon" Does anybody on the list have any > > > experience with Amazon or other self publishing services that they > > > would > > like to share? > > > > > > > > > > > > My Dad was a book publisher, and I grew up with conversations around > > > the dinner table about "developing authors" and trying to find new > > > authors, and how a few books might have to be published before a new > > author caught on. > > > They published Churchill's Memoires and Mein Kampf (!) and the Peterson > > > Field Guides, among many others. Now, it seems, publishers do very > > little, > > > and academic publishers, in particular, do nothing but scavenge off > > > the fetid bits coughed up the publish or perish system. Is is it > > > time to > > dump > > > them? I am sure this is a party I am late to. Where do I get invited. > > > > > > > > > > > > > Nick > > > > > > > > > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > > > > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > > > > > Clark University > > > > > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > > > http://www.cusf.org <http://www.cusf.org/> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ============================================================ > > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at > > > cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at > > > http://www.friam.org > > > > > > -- > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > > Principal, High Performance Coders > > Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] > > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ------ > > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe > > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at > > http://www.friam.org > > > > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe > > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at > > http://www.friam.org > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, > unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
