3 Scholars Take On the Business of Book Publishing

Like West Virginia's, the press at Texas Christian University is a small operation. It aims to publish about 20 books a year and has a staff of three people, including Mr. Williams, who handles acquisitions and oversees all operations.

He has been given a three-year window to develop the press, which he says already breaks more or less even. "My main task is to keep the press healthy, try to reduce costs to the university, and look toward the future," he said.

High on Mr. Williams's agenda is making the press more visible to the rest of the university community. "There's not a lot of students and faculty who really know a lot about TCU Press," he said. So he's holding meetings around campus to talk about possible publishing partnerships, student internships, and other ways in which the press can strengthen its home ties.

Then there's the awesome challenge of the digital age to navigate. "We ­really need to be cognizant of this tremendous revolution that's going on right now, not only in the publishing industry but in the entire concept of literacy," Mr. Williams said.

He will push ahead to convert the press's backlist into e-books and "basically try to do what a number of the healthy academic presses in the country are already doing," he said.

Having studied earlier cycles of publishing upheaval and transformation, Mr. Williams sounds intellectually well positioned to lead a press through the current one. "There are a number of really interesting parallels that can be drawn to the revolution in print culture that occurred in the 18th and early 19th centuries and the kind of revolutions going on today," he said. Print culture—presses, newspapers, readership—exploded in the 19th century. "Similar kinds of explosions are taking place today with the revolution in technology," he said. "I think it's fascinating."

http://chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Take-On-the-Business/124520/