When I checked Lulu sales this morning (I usually check once a day or so), I was delighted to see that somebody purchased two paperback copies of The Big Deal and the Damage Done some time this morning.
Thanks! (Given the way Lulu reports sales, it appears to be one person or institution buying two copies, not two different people or institutions…)
I’ve been reading the book the last couple of days, as I start to set up for the 2012 project (that is, a 12-year study including 2012 data, once that data is posted by NCES). I’m still proud of the project; it was done quickly but, I believe, well, and should be must reading for library school students and worthwhile for many academic libraries.
As previously noted, I will not be self-publishing a 2012 update. A shorter and probably simpler version covering 2000 through 2012 (and normalizing dollar amounts to 2012 dollars rather than 2002 dollars) will be published by a “real publisher” as part of a subscription series, also available separately. (I get paid once, no royalties–but I get paid a reasonable, if not huge, amount.) There may or may not be a self-published extension, looking at other aspects of possible damage or going into more detail; that will depend on what I see in the 2012 data and on discussions with the publisher.
In any case, the current Big Deal and the Damage Done will continue to be available as a $9.99 PDF ebook (no DRM, explicit full first-sale rights, color graphs) and a $16.50 trade paperback (the graphs all use line portions as well as colors, so they’re entirely readable in black-and-white) right up to the point where the newer related item is published. (And possibly beyond, if there are continuing sales and the other publisher agrees–but it’s unlikely.)
A little nudge
But The Big Deal and the Damage Done is also available in a special $40 campus license version–identical to the $9.99 PDF, except that the cover has an extra line and the copyright page explicitly grants permission to make the book available for simultaneous multiuser download or reading from a campus (or library or association) server.
The regular PDF is a case where a library buys the ebook, not just leasing it: It explicitly carries first-sale rights. The campus version goes way beyond: it means you’re ethically as well as legally able to make the book available to every student in a library school (on campus or distance), to every librarian in a multicampus system, to…whatever seems reasonable. With my explicit approval, right there on the copyright page.
So far, three of those special editions have been sold. I count each one as four copies in counting overall sales–and the book’s about eleven copies away from catching up with Give Us a Dollar and We’ll Give You Back Four. (Neither one is nearing three-digit sales yet…)
If I saw 40-50 campus-license sales (suggesting roughly one per library school) and that was the end of it, I’d be delighted.
On the other hand, if nobody cares about the site-license/campus-license version, it will go away.
PS: Not that I want to encourage anybody to wait, but Lulu might be having some partial-week sales, typically 20% off with a coupon code. If I remember and if I see them, I’ll post about them as they happen. The 20% comes out of Lulu’s portion, so the only effect on me is to increase book sales.
Right now, the only book sale I know if is the “FAST5” coupon, good for 5% off, but it can only be used once per account–so, for example, buying a complete set of all eight annual volumes of Cites & Insights might be a good use for it. [Go to lulu.com. Search for Cites Insights. When I do that, the eight annuals come up first. Why eight? I never produced volumes 1-5 via Lulu, although I’ve been tempted to do so.]
