Author : Joseph J. Esposito
In order for university presses to ensure their financial success, they have to become innovators: Simply cutting expenses will get them nowhere. The key area for innovation for presses today (a point they share with all other book publishers) is in the area of marketing.
The five stages of book publishing outlined here describe the arc as publishers move from the traditional model (where print books were sold mostly in bookstores and to libraries) through a range of developments using online media, culminating in new forms of subscription marketing.
Among the assumptions for this strategy are: publishers will increasingly seek direct relationships with their readers, often bypassing libraries; publishers will have to become experts in metadata creation in order to make their publications discoverable online; and publishers, even university presses, will begin to create customer databases and become concerned about the life cycles of their customers.