[Overview]
Some publishers decided to use the web as a new marketing tool. In the
U.S., NAP (National Academy Press) was the first publisher in 1994 to
post the full text of some books, for free, with the authors' consent.
NAP was followed by MIT Press (MIT: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology) in 1995. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, wrote
in 1997: "As university publishers struggle to find the right business
model for offering scholarly documents online, some early innovators
are finding that making a monograph available electronically can boost
sales of hard copies." (excerpt from the Project Gutenberg Newsletter
of October 1997)
[In Depth (published in 1999)]
The web became a marketing tool for publishers. Some publishers decided
to put the full text of some books on the web, for free, with their
authors' consent. Oddly enough, there was no drop in sales - on the
contrary, sales increased. In the US, NAP was the first publisher to
take such a risk in 1994, followed by the MIT Press in 1995, and it
worked.
NAP (National Academy Press) was created by the National Academy of
Sciences to publish its own reports and the ones of the National
Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National
Research Council. In 1994, NAP was publishing 200 books a year in
science, engineering, and health. The new NAP Reading Room offered
1,000 entire books, available online for free in various formats
("image" format, HTML format and PDF format).
In 1995, the MIT Press (MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was
publishing 200 new books a year and 40 journals, first in science and
technology, and then in architecture, social theory, economics,
cognitive science, and computational science. The MIT Press decided to
put a number of books online for free, as "a long-term commitment to
the efficient and creative use of new technologies." Sales of the print
books increased.
Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, wrote in 1997: "As
university publishers struggle to find the right business model for
offering scholarly documents online, some early innovators are finding
that making a monograph available electronically can boost sales of
hard copies. The National Academy Press has already put 1,700 of its
books online, and is finding that the electronic versions of some books
have boosted sales of the hard copy monographs - often by two to three
times the previous level. It's 'great advertising', says the Press's
director. The MIT Press is experiencing similar results: 'For each of
our electronic books, we've approximately doubled our sales. The plain
fact is that no one is going to sit there and read a whole book online.
And it costs money and time to download it'." (excerpt from the Project
Gutenberg Newsletter of October 1997)