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Interesting news: Rice University Press is placing all of its works online, where they can be read for free, downloaded for a small fee, or bought in POD format. This isn't the first university press to offer its works free online, but it's interesting to see this model spreading. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115275720041205358-86er1J1h9klBT9EPKSlQztt8HXA_20060812.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

I can see how it makes sense. A good academic book sells 1000 copies, most of them pretty quickly. You could do an offset run--wait for the sales to nose-dive and then try and get a little more this way.

Well, the interesting thing about this scheme is that Rice isn't taking that approach. Instead it is apparently switching over entirely to an online publishing/POD model. I agree that it makes sense for an academic press. Most scholars and libraries are going to want a printed book, so they aren't likely to lose many sales from the online edition.

Hmmm. I would be mercenary and use a tipping point. Then anything that got picked up as a textbook could be kept on offset ;)