Dear (name of publisher redacted),
I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute a chapter to your book series, (redacted). It is a privilege to write for for such a well-regarded series, and I sincerely hope that the quality of my submission reflects this.
I can appreciate that publishing, and scientific publishing in particular, is an increasingly global enterprise. I believe that this is, on balance, to the betterment of us all. Moreover, I understand that yours is not a business in which profitability is easily attained, nor is it easily maintained, as the ratio of your production costs to sales is, in a word, unenviable, even in the best of times. (No doubt, it is for this reason that you depend on academics, the only people on earth who are willing to slave for months over a 10,000 word, heavily annotated and referenced piece in exchange for nothing more than a lifetime discount of 30% on your products, which typically retail for 300% more than mass-market books of comparable heft.)
However.
Many responsibilities exist in the process of marshalling a written work from the author's hard drive to a bound copy on literally dozens of academic library shelves. Of all these that could be outsourced to a developing country where the typical citizen's command of English is--shall we say, not necessarily on par with most of the Anglosphere--why in the name of Xenu would you choose copy editing?
(Why?)
It would be one thing if I were correcting my own mistakes in the proofs you've sent me...but I am spending all of my time looking for the mistakes that are entirely new.
As it apparently falls to me to serve not only as author, but also as senior copy editor, I must insist I be compensated for these extra duties.
How about 40% off?
Warmest regards,
Dr. B
7 comments:
let us know if it works.
Um, no. At 30%, I would be willing to bet that it's the retail Bookstore who would ultimately take the cut for such a discount. (I used to be a buyer at Borders, so I can testify to the slow and usually nonexistent reimbursement by publishers for such.)
Unless they're gonna send you the book direct from the publishing house . . . this "discount" won't take any money out of their pocket.
Actually, this particular publisher sells most of its stuff directly. You might see what I wrote in a few medical bookstores, but the vast majority of any edition goes to libraries, and the rest to individual academic types.
Anyway, the discount is incidental. The incentive to contribute is to be published.
why be published, unless there's money in it?
gino, allow me to answer your question with another...
"why does one masturbate?"
The answer to Gino's question actually articulates quite well why I'm pretty sure I'm not going to stay in academia.
It goes something like this: in academia, publications are the main metric by which your worth as a member of the academic community is judged. More (and more prestigious) publications increase you reputation, enabling you to get a good permanent position (if you don't have one yet, which I don't). Once you have a permanent position, publications are still needed to get 1) tenure, and 2) funding, which is primarily used to produce more work for more publications.
See?
(Masturbation is more rewarding and frankly, less messy.)
chris: smartass! :)
brian: yeah, ok... now i get it.
i forget what system you work for, and still think of work/career from my blue collar perspective.
in academia, it's publish or perish, basically. i knew that. just wasnt thinking.
thinking is not rewarded in my profession. if i come up with a new solution/method/whatever... the supervisor takes credit for solving the problem.
chicken shit,huh?
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