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Who Profits When You Publish?

Among academic authors, discussion about dissemination of and access to scholarly works and lamentation about commodification abound, but scant attention is paid to the monetary aspects of digital publication for authors, in particular authors in the humanities and to some extent those in the social sciences. There are many reasons why academic authors have not focused on profit— some having to do with academic values, some having to do with the current realities of tenure and promotion criteria, some having to do with economic realities. But the latter realities may be changing (and as they change they may be affecting academic values, although in this essay I am drawing attention only to an economic issue). We may not know exactly how or to what extent digital media will affect the business models of academic publishing, but we do know that the models are being transformed.