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Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

theguardian.com

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Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#11

Post by maaaats »

hellofunk wrote: post #5

This article could easily be expanded to include software developers as well as academics. I've seen several excellent developers with strong reputations contributing to the open source community get "hoodwinked" into rushing out shallow books for companies like Apress. I've seen other developers also get sucked into the game, only to see less income from the work in one year as you'd need to buy a modest used car --…

Alot of publishers also do a shotgun approach to find developers to write a book for them. I've been contacted several times to act as reviewer or even write the book myself about a framework named Libgdx. All because I have a Github repo with some example code for a single feature, that's somewhat popular.

The repo is many years old, and I no longer write mobile games. So I'm not a good match as an author for such a book. Still, if I'd say yes, they would've published a shitty book. And I can't say I didn't think about it, vanity..

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#12

Post by brohoolio »

The article states people are getting hoodwinked but then goes on to blame academics.

"So why don’t academics simply stay away from the greedy publishers? The only answer I can think of is vanity."

Or that the publishers are misrepresenting how the books might sell.

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#13

Post by leaveyou »

maaaats wrote: post #11
hellofunk wrote: post #5

This article could easily be expanded to include software developers as well as academics. I've seen several excellent developers with strong reputations contributing to the open source community get "hoodwinked" into rushing out shallow books for companies like Apress. I've seen other developers also get sucked into the game, only to see less income from the work in one year as you'd need to buy a modest used car --…

Alot of publishers also do a shotgun approach to find developers to write a book for them. I've been contacted several times to act as reviewer or even write the book myself about a framework named Libgdx. All because I have a Github repo with some example code for a single feature, that's somewhat popular. The repo is many years old, and I no longer write mobile games. So I'm not a good match as an author for such a…

To me this is a sign that the end of traditional publishing is very near. They milk the last drops from a dying field ?

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#14

Post by georgeek »

One quality specialized publisher is Now Publishers : http://www.nowpublishers.com/ Quality is managed by having leading academics have a say in the editorial decisions.

Their conditions are somehow better than more established ones. Authors still hold the copyright over the material, and according to the librarians at my institution, their campus and course packs are much cheaper to other publishers.

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#15

Post by jakobegger »

patio11 wrote: post #3

Academics spend years writing books nobody will buy. That's practically the definition of academic writing. They go into incredible amount of depths for a very, very niche audience: other academics interested in, e.g., the experience of women in Japanese detective novels of the 19th century. (n.b. Actually a book, assuming I am remembering all the details correctly. An advisor spent years on it.) This is exactly the…

I think you drastically overestimate the quality of the books this article talks about. These publishers will publish any rubbish you give them just to profit from selling to librarians who do not understand enough of the subject matter to know they are being scammed.

I've been contacted on Facebook by these scam publishers, inquiring if I'd like to publish some of my university essays.

There are plenty of alternatives. Most of the niche knowledge is distributed via scientific journals and conference proceedings. And many scientific publishers will happily publish books on any obscure topic, if you pay for printing.

Scientific publishing has plenty of problems, but these kinds of "publishers" are the worst; they leech off already stretched library budgets for short term profits without providing any value to society at all.

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#16

Post by patio11 »

jakobegger wrote: post #15
patio11 wrote: post #3

Academics spend years writing books nobody will buy. That's practically the definition of academic writing. They go into incredible amount of depths for a very, very niche audience: other academics interested in, e.g., the experience of women in Japanese detective novels of the 19th century. (n.b. Actually a book, assuming I am remembering all the details correctly. An advisor spent years on it.) This is exactly the…

I think you drastically overestimate the quality of the books this article talks about. These publishers will publish any rubbish you give them just to profit from selling to librarians who do not understand enough of the subject matter to know they are being scammed. I've been contacted on Facebook by these scam publishers, inquiring if I'd like to publish some of my university essays. There are plenty of alternativ…

I don't think we disagree very much about the likely level of subject-specific due diligence these publishers will do. I think we disagree very much about the likely level of subject-specific due diligence done by any publisher on any title picked at random from a university library.

Peer review is, like Santa, a story we tell to motivate little children; academics (particularly in the humanities) are their own QC departments.

And many scientific publishers will happily publish books on any obscure topic, if you pay for printing.

I feel like I have to say "I do not understand the relevance of this fact to the claim that the academic press is a staunch bulwark against incorrect facts receiving its imprimatur."

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#17

Post by PeterisP »

raverbashing wrote: post #6

And of course the question is, how much would the academic make with those sales? (I'm guessing not much)

Possibly a negative amount - some of these publishers do, in essence, a classic "who's who"/vanity publishing scam where the profit comes from the author paying for a bunch of expensive copies, and they usually won't even be sold to anyone else.

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#18

Post by hellofunk »

leaveyou wrote: post #13
maaaats wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alot of publishers also do a shotgun approach to find developers to write a book for them. I've been contacted several times to act as reviewer or even write the book myself about a framework named Libgdx. All because I have a Github repo with some example code for a single feature, that's somewhat popular. The repo is many years old, and I no longer write mobile games. So I'm not a good match as an author for such a…

To me this is a sign that the end of traditional publishing is very near. They milk the last drops from a dying field ?

I'm not sure what you mean by "traditional publishing" but in many cases the books that are being written are primarily sold as ebooks, and part of the larger scam is that consumers can actually buy these books months before they are written with the promise of constant updates. I bought an Apress ebook once that was barely started when I purchased it, but that was not clear at the time. The actual finished book was nearly one year later.

But if by "traditional publishing" you include electronic publishing, then I'd agree, something is probably going to change soon. It's clear that you can get much more education in today's world in ways other than books.

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#19

Post by leaveyou »

hellofunk wrote: post #18
leaveyou wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this is a sign that the end of traditional publishing is very near. They milk the last drops from a dying field ?

I'm not sure what you mean by "traditional publishing" but in many cases the books that are being written are primarily sold as ebooks, and part of the larger scam is that consumers can actually buy these books months before they are written with the promise of constant updates. I bought an Apress ebook once that was barely started when I purchased it, but that was not clear at the time. The actual finished book was…

for me traditional publishing is (printed) books, magazines, newspapers, CDs & DVDs at most..

Re: Academics are being hoodwinked into writing books nobody can buy

#20

Post by DrNuke »

Broadly speaking, cheap e-books from non-stellar academics are an incredible amount of data leaked for free: top peer-reviewed journals are not cheap at all and relevant conferences proceedings are often run on a pay-for-view scheme. The non-stellar academic from Windy Hill University, Nowhere, will sell a good summary of his/her field and an up to date literature review for less than $20. Bargain.
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