The Corner Office: It's All in the Packaging
● What part did you play in the development of this project?
Cohn: A major factor in my thinking about an e-books package was that I very much wanted to maintain differential pricing for libraries and individuals. ...
Duke University Press' book-publishing program, perhaps more than that of any other university press, has been based on the publishing of dual editions. For almost every one of our books, we simultaneously publish cloth editions for the libraries, of very high quality and durability, and relatively inexpensive paperbacks for the trade, and for individual buyers and for courses. We have depended on the cloth sales to libraries to support an affordable paperback price for our cutting-edge books that are mostly sold not to well-established and well-salaried academics, but rather to junior faculty and graduate students, and for course use—all markets where the buyers are very sensitive to price. ...