The Challenge of Emulation Coming Way Down in Price
Publishing
with an academic-oriented publisher like Ashgate (now Routledge) has its
advantages, primarily that one can make a properly academic argument without
being challenged as to whether it is “accessible” enough. The downside, though,
is that the relative disinterest in accessibility means that the market for the
books is rather small, and so the publisher’s business model is to market the
book in relatively small quantities at a high price to university libraries and
others who can afford to pay. Not being a publisher myself, I wonder whether
the high price is the chicken or the egg with regard to low sales. It is what
it is, as they say. Now, though, it appears on the Routledge website that The Challenge of Emulation will be out in paperback before long, and is available for pre-order, which means, I hope, that the artists and architects for whom
it was largely written can now afford to buy it.
Lege Feliciter, as Alberti
said to his readers.
David
