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University libraries and presses have had to reduce the numbers of journals and monographs due to rising costs. The impact of these reduced sales on presses has been devastating, particularly as it has come at the very same time that budget cuts have slashed or eliminated university subsidies to their presses, effectively requiring them to live for the bottom line. As a result, more and more presses are making more and more publication decisions based not on the objective quality of a submitted manuscript, but instead on the potential for book sales that the manuscript represents. Monographs are essential for many reasons, including decisions on tenure for junior faculty members and their ability to be published by scholarly presses. A number of scholars are beginning to look for a digital form that might supplement or even supplant the printed book. These scholars hope to produce a form that allows for speedier publication, more immediate feedback from readers, and better interactions between authors and readers as well as amongst readers themselves. The suggested changes include shifts in the ways scholars conceive themselves as authors, the ways that we think of an individual text, the ways that we understand preservation, and the ways that we structure publishing within the university mission.
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