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"The University Press D2C Opportunity"
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The University Press D2C Opportunity
Joseph J. EspositoAAUP Annual Conference
June 2014
Background of Study
• Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation• PI: Marlie Wasserman, Director, Rutgers
University Press• With help from the staff at Rutgers• Extensive participation from the U. press
community• Special thanks to Peter Berkery’s crew at AAUP
Topics
• What is D2C?• Nature of the study• A sample of findings• Problems• Opportunities
Methodology
• Online survey of university presses• Follow-up phone calls• Interviews with other industry participants
(publishers from other industry segments, vendors)
• Ongoing blogging at Scholarly Kitchen to float ideas and collect comments
• Written report due no later than October
What is D2C?
• Direct to consumer• “Consumer” means an individual, not a mass
market or entertainment audience• This has nothing to do with libraries• Most U. press books are sold to individuals,
but on an indirect basis
What the Presses Told Us?
• Current practices with D2C• Issues with ebooks• The motivation behind D2C• Biggest challenges• The Amazon factor• Current and hoped-for sales
Current Practices for D2C
• Most presses have D2C programs• A smaller number sell ebooks D2C• Typically, email (among other methods) is
used to drive D2C sales• Early stages of database marketing• Privacy issues are underexamined• Mixed messages on building Web traffic• Few good mobile solutions
Issues with Ebooks
• Large gap between presses that are comfortable hosting ebooks and those that are not
• Strong support for DRM• No private-label apps discovered• Many presses use BiblioVault and CoreSource
as DADs• Pricing
Why D2C?
• Always seeking new channels• Easier than ever to experiment• Consolidation of retail sector• Potential for higher margins• Collection of user data• “Begin a relationship with our reader”: the
most common response
What about Amazon?
• Will undercut presses on pricing and service• Not likely to retaliate—scholarly publishing is
not important enough• For some presses, pointing users to Amazon is
a better practice than D2C
Biggest Challenges
• Fulfillment for ebooks• Getting Web traffic• Competition from Amazon• Customer service• Technological infrastructure
Sales Patterns (and Aspirations)
• Most presses had sales in the 1% range• A small number had sales around 3%• Direct connection between attention to Web
site traffic and higher sales
However,
• We defined “significant level of sales” as 10% or more of total volume
• Presses’ aspirations and expectations covered the gamut
• Many said, “Small opportunity”• About the same number said, “Significant
opportunity”
Outlook
• We know D2C can work—because it already does
• To get to 3%: Best practices• We don’t yet have the idea to take sales up to
10% of volume, presses’ aspirations notwithstanding
