Hi Nat, yeah, unhappy that - also happened with our AoIR friends and colleagues Lisbeth Klastrup, Jeremy Hunsinger, and Matthew Allen, whose _International Handbook of Internet Research_ now lists at $260.00 on Amazon, with a discount down to 213.20. Clearly, very few researchers, much less students will buy either of these in the hardcover. So far as I can tell, Wiley-Blackwell, Springer, and others are following what seems to be a standard practice of trying to get maximum return on a first hardcover printing that mostly libraries will buy up; they will then make available a softcover edition at a lower price. (Interestingly, Peter Lang - including the Digital Formation series edited by Steve Jones - seems to be following a different practice, at least with regard to another book forthcoming, _ Trust and Virtual Worlds: Contemporary Perspectives_, co-edited with May Thorseth, priced at $34.95 for the paperback. Perhaps Steve will have some helpful light to shed on these matters as well?) I would be the first to point out that "standard practice" does not of itself equal "right" or "justified". Rather, along with more or less every other scholarly organization, we've debated the publishers vs. open source approaches for years, along with the theoretical and practical matters of print-based notions of copyright in a digital age, etc. FWIW, I think both have important roles and places, along with serious deficits and problems. A good friend and colleague, in particular, is consistently reminding me of how prices like these keep important, perhaps essential scholarship out of the libraries and hands of colleagues and students in developing countries, something I'm certainly unhappy about. At the same time, of course, there are also, um, enterprising workarounds, some more legal than others (imagine my pleasure at discovering that one of my books has been made freely available as a bitTorrent download ... smile). Perhaps AoIR and AoIRists can come up with better solutions to the current conundrums? I'd be happy to see that, of course. In the meantime, I also hope that these critical concerns won't diminish our sense of shared pleasure in the scholarly accomplishments and contributions made by the contributors to the volume. cheers, - charles Institut for Informations- og Medievidenskab Helsingforsgade 14 8200 Århus N. Denmark mail: <imvce@hum.au.dk> tel: (+45) 8942 9250 Professor, Philosophy and Religion Drury University, Springfield, Missouri 65802 USA Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23 On 3/8/11 9:40 PM, "Nathaniel Poor" <natpoor@gmail.com> wrote:
Charles-
The Amazon link you sent lists the book at $US 200 (well ok $199.95 and then a discount, but $200).
Is that accurate?
I know that's the hardcover, but if that's the price how is anyone going to buy it?
Even the Kindle edition is $150.