University press publishing can be difficult regardless of the medium, and Rice University has decided to end their four-year experiment with a digital-only press. The former provost who authorized the venture originally Eugene Levy says, “The hope was that, without the burden of having to maintain a print inventory, the press might sustain itself largely on revenues from print-on-demand book sales. Unfortunately, book sales remained very slow, and projections discouraged the anticipation that revenues would, in the foreseeable future, grow to a level that could materially cover even minimal costs of operations.” The press had closed once before, in 1996.http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Rice-U-to-Close-Its-Digital/26342 […]
