E-books have been a game changer for scholarly communications, and academic publishers have, perhaps, been the most affected by their development and popularity. In “The Object and the Process; or, Take This Book and Click It!,” UBC Press acquisitions editor Darcy Cullen explores how book production has been affected by the digital turn. Although she suggests that e-book uptake was slow at first, it has now reached an undeniable degree of prevalence and can no longer be ignored.

E-books offer many opportunities for publishers, including both the chance to experiment with form and format, as well as to re-package and make available backlist titles. They also bear unique challenges, and have required that presses adjust workflows and skillsets to accommodate for their digital nature. Overall, Cullen examines the many ways that the e-book– and its publication– have altered conventional scholarly publishing practices.

 

Work cited

Cullen, Darcy. 2012. “The Object and the Process; or, Take This Book and Click It!” In Editors, Scholars, and the Social Text. Toronto: U Toronto Press.