Harvard Press Sales Down

Much like the rest of its industry, Harvard University Press is feeling the strain of the national economic downturn.

Mary Kate Maco, publicity director of HUP, said that although the Press does not have specific numbers yet, she expects that sales declined similarly to the national average of 10 percent calculated by the American Association of University Presses.

The AAUP’s recently-published survey reported that its member presses’ sales in both units and dollars are down roughly 10 percent for July through December of 2008 from the same period in 2007.

Maco said that HUP was not caught off-guard by the recession, and has not had to rethink their plans, as they were anticipating a shift in the publishing market.

“With the rise in popularity of digital content, the publishing industry’s sales had been seeing drops even before the recession,” she said. “It’s disappointing, but we’re trying to focus on the positive and remember that at least it’s certainly not the death of the industry. The current economy just makes it all the more imperative to follow the new trends.”

Brenna E. McLaughlin, electronic and strategic initiatives director for the AAUP, said that nearly all university presses are experiencing a decline in sales.

“It’s provided both an impetus and another obstacle to experimenting with new ways of disseminating scholarship,” she said.

Both Maco and McLaughlin emphasized the importance of expanding university presses’ digital presence.

Maco said she was excited to see the Press’ first online legal journal as well as the availability of HUP books on Amazon’s wireless reading device, Kindle.

She also said that because many of HUP’s books are targeted at a specific subset of academia, the Press probably has not been missing out on reaching much of its audience due to a lack of digital availability.

Harvard School of Education Professor Daniel M. Koretz, who recently published a book with HUP about standardized testing, said that he has experienced decreased sales of his book, but attributed the falloff to lower demand for books in general.

“What has happened to book sales in the past few months is independent of Harvard University Press,” he said. “Nobody is sure what kind of business models will work for selling digital books yet.”