College Professors: Adjuncts and Hoodwinking
September 7, 2015
I read “Academics Are Being Hoodwinked into Writing Books Nobody Can Buy.” (I almost typed “wants to buy” but I caught myself. Wow, near miss.)
The idea is that at a university a professor knows a subject, perhaps arcane, but the idea is that someone teaching at a big time institution knows stuff.
The write up points out:
So I’d [a savvy college professor] been asked to write a book about whatever I wanted, and this editor didn’t even know whether I’d written anything before. It didn’t matter. It would sell its 300 copies regardless. Not to people with an interest in reading the book, but to librarians who would put it on a shelf and then, a few years later, probably bury it in a storeroom. Most academics get these requests. A colleague was recently courted by an editor who, after confessing they only published expensive hardbacks (at around £200), explained that this was an opportunity for my colleague to enhance his academic record. He was told he could give them pretty much anything, like an old report, or some old articles.
The best line in the article, in my opinion, is this one:
So why don’t academics simply stay away from the greedy publishers? The only answer I can think of is vanity.
Does this mean that some adjuncts and other academic faunae are easily manipulated by publishers? Amazing. I wish I were still in college. I would learn so much. Is there an index of expensive books which no one can afford? Publishers would never hoodwink a university level instructor. Of course not. Only students appealing an unjust grade do the hoodwink thing.
Stephen E Arnold, September 7, 2015
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