Publish and profit

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/29/the-lairds-of-learning/ or 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/academic-publishers-
murdoch-socialist

As a published author, I can only say Amen.

I've published books and magazine articles as well as in the "academic" works.  
None of it pays very well, but the academic stuff is the worst.  I've published a lot 
with one of the imprints of the Elsevier mentioned in the piece.  If the other 
authors get the same as I have, the cost of authorship is pretty close to zero.  As a 
rough estimate, the yearly sales are about $200,000.  Cost of production/printing 
is probably less than $50,000.  Pretty good room for profit, there.  I've also 
provided stuff for Wiley.  Sales might have been lower, but I got about the same 
amount in payment.  (Wiley also published a pile of my copyrighted work without 
permission one time, but that's another story.)

Oh, the relation to security?  Well, as security professionals, we need constant 
input on all kinds of topics in order to do our jobs.  Some of it we can get from 
each other.  As a book reviewer, I know that many of the printed sources available 
to us at reasonable cost aren't worth even that amount.  A lot of the latest 
research isn't available to us directly.  (We've seen lots of discussions on new 
developments that run into problems because most of us can't go to the source 
materials.)  We have lots of problems to deal with.  We don't need to be 
hamstrung by lack of information as well.

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
                         Common sense isn't.
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://www.infosecbc.org/links
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
http://twitter.com/rslade
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