Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Robin
Printing may be cheap, I doubt the same could be said for shipping a 62 kilo package from China. Do you have any figures on the actual size of that "genuine global market" willing to pay for a paper OED 3?
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For starters, I think most public library systems would love a new print edition, as they likely have and use the old one. I would bet (though I have no way of knowing) that the print OED is much more prevalent across all classes of libraries globally than the subscription. Most book acquisition schemes are done with state/province/city/community centre financial backing, so it would be much easier to justify it as a one-time payment in a seasonal acquisition, than yet another subscription. Many libraries are starting to refuse Elsevier and other scholarly subscriptions due to exorbitant fees they cannot budget. Contrast that concern with a standard book purchase, and you begin to see the appeal. That would ensure that many local libraries that otherwise couldn't justify a subscription, actually could get a print edition – "let's splurge just this one time and we'll have it forever" is a much easier pitch than an annual levy that might increase the following year.
That's just the library system, we're yet to mention institutional purchases – institutes, foundations, education centres that need and use handbooks, in part because they look good on the shelves. Many institutes and smaller libraries lag with the digital trends, which doesn't mean they won't recognise an efficient resource when they see one. Then we have individual purchasing power – I don't think it's outrageous to believe that there are people in every country in the world who would like to have a unique set like the OED, because it's impossible to get anything similar anywhere else. Heck, if you were a benefactor wanting to donate a fine gift to your childhood community centre, how about a set of the newly-minted OED 3rd? large dictionaries are generally not being printed any longer, which I think is an opportunity, rather than a handicap? The market is hardly saturated, and there's still something to be said of the market potential of individual ownership, as opposed to renting everything under the sun.
If you were to tally all these potential purchases, they would still never reach hundreds of millions of sales, but the original OED wasn't a conventional bestseller either, that's just the nature of reference works. Let's not forget, however, that the OED didn't go out of print because it was too expensive for people, or because it wasn't being bought, but because that's what the OUP decided to do. There are still people looking for sets and getting them in the used market. The interest is there and it would only increase for a fully revised edition. As for logistics, look at it like this – the same problems existed before, yet they were handled, some of that is probably built-into the high price-tag. I don't imagine a new edition would be cheaper than the old one, it's just that one cost would offset another. Today we have conglomerates like Amazon, which would gladly take care of some of the logistics for the vast Western market. Let's also not forget that the OUP has a network of licenced book distribution centres, and also offices like the British Council. Both can be tapped to tackle the logistics problem.
I could very well be wrong. This is just an off-the-cuff ramble on what makes sense to me. I don't have an MBA, and I'm not developing a project to pitch to the OUP and corner the market.
