SUNY Press Frontlist Online

With the launch of its new DirectText (DT) initiative, the State University of New York (SUNY) Press has become the first university press in the United States to offer electronic editions of its frontlist titles. With monographs becoming increasingly expensive, often exceeding $75, SUNY Press officials said the new program is aimed at getting content into more readers' hands.

The DT initiative went live on March 30 with 20 titles; frontlist titles are a $20 download from the Press's web site. Approximately 50 titles will be available by the end of June, and an additional 60 will be available by the end of the year. Users can download and print PDF versions. A free preview option allows viewing of the table of contents, the first two pages of each chapter, and an index of titles. Dan Flynn, director of sales and business development at SUNY Press, told LJ that a plan to sell chapters or portions of books is in the works.

To download, the purchaser of a DirectText book must register with PublishersRow.com, the program's vendor. Users may register up to three computers to access a book in their “bookshelf,” Flynn explained. “The registered computers may view the DirectText book for 180 days online, may download the book as a PDF document, and may print all or portions of the book.

Press director Gary Dunham, who joined SUNY Press in January, said DirectText is about “creating instant access to just-published scholarship” at an affordable rate. “If you want a prestige, jacketed cloth edition, you can still have it,” Dunham said, “but affordability and immediacy are really the cornerstones of this program.”