Since my first post on Open Book Publishers, a new Cambridge-base academic press, I've had chance to speak to one of its founders, the economist Rupert Gatti, about the publishing and business model. He told me that the decision to found OBP was born of frustration with the path most existing academic publishers are taking to maintain their revenues and profits in the face of the technological and structural changes affecting all of the content industries. He said: “Publishers are backing themselves into the wrong corner. Their pricing policies are tied into big libraries, and they are tying up knowledge. Only people using prestigious US research libraries can read these books – and we wonder why the US is leading in so many areas of knowledge. Academic publishers have stopped seeing themselves as disseminators of knowledge. They're just trying to protect an income stream.”

Here's the story. One of his co-founders (and his wife) Alessandra Tosi had her PhD thesis on Russian history published at a cover price of £60 (having delivered camera ready copy). It sold 350 copies, of which 200 went to US libraries. Not a single Russian library could afford to buy it. Initially the plan was to publish new and revised versions of out-of-print titles, starting with one by William StClair, the third co-founder and author of The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period. However, there are now about 25 titles in the pipeline, all new.

OBP is not-for-profit, and Gatti estimates they will need to sell about 300 copies to break even on a title, that is cover staff and running costs. Half of net profits will go to the authors, who retain copyright. Authors will not need to contribute any funding themselves – in contrast, Gatti says, to the growing demand by many publishers that research grants are used to pay for publication. All manuscripts will be properly peer reviewed. In time, the website will build digital links from book titles to other readings, to take readers into a body of research. Gattis says: “Publishers are scampering to find easy income streams. There is a question about how to finance open access, but it's been dominated by a lobby group of established publishers.”

My experience with publishers has been very positive, but I hear many tales similar to Gatti's, and think the OBP experiment is exciting and worthwhile. I'd encourage all readers – and potential authors – to take a look.