The Future of Publishing

Mises Institute publishes its books both online and in old-fashioned print--the exact same books, that is. Counterintuitive? And yet, they claim, this two-pronged approach has boosted sales not just of new titles, but old titles that never saw much distribution to begin with.

Here is a case in point. For some years, Misesians have worried about the status of Mises's wonderful book Omnipotent Government (1944). It was the first and still remains the most masterful study of the economics and politics of German National Socialism, perhaps the most anti-Nazi book published in its time. It demonstrates that the Nazi ideology was a species of orthodox socialist theory, and thereby corrects one of the most pervasive political errors of our time (that Nazism and Communism represent opposite ends of an ideological continuum.).

In any case, the point is that the book has long deserved far more attention than it has received. When it first appeared in 1944, from Yale University Press, reviewers saw it as a classic and expected it to have a huge impact. But many on the left and right had every reason to make sure Mises's book did not achieve a wider readership. For years, we've wanted to do something to correct for this.

Meanwhile, however, the current publisher would not allow the text to be put online through the Mises Institute. Many of Mises's books have been online and, as a result, were being referred to and quoted and discussed (and purchased) as never before. But not Omnipotent Government. It was not getting the attention it deserved, and, indeed, faced the prospect of forever living in the shadows of those books that are online.

After three years of letters, emails, and phone calls, we finally persuaded the publisher to let us go ahead, but we could only do so on the condition that we compensate the publisher in advance for all the lost sales they were sure that they would absorb. Their attitude is somewhat understandable. They figured: why would anyone buy the book now that it is being given away for free? They demanded an upfront payment. And so we paid, essentially leasing the book from the publisher. And, after lots of formatting and proofing work, we put it online here.

What happened was precisely the reverse of what the publisher expected. Instead of lost sales, the sales of the book shot up. In the few weeks since the text went online, more copies of this book left our warehouse than during the whole of the last decade. Omnipotent Government is now a top seller in the Mises.org catalog. The publisher obtained not only the leasing fee from our offices but suddenly enjoyed a flood of new orders for the book from us.

A strong case for all arts industries to follow suit--people will never give up wanting "the real thing"