April is always an exciting time for publishers, heralding the annual mega-event, the London Book Fair. Even though I have been in publishing for some years now, a sense of anticipation and wonder strikes me afresh each time as I reach Earls Court on a sunny spring day. The enormity of scale and attendance of book folk from every corner of the planet, really brings home how UWP is part of a huge global industry. Meeting peers and mulling over the challenges and opportunities we face provides a sense of community, while catching sight of a famous literary giant can render you not a little star-struck. In the academic world, OA is still a live and much debated topic and will be for some time. While many big publishers believe all roads may lead to OA in the future, smaller publishers tend to take the view that OA for monographs should be regarded as additional channel, to complement print which is still important in HASS. All agreed, though, that take up for OA monographs is slow, impeded in the main by the HASS research model which tends to be unfunded, unlike STEM, where OA has taken root much more rapidly.
Sarah Lewis, Commissioning Editor