Sorry about your experience. One thing I want to say is that the quality of material put out by University Press publishers is head and shoulders above anything

Sorry about your experience. One thing I want to say is that the quality of material put out by University Press publishers is head and shoulders above anything you’d usually find in Barnes and Noble while not insanely expensive like the $125 books Springer Publishing sells. University Press type publishers have always targeted upmarket since the 1970’s, when a wave of consolidation and focus on short-term profits squeezed those books out of regular publishing. So many books are written by idiot business consultants with nothing to say. Think Randi Zuckerberg but maybe not as bad. University Presses, to my eternal gratitude, do not seem to have this problem yet and all their books say something worth saying. Sorry to go on that rant, but just wanted to stick up a little bit forOxford University Press, which publishes the amazing “Very Short Introduction” series btw. Also would like to say your point is still valid. I’ve heard the same thing about the music industry. When you go to a label, they expect you to already have a marketing plan...weird