A conversation with director Marlie Wasserman on academic publishing in the 21st century
This year Rutgers University Press celebrates its 75th anniversary with Marlie Wasserman at the helm. Wasserman joined the press in 1978 – and except for a brief stint at a New York publishing house has been there since, serving as director for the past 16 years. Wasserman has sought to raise Rutgers University Press’s stature within university press publishing, enhance its relationship with the university, and expand its list by bringing in fresh ideas and authors. Helped by a staff of 14 publishing professionals, she has overseen the press’s move into the digital world, embracing technological innovation and expanding reach while remaining true to its core mission of shaping and disseminating scholarship. Even in earlier periods, Wasserman says, continual change has characterized the press’s existence. It has had eight directors and four locations and will soon add a fifth: state-of- the-art offices in a new building in downtown New Brunswick. Rutgers Today talked with Wasserman about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Rutgers University Press and academic publishing in the 21st century.
Rutgers Today: What is Rutgers University Press’s core mission?
Wasserman: To publish books of high scholarly merit. Our books reflect a broad array of disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, with subjects that include American studies, ethnic studies, film studies, sociology, anthropology, criminology, the environment, health and medicine, Jewish studies, and human rights. About 7 percent of our books are written by Rutgers faculty. We have a secondary but also important mission: to publish books about the state and the region. Some of those are scholarly, some are general interest books – like what to do and see in New Jersey with your kids. We are the only university press in the state with that mission.
Rutgers Today: What are the challenges university presses face today?
Wasserman: One of the biggest challenges scholarly presses face is the decrease in sales to libraries. With the slow economy, libraries are facing budget cuts, as are university presses. Our print on demand model is helping us with this issue. Instead of printing 1,500 copies of a book that has a limited audience, we are able to print just what we need. In addition, in 2005 we needed to deal with the problem that bookstores didn’t believe that some of our books about the state were intended for a popular audience. They incorrectly assumed that we published only specialized monographs. So we established Rivergate Books as an imprint to shine a light on our regional titles. About 10 percent of our books are now part of the Rivergate imprint.
Rutgers Today: What are some of the changes you have made during your tenure?
Wasserman: In the ‘90s I pushed for the print-on-demand publishing model that has enabled us to save production and warehousing costs by printing books only as they are needed. We now apply that model to about 60% of our program. At the same time, thanks to our wonderful staff, nearly 1,000 of our books are now available in e-book editions as well as print editions. I was also a proponent for outsourcing our warehouse and customer service, which in 2006 was somewhat controversial because the change required us to give up some control. But it has turned out to be a good decision financially.
Rutgers Today: Your theme this year is “Moving Forward.” Could you expand upon that?
Wasserman: We’re moving forward in two ways, physically and technologically. In September of 2012 we will be moving our offices to the Gateway building in downtown New Brunswick. We will be above the Barnes and Noble College bookstore, which will allow for great synergy and connect us with the city and train station, making it easier for our visiting authors. On the technological front, we aim to publish 95 percentof our books in electronic as well as print editions, and we’re close to meeting that goal.
Rutgers Today: How has serving as president for the Association of American University Press helped you here?
Wasserman: The AAUP is made up of 120 university presses from North America. Although some are large and some are small – we’re medium in size – all have the same goal of quality publications. As president in 1999-2000, I was able to learn what was going on across the board and how each press was dealing with their own issues. We share massive amounts of information with each other and improve as a result.
Rutgers Today: What projects are you most proud?
Wasserman: I am very proud of The Encyclopedia of New Jersey. It was a major project that required fundraising and bringing people together. That book has a huge wealth of accurate and useful information about the state. I am also proud of the scholarly book Gender Play which is about how pre-teens start to form their sense of differences between boys and girls. It has been influential in gender studies, women studies, and sociology. There are many more wonderful books to choose from as well; everyone on staff has a different favorite.
Rutgers Today: How is the press celebrating its 75th anniversary?
Wasserman: The first thing we did was to freshen up our logo with permission from the university. We have a reception in May to highlight key landmarks in the history of the press, key books, and key changes. We will have some of our authors speak, and the master of ceremonies will be Steve Adubato, a Rutgers author and anchor of Caucus: New Jersey. The 75th anniversary is a big event for us, giving us a chance to highlight our continuing role in scholarly communication and the changes we’ve embraced.
Check out a selection of notable titles here: