WEBVTT NOTE 27. Books, Online and Off 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Chapter 27, Books, Online and Off. March 22nd, 2004. 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:17.000 Many people find themselves mystified as to why the Mises Institute puts books online for free that it is also trying to sell. 3 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:22.000 For example, here is Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Speaking of Liberty. 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Here is Hans-Hermann Hoppe's The Myth of National Defense, which you can also purchase. 5 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:34.600 And the most accessed of all, Ludwig von Mises Human Action in many different formats with 6 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:42.520 an interactive index, even as the Offline Scholars edition remains a bestseller on Mises.org. 7 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:48.000 Below is a detailed account of how we arrived at the policy that as many books as possible 8 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:53.420 should be made available online and offline, and why we think it would be a good idea for 9 00:00:53.420 --> 00:00:56.080 all publishers to do the same. 10 00:00:56.080 --> 00:01:02.320 Of course, Amazon.com has slowly come to this policy as well, and no one watches the relationship 11 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:06.400 between information and sales as closely. 12 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:11.780 At this point, they are limited only by a publisher's reluctance to let go. 13 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:16.300 And here we are speaking of new books and issues of marketing and sales. 14 00:01:16.300 --> 00:01:23.400 The case for making older volumes fully available for purposes of education is even more obvious. 15 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:29.040 The point is to expand the market and not assume a fixed number of consumers. 16 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:34.680 Books online and offline reinforce the viability of each other just as movies and theaters 17 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:40.760 boost movies and rental, and free radio helps the market for CDs for purchase. 18 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:45.480 It takes some thought and entrepreneurial judgment to understand why, but the history 19 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:49.600 of technological development informs the case. 20 00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:52.400 As one commentator put it on the Mises blog, 21 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:58.920 Nor did ideas written down in scrolls or illuminated manuscripts undermine the teachers, gurus, 22 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:04.680 nor did knowledge in mass printed books undermine schools, colleges. 23 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:10.040 The topic comes up because two weeks ago the Mises Institute released Man Economy and State 24 00:02:10.040 --> 00:02:15.680 with Power and Market, by far our most time consuming and expensive publication project 25 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.320 in our 22 year history. 26 00:02:18.320 --> 00:02:25.920 At $50, this hardbound, 1,550-page treatise on economics is an incredible bargain, but 27 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:29.040 still expensive for any book. 28 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:34.120 At the same time, the Mises Institute released a page with the full text of the book and 29 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:39.720 table of contents and PDF to accomplish the step-by-step development of the full text 30 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:41.800 in HTML. 31 00:02:41.800 --> 00:02:47.800 A number of readers commented that they believed this policy was generous but essentially nuts 32 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:53.140 and helpfully advised us that if we knew what was good for sales, we would take down this 33 00:02:53.140 --> 00:02:56.000 page immediately. 34 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:00.360 Rather than take it down, it is our hope that people will put it in their favorites list 35 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:03.140 and forward it far and wide. 36 00:03:03.140 --> 00:03:08.240 As a non-profit dedicated to getting the word out about Austrian economics and serving many 37 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:13.000 people in the world who are interested in learning, it only makes sense that we pursue 38 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.460 every viable means of doing so. 39 00:03:16.460 --> 00:03:21.660 To have the means of providing something as powerful as this book for free and not do 40 00:03:21.660 --> 00:03:26.540 so would amount to deliberately withholding the product pending payment from people who 41 00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:30.840 may or may not have the means of paying. 42 00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:35.940 That prospect of withholding ideas when it would be easy to make them available has to 43 00:03:35.940 --> 00:03:41.380 make every non-profit that cares about its mission somewhat squeamish. 44 00:03:41.380 --> 00:03:46.320 There is nothing wrong with making a profit, but if that were the sole purpose and if doing 45 00:03:46.320 --> 00:03:51.000 If doing so was financially viable, there would be no point in the non-profit structure 46 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.440 that has existed since the ancient world. 47 00:03:54.440 --> 00:04:02.080 For more on non-profits as a market institution, see Rothbard's The Myth of Neutral Taxation. 48 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:07.840 We gladly offer these texts at no charge simply because we believe that this is part of our 49 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:10.120 core mission. 50 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:16.160 If that sounds implausibly high-minded, there are other considerations at work. 51 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:20.640 There was much confusion in the early days of the web about whether online viewing would 52 00:04:20.640 --> 00:04:26.900 displace books. It didn't happen. In fact, the broad development of the web as a vehicle 53 00:04:26.900 --> 00:04:32.720 for commercial search and delivery has actually led to a boom in book sales, both new and 54 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:39.100 used. Also, experience suggests that online and offline books are different goods that 55 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:45.160 serve different purposes. Quick reference versus deep reading, quote checking versus 56 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:58.160 What's more, these different purposes are complementary. On and offline books are complements, like bacon and eggs, not substitutes like bacon and sausage. 57 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:05.160 All of this means that one does not necessarily cut into one's sales by offering the book online for free. 58 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:11.040 for free. By showing people what is inside the book, it is possible to increase sales 59 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:16.640 of the offline book. The very existence of the online version means that the offline 60 00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:22.440 version becomes more valuable because now one can copy and paste quotations, easily refer 61 00:05:22.440 --> 00:05:28.160 back to the passage, even when the book is not in hand, or send URLs around to friends 62 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:35.160 or post them on the blog to make points. These days, if a book is not online, it faces 63 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:45.160 Mises is an additional hurdle that it otherwise would not face. Not substitutes or compliments, but tied goods, like piano strings and keys. 64 00:05:45.160 --> 00:05:56.160 Here is a case in point. For some years, Misesians have wondered about the status of Mises's wonderful book, Omnipotent Government, 1944. 65 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:01.760 It was the first and still remains the most masterful study of the economics and politics 66 00:06:01.760 --> 00:06:08.960 of German National Socialism, perhaps the most anti-Nazi book published in its time. 67 00:06:08.960 --> 00:06:15.140 It demonstrates that the Nazi ideology was a species of orthodox socialist theory and 68 00:06:15.140 --> 00:06:20.680 thereby corrects one of the most pervasive political errors of our time, that Nazism 69 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:26.540 Communism and Communism represent opposite sides of an ideological continuum. 70 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:32.680 In any case, the point is that the book has long deserved far more attention than it has 71 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:33.780 received. 72 00:06:33.780 --> 00:06:41.580 When it first appeared in 1944 from Yale University Press, reviewers saw it as a classic and expected 73 00:06:41.580 --> 00:06:44.160 it to have a huge impact. 74 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:48.680 But many on the left and right had every reason to make sure Mises' book did not achieve 75 00:06:48.680 --> 00:07:18.680 For years, we 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' 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 poverty. 76 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:25.160 in the shadows of those books that are online. After three years of letters, emails, and phone 77 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:31.560 calls, we finally persuaded the publisher to let us go ahead. But we could only do so on the condition 78 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:36.200 that we compensate the publisher in advance for all the lost sales they were sure that they would 79 00:07:36.200 --> 00:07:44.120 absorb. Their attitude is somewhat understandable. They figured, why would anyone buy the book now 80 00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:51.400 What happened was precisely the reverse of what the publisher expected. 81 00:07:51.400 --> 00:07:55.480 Instead of lost sales, the sales of the book shot up. 82 00:07:55.480 --> 00:08:01.400 In a few weeks since the text went online, more copies of this book lay out. 83 00:08:01.400 --> 00:08:05.080 This was the first time the book had been sold online. 84 00:08:05.080 --> 00:08:08.440 This was the first time the book had been sold online. 85 00:08:08.440 --> 00:08:14.480 What up? In a few weeks since the text went online, more copies of this book left our 86 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:20.720 warehouse than during the whole of the last decade. Omnipotent Government is now a top 87 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:27.040 seller in the Mises.org catalogue. The publisher not only obtained the leasing fee from our 88 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:33.920 offices but suddenly enjoyed a flood of new orders for the book from us. 89 00:08:33.920 --> 00:08:39.360 Most gratifying is how quickly ideas are disseminated in these times. 90 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:44.240 Already commentators and bloggers have noted the parallel between the modern protectionist 91 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:51.120 argument about outsourcing and the same arguments made by Nazi protectionists of the 1930s, 92 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:53.860 citing Mises' study in particular. 93 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:58.320 In only two weeks of being made available, the book and its arguments went from being 94 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:10.320 This experience illustrates the point very nicely that those who cling to copyright as 95 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:14.860 a way of denying people knowledge are just wrong. 96 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:19.780 The same events repeated themselves with Mises' book, Bureaucracy. 97 00:09:19.780 --> 00:09:24.680 Here is a book that offers a tremendously revealing analytical framework for understanding 98 00:09:24.680 --> 00:09:26.960 the public sector. 99 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:32.480 explains why government is inefficient, why it never seems to have enough money, why budget 100 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:38.100 cuts seem arbitrary, and why there is no real way to know whether government is doing anything 101 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:44.640 socially valuable or not. His analysis applies whether the bureaucrats in question are public 102 00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:51.120 spirited or not. It is a very powerful work, and yet it has long been obscured by the public 103 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:57.760 Choice School's insights on the public sector, which, however valid, are not as foundational 104 00:09:57.760 --> 00:10:00.080 as Mises. 105 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:04.440 In any case, the book no longer lives in obscurity. 106 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:08.480 It can again be part of the living debate of our times. 107 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:13.680 Why isn't the case for making these texts available more obvious? 108 00:10:13.680 --> 00:10:18.480 Part of the error at work here is having an unnecessarily restricted view of the potential 109 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:41.480 If you believe that they are bought only by a small group of libertarians or Misesians whom you have known from the various conferences in the past, or you believe that the number of Misesians will always be restricted to a tiny remnant, you might believe that you must configure offerings in a way that somehow traps these people into purchasing the product. 110 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:59.480 But when you realize that the market for libertarian Misesian books has been vastly underestimated and artificially restricted due to technological considerations, it is easy to see that an online text does great good on its own as an educational tool. 111 00:10:59.480 --> 00:11:09.480 The market for Misesian theory delivered via whatever means one can conjure up is not fixed, but rather potentially enormous. 112 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:15.020 It is just a matter of getting the word out. We are hard at work doing this on other Mises 113 00:11:15.020 --> 00:11:21.300 texts as well, and putting up as many books as we can manage on a daily and weekly basis. 114 00:11:21.300 --> 00:11:28.060 Ludwig von Mises, Murray and Rothbard, Frank Feder, Fritz Machlup, Frank Choteroff, George 115 00:11:28.060 --> 00:11:34.460 Reisman, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, David Gordon, among many others. When possible, we like 116 00:11:34.460 --> 00:11:42.460 We like to offer full text and a searchable and copyable PDF, which means more than just pumping the text through a scanner. 117 00:11:42.460 --> 00:11:48.460 Of course, time and resources constrain us, making a searchable PDF not a snap. 118 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:57.460 A quality HTML driven by a database takes even more time and money to pay for server space. 119 00:11:57.460 --> 00:12:03.320 In any case, we try to make texts available whether the book was published yesterday or 120 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:09.500 whether it is long out of print and insofar as rights holders cooperate. 121 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:14.500 This strategy makes sense to us both in terms of our educational obligations as well as 122 00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:20.300 our fiduciary responsibilities, doing good and doing well, or at least not going broke 123 00:12:20.300 --> 00:12:22.040 tomorrow. 124 00:12:22.040 --> 00:12:27.040 As with all exchanges undertaken on a voluntary basis, everyone wins.