Books and scholarly communities: retrospect and prospect

Richard Fisher, formerly CUP

Academic books are a rather more complex and variegated subset of scholarly communication than is often articulated. Publishing has often remained fragmented and sometimes defiantly artisanal in approach, particularly in the arts and social sciences. Have book publishers drawn the right inferences from the digital transition, and have they forgotten some of the most important early impacts of that transition which nonetheless retain significance today?

Richard Fisher, formerly Managing Director of the CUP's Academic Division considered these issues while looking ahead, to the myriad of disciplinary, institutional, financial and access issues with which academic book publishing is confronted.

He noted that we have a curiously unchanged publisher landscape. There hasn't been a PLOS or BioMed Central in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Why is this? High entry costs relative to publishing opportunities. Long term gestation, scholarly conservatism and the complex interaction of career tenure and the continued rise of American University Presses might be other factors.

Is there a crisis in scholarly book publishing? Monograph outputs have doubled in the past decade. It is impossible to read all of them. So what is the crisis if there is still plenty to publish and read? So far, e-publishing has not yet disturbed the continuum of publishing formats in these disciplines. What has happened to the course-book used for graduate and undergraduate teaching. Small scale adoption is possible with short print runs. The retail presence is chipped away by Amazon. Is this type of research book facing extinction or will it carry on? (He suspects that latter). What caused the shift of focus even more onto the backlist? How much emphasis is placed on the backlist with marketing and sales efforts?

Are these factors indicative of a blip or part of a more fundamental shift and evolution of the research book market? Why do we discuss non-institutional customers so little? The majority of sales come from institutions, and yet we don't engage with the readers/users of monographs.

Is there a transatlantic divide in open access? The role of UK governmental agencies in OA and other initiatives within EU/ESF, HEFCE and RCUK/Wellcome research funding is counter to the international structure of publishers. Academic book publication in the UK is fundamentally an export activity, and potentially only viable in that context. It is often undercapitalised and under digitised. International markets and translations are also at risk with the uptake of Creative Commons.

Fisher cites how emphatically scholarly books can be cross-over trade books. Serious historical research, for example, can have a popular appeal unmatched by any other subject. If you look at the conclusions of the agent Andrew Wylie and HEFCE/RCUK (who both want the widest possible dissemination) they draw vastly different conclusions.

Much of the most powerful and polemical OA advocacy come from those outside the formal academy, or the marginalised within: for those inside, different motivations need to apply. Fisher believes there still needs to be a step change in consumption of and enthusiasm for long form e-outputs among humanities and social sciences scholars. Yet the rate of transition is very slow.

Intellectual Property is a growing arena of contest. It is a huge issue for humanists and social scientists. Arguments are fierce around licensing (including Creative Commons). It's sets authority against collaborative working. You also need to bear in mind that law does not necessarily mean US or California law. US and UK law are very different. This needs to be taken account of.

Fisher is a great advocate for campus calling and going to see people in the institution. We need to look afresh at what we do and ensure that we ask the right questions. In a world of scarcity (above all of time) we must ask ourselves, is it any good?

What next for social science books?

Daniel Pollock from Jordan Publishing

Legal practitioners have different needs to scholars, so where does a book fit into a world of online services and workflow support? Daniel Pollock, Publishing Director at Jordan Publishing considered the opportunities in the post digital world.

Based on his experience working in an agency environment in the past, Pollock learnt many lessons that apply to publishing. First, you need to articulate your core proposition. If you're aiming for a forward looking market, products and services, make sure you reflect that in what you do.

Pollock cites Practical Law Company as one of the most successful legal publishers who focused on a customer focused strategy driven by need. Grew from £6 million in 2003 to £60 million in 2013. They were lawyers, not publishers. By talking about the future of the scholarly book, you're at risk of putting the cart before the horse. You may or may not need it.

Alison Shaw, Publishing Director at Policy Press provided a refreshing view of how scholarly publishers have to provide new solutions for their readers' changing needs.

They used to disseminate research and were embedded in a department so understood the needs of researchers. Since then, priorities have changed. Researchers want ownership of their work, they want to share it, they want career development. They want a publisher with high esteem who can publish in a timely way and disseminate it. But they also want impact and in a sense, to change the world - or our understanding of it.

Alison Shaw from Policy Press

For many people in the social policy world, books are still very important. The book may have changed, but the need to have a long form argument is still important. There is a current trend for consolidation into massive companies. As a tiny publisher they have had to compete and add value in innovative ways. One approach has been to launch a trade list. Getting By by Lisa McKenzie is a title from an early career academic who approached them with her PhD. They encourage her to combine her passion for campaigning for social equality with her research specialism. Massive media coverage has resulted. Using trade and media as well ebook format giveaways on other titles help research have a wider impact.

With Revisiting Moral Panics, they have 18 different versions for whole, part, chapters and so on. it's an experiment to see what will happen. Policy Press are experimenting with short and mid form publications with a 12 week turnaround. Shaw sees a work as not just a book, but a core piece of content with related content all around it. It could be free policy briefings, practice guides, reports, social media content, data sets. It's about dissemination in the round. Some parts are static, some are interactive. They are thinking about supporting an author to maximise their reach and impact. Discoverability is key with tagging, data, analytics tools. they're providing free shareable content marketing, but everything links back to the book.

Shaw noted that often the journal world is often ahead of book publishing. They are monitoring and seeing what can be adopted to enhance what they want to do. There are many issues to iron out with monographs when it comes to open access. In social science, there will be many who won't have access to funds. Patron Driven Acquisition presents a challenge with low usage. Looking at models for different ways of selling, bundling print and e, freemium/premium, portals, subscription and so on.

Tim Williams from Edward Elgar Publishing

Tim Williams, Managing Director of Edward Elgar Publishing asked whether is it inevitable that technology and business models for ebooks seem to be converging with journals. Trends include long term decline in print runs, the growth in ebook aggregators and new business models, pressures on publishers to justify value they add and disseminate widely. There is a shift in customers and authors from West to East and the looming question on what will happen with Open Access. However, the convergence of book and journal content is key for Edward Elgar.

Digital migration is happening - 30% of the book revenue is now digital. Books are now included alongside journals in the same discovery technology. Citations are increasingly being counted and used for books. There is a move away from one book one price to lots of books with variable pricing. Books are longer than journals, are more diverse in purpose and audience, more of a relationship between the reader and author, and the author/publisher act is more of a partnership.

The potential benefits from convergence are huge including discovery and use, citation recognition and greater access. But there are things to think about and learn from. The journal business model plays an advantage to scale publishers who are 'unavoidable' to libraries. There are higher barriers to entry and potentially less diversity in innovation (in sense of content). If books no longer succeed on individual merit. Will they just become agglomerated into large collections? Will they stand out and will authors still want to write them? It's a huge undertaking. Will it also become too easy to publish as publisher hoover up content to feed collection sales? What about the impact of the Impact Factor? How will books be measured and incentivised? By applying one measure for journals to a book, will it affect schools of thought, relationships between author and publisher? And what strategies can smaller publishers adopt to compete? Food for thought...

What next for science and engineering books?

Liz Martin, Head of Production at IOP Publishing

IOP Publishing launched their born-digital ebook programme in 2013 (and won the Silver ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing in 2014). Liz Martin, Head of Production at Institute of Physics Publishing outlined how by not being constrained by the need to digitise an existing print programme, they were able start from scratch thinking about what readers, librarians and authors in the STM community wanted from books.

IOP Publishing sold their whole programme to Taylor & Francis in 2005. They got out of books, so why launch books again in 2013? It came from their mission. They wanted to engage with their community in a different way, with different content, levels and media to reach out to a wider audience. Unlike journals, authors can express views, which is a subtly different way of engaging the community. It allowed their communities to buy what they want, where they want, how they want. It also provided a financial channel.

IOPscience is their delivery platform. It has good usability and discoverability. They also had their platform in place. They have two collections: Expanding Physics (highly developed texts from leading names in the field) and Concise Physics (short, concise 'first' books in a subject that are written and published quickly). They adopted a born digital programme. They offer PDF, HTML and ePub 3 of absolutely everything. It is device independent and fully functional. Equations are used to make it readable and accessible. They provide a seamless reader experience with click through to exercises and embedded colour media. They have a no-DRM model so librarians can share content freely. There is a fee based model for authors so no legacy issues. They have a collections based purchasing model. They use their existing experience and contacts for production and workflow, quality and SLAs. They have an XML workflow to enable all formats. The biggest challenge is around author education. The opportunity is to use their journals.

Roheena Anand, Publisher at Royal Society of Chemistry

The Royal Society of Chemistry's main objective is to advance excellence in the chemical sciences. Roheena Anand, Publisher for Books, talked through how their publishing strategy meets the needs of the global chemical science community, where digital fits in, and their focus for the next five years.

Why do they still publish books? Because their community tells them they still want them. They find them trustworthy and knowledgeable. Books are the best way to learn a new topic and go beyond a review article to present coherent body of knowledge. They also cover different levels of knowledge. As chemical science research output is browning, it provides ways to disseminate.

One of their key offers to the community as a Society is that all surplus from their programme is reinvested in science. The RSC is a specialist in chemical sciences and they cover different levels of knowledge from popular science to engage the public, through student materials to post-grad specialist researchers. There are synergies with their journal programme, they have an ePlatform, eBook Collections and high quality titles with recognised authors and editors. It helps time poor researchers with a fast track to relevant, quality materials.

They have achieved 50% growth in output and a concomitant increase in revenue. More titles are originated themselves with new book series and editorial boards. They have nearly 1500 ebooks in their eBook Collection. They have also reduced publication times by 10 weeks (around 20 weeks). They've diversified formats so ePUB and HTML and they have diversified revenue streams including pay-per-view, pick and choose eBooks and eBook aggregators.

Their focus in the future is on quality and has to be relevant for the international community as their membership is global. Subjects need to be in line with organisational priorities for the wider Society. They will extend formats and try to improve existing (e.g. print/POD? E-textbooks?). They will explore access routes to content and consider open access (which has not been a focus to date, but signs are this is changing).

Ian Stoneham from The IET

There has been a relatively recent resurgence in book commissioning activity, perhaps driven by institutional purchase of ebook collections or in some part as a reaction to rebalancing income from traditional society journal publishing revenues. The IET's Ian Stoneham questioned how secure the future of the book is as a discrete entity?

The IET publish a range of book products including monographs, professional reference, Standards (regulations), major reference works, conference proceedings and commissioned content. They have made a strategic decision to invest in programme expansion with a focus on core areas of IET activity and proposition as a learned society. They focus on quality, relevance and authority with established series and focus on edited multi-contributor monographs. They are looking for sustainable offering with depth and breadth, with a focus on digital that works for their community. Their standards publishing is now digital first with print 'squirted out at the end'.

Commissioned content is key to their knowledge offering. It can be an access to point to all other areas of their knowledge products or services. It can be repurposed and repackaged for CPD programmes and other activity. In engineering journal articles are important for career and funding,  but there is a different imperative to write books. Books can bridge the gap between primary research and practical application. Engineers are very pragmatic and having a book to wave in front of a client is a good thing for business.

In the future, they plan to open up their content for semantic enrichment e.g. auto detection of proper nouns, key terms in the text, linking to internal/external sources, etc. They also hope to improve community engagement (which isn't traditionally great in their field). Challenges included automated search, Patron-Driven Acquisition and protecting IP from third parties innovating around their content. However,  if you don't have the content, you can't meet the challenge of disruptive technologies.

Jon Walmsley on the changing face of academic and professional books

The term 'book' has always applied to a large variety of business models. But as an increasing proportion of sales are of digital versions, there is an even wider variety of models that have a small and volatile sales evidence-base.

Jon Walmsley, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of Professional Practice and Learning at John Wiley and Sons outlined an approach for dealing with this situation at The Scholarly Book of the Future seminar.

Why do people buy books? To do a job, to research, to extend knowledge. At Wiley they developed a framework for describing books. Books 1.0 = print Books 2.0 = flat digital versions of print books with little or no functionality. Books 3.0 = things that do the same jobs for the same markets that 1.0 and 2.0 do, but better. It seems strange to call them 'books'. The challenge is to find a middle ground. It's not practical to develop a bespoke 3.0 solution based on every 1.0 or 2.0 title or brand. Equally, you can't expect to find one solution to do all these jobs. To make it work commercially, you need a small number of scaleable solutions.

Even if you could afford to develop multiple technology solutions, you won't be able to sell them without expensive specialists sales team. it makes it too expensive. How do you develop new business models for new products and prices where you have no experience at all? The existing book business has 300 years of experience behind it.

The books market is more fragmented than ever. They do all the jobs they ever did, but now co-exist with all the different versions up to pure digital. However, with fragmentation typically comes opportunity if you know your market and the opportunity.

What are your assets? Top brands, copyrights and authors are key. Deep community expertise, whether commissioners or marketers and existing sales market knowledge. Critical mass and quality of content combined with market reach is powerful. Partners, potential partners and technology expertise are all key.

So what is the answer? There isn't one definitive one. Any organisation needs a number of small scaleable 2.x or 3.0 solutions, focused on a small number of well-defined markets. This requires a high degree of discipline and is contrary to some notions of 'innovation'.

There are a number of technology considerations. The PDF is still desired, but digging into why can results in a better experience. Publisher platforms are not always optimal. Is it better to partner? Business model trends include the shift from ownership to access, the growth in rental and short-term loads, as well as evidence based models such as Usage Based Collection Management. It is crucial to work with your core customers to find sustainability. it is the only way to ensure scholarly communication will survive.

Users want easy access to all the good stuff that's relevant to them. Individual titles are valuable as parts of aggregations. Publishers need to be selective and can augment critical mass with partnerships. Bear in mind that librarians do not often buy books and journals together and this doesn't just apply to subject areas. Also understand that 'non-university' customers are fundamentally different.

There are also regional macro differences. Print books are most stable in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Asia and especially China is a major flat digital (2.0) market if you can reach it. The USA is the most volatile, but growing market for 2.0 aggregations.

Walmsley closed by urging publishers to consider how they select target markets based on assets and capabilities. Explore proven, scaleable business models for clear channel and partnering strategy. It's one thing to change, but developing new viable, scalable business models is crucial. Fewer business models and more partners will help. Have real clarity about existing assets and capabilities. Try to develop solutions that are cheap, fast, personalised and mobile.

What is the Scholarly Book of the Future? Julia Mortimer from Policy Press reflects

We caught up with Julia Mortimer, member of ALPSP's Professional Development Committee and co-organiser of the The Scholarly Book of the Future seminar next month, to ask her what she thinks the scholarly book of the future will look like.

1. What have you seen happening to the scholarly book in the last few years?

The most significant change for the scholarly book has been the move to digital, with completely different and varying purchase models available leading to wide disruption in the marketplace.

Probably the most significant shift within this is the move from guaranteed sales of single copies via approval plans to patron or demand driven access (PDA/DDA) where books are only bought when users trigger a purchase or are loaned for short periods of time and minimal amounts of money. Usage has moved to centre stage, as it has been for journals for some time.

All this is happening as a response to shrinking and stagnating library budgets and some of the purchase models which were introduced at the outset into library aggregators' licensing agreements have been made use of in ways which weren't originally envisaged.

To date the content of digital monographs hasn't changed significantly, although some are getting shorter, they are essentially text-based versions of the print book. However they are being presented and sold in different ways via platforms which bring together a publishers' scholarly books in full or subject-based collections and can be sold via a range of models (more similarly to journal sales). Collaborations between publishers are also emerging in response to library feedback e.g. OUP's University Presses Scholarship Online which Policy Press is involved in and which provides a one-stop shop for University Press scholarly publications.

The rise of blogs and social media has had a considerable effect on academic research, as has the Impact agenda introduced in the Research Excellence Framework in the UK. At Policy Press we have introduced three strands of new fast-track short-form publications: research-based books providing the latest cutting-edge research findings, social commentary pieces and insights on topical issues or policy and practice guides enabling research to quickly have an influence. Academics have welcomed this flexibility which meets their changing needs and other publishers are also starting to offer a range of short formats.

Finally, open access is having a bearing but not to the extent that it has for journals so far. There are experiments and pilots taking place and publishers offer gold open access monograph options but funding is often an issue and other options need to be explored.

2. What has this meant for the financial side of publishing? 

The changes in digital monograph sales models have had a particularly detrimental effect over the past year on many academic publishers. Much lower revenue is generated as a result of the move in the US towards PDA and short term loans (STLs). In the past a certain number of monograph sales were pretty much guaranteed for high quality research outputs which ensured they were viable. Not any more. As Michael Zeoli of YBP Library Services said at a recent IPG seminar, now it is publishers taking all the risks without being able to get a return on their investment. (See The Bookseller article).

This is the case for not-for-profit University Presses and commercial publishers alike, as print sales continue to decline they are not being replaced by digital sales.

Gold open access payments for monographs are still very few and far between so it is early days in terms of a potential transition there.

3. Why is it important now to reflect on this, should we just let nature take its course? 

This disruption is having a fundamental impact on whether the scholarly book in its current form can continue. This is affecting publishers to such an extent that if we don't reflect now and take action some publishers may go out of business and the preservation of scholarly work will be under threat. 

Publishers need to be able make their case to academics and librarians about the value of what they do and the economics behind it. We also need to keep on top of the technology as it changes so that we can continue to innovate to meet the research community’s needs.

4. So, the book is dead, long live the book, right? Tell me what’s in your crystal ball… 

I think the monograph in long and short form will survive, certainly in the humanities and in the social sciences where a longer treatment of certain research findings is absolutely necessary. There is a strong case for embracing the evolution of scholarly publishing but it is not a case of one size fits all any more.

There will be a lot more convergence of formats, with chapters having their own DOIs and being increasingly included in joint databases and platforms with journal content. Similarly when searching for content researchers want to find everything relevant to their search in one place so discovery tools need to better integrate book and journal content, until the content itself is fully integrated. A greater use of XML and semantic web technology will allow researchers to use material in different ways eg integrated data, enhanced books with much more embedded multi-media.

Policy Press short format monograph

There will be a greater focus on what researchers need and studies are already under way to establish that. Innovative forms of dissemination will continue to develop: more short-form work, more use of social media and blogs, online communities and vehicles to allow interaction, engagement and collaboration with the work.

Sales-wise subscription and rental models will grow but there is likely to be a demarcation of premium new content and backlist archive in terms of what is offered via these models. For other types of content archives may be the premium product. Repurposing content and custom publishing options will continue to develop as digital formats and systems make this easier.

I expect to see more collaboration between university presses and their libraries as well - especially around OA models in the future - and other sources of revenue being sought to fund OA such as sponsorship or advertising.

So books are here to stay in my humble opinion, but they may look rather different!

Julia Mortimer is Assistant Director at Policy Press at the University of Bristol, a not-for-profit social science publisher committed to making a difference.

The Scholarly Book of the Future seminar, co-organised by Anthony Watkinson and Julia Mortimer will be held in London on Thursday 12 February. Follow #alpspbook for coverage.

New Year, New EU VAT Regulation Change Part 2: systems issues to consider

On Thursday 1 January 2015 new EU VAT regulations came into force on sales of digital content to consumers in Europe with far reaching implications for publishers. Ian Singer from PKF Littlejohn LLP concludes this two part guest post with urgent priority actions related to systems issues you need to address. (Read Part 1 here).

"The first thing to do is to make absolutely sure you have identified all the relevant systems.  You may think it’s obvious but you may be surprised when you think it all through quite how far-reaching the required changes may be.

You will almost certainly have your own website which may or may not provide an ecommerce facility.  However, your products are likely to be sold via third-party websites and you need to be absolutely clear on both the contractual position and the presentation to the consumer in these situations to ensure you are not liable for the VAT processing.  The VAT authorities have stated that it is the responsibility of the “platform” to report and pay the VAT but there appears to be some confusion over what constitutes a “platform” in these circumstances and whether the “platform” or the publisher is actually the vendor to the consumer.

Your sales invoicing systems are obviously going to be affected and, even if you have outsourced your order processing and stock control, you will probably be continuing to undertake at least some invoicing in-house – bulk deals, contract publishing, rights sales and so on.

Your accounting systems are vital in addressing the EU VAT changes as they are going to be the final repository of your VAT position and will probably be the mechanism used to control payment to the tax authorities.  You should review without delay whether they will be able to meet the demands of the new EU VAT regime.

Your production and bibliographic data systems tend to be your central repository of product information and are also the mechanism you probably use to disseminate information about your products to the outside world - aggregators, websites, Amazon and the like.  These obviously need to be capable of capturing and distributing the additional information you may need to meet the requirements of the new EU VAT regime.

Once you have identified those systems that are likely to be affected, you will need to specify the changes you need to make.  Here is a summary checklist:

1. The first and most obvious one is the calculation of the appropriate VAT amount. To do this, your system will need to be able to recognise where the purchaser is located and what rate of VAT to apply.
2. Secondly, and equally importantly, your VAT calculation mechanism needs to provide the relevant VAT reporting.  This may go beyond the level of detail you are currently producing.
3. Thirdly, your systems need to offer highly flexible facilities to both calculate and store the necessary retail and other prices for each relevant jurisdiction particularly in order to deal with variable VAT rates in the Eurozone.
4. A key area to review may also be the transfer of information between different systems whether that’s between you and, for example, Neilsen or Amazon, your bibliographic data system and yours or someone else’s website, all your sales systems and your accounting system and so on.
5. You should also review the reconciliation and auditing facilities built-in to your systems and processes and implement/improve these where necessary.  (This may not be something that currently exists at all in, for example, your ecommerce systems.)
6. And last, though by no means least, you need to factor in the difficulties you may face with any required software development.  You obviously need to make the software changes in advance of the drop-dead deadline of 1 January 2015 but you cannot implement the changes until that date in your live system.  However, in the meantime you may need to make other changes to your systems and you will either need to develop two systems in parallel or try and develop the VAT changes in such a way that they can be slotted in at the last moment.

In summary

So, in summary, the first thing to do is identify the operational areas and IT systems likely to be affected by this change and establish your contractual positions.  Secondly, you should take appropriate professional advice - there is no substitute for this.  Thirdly, you need to be engaging already with your software development partners on what’s involved.  Once you’ve taken these initial actions, you should then be in a position to put together and implement your EU VAT action plan."

This article has been prepared for the ALPSP by PKF Littlejohn LLP, the developers of AVATAR, the publishing management software system for book and journal publishers.  It has been prepared as a general guide.  No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher.  For specific advice please contact PKF Littlejohn LLP’s tax department at tax@pkf-littlejohn.com.

PKF Littlejohn is a member of the PKF International Limited network of legally independent firms and does not accept any responsibility or liability for the actions or inactions on the part of any other individual member or correspondent firm or firms.

Further information is available on the European Union website and HMRC website in the UK.

New Year, New EU VAT Regulation Change Part 1: how will this affect publishers - a summary of priority actions

On Thursday 1 January 2015 new EU VAT regulations came into force on sales of digital content to consumers in Europe with far reaching implications for publishers. Ian Singer from PKF Littlejohn LLP writes in this two part guest post about the urgent priority actions you need to take.

"It is clear that the majority of EU-based publishers will be affected, whether directly or indirectly, by the new rules relating to charging VAT within the EU for digital products which came into effect yesterday.  In the past, the UK publishing industry has been largely shielded from having to deal with the complexities of VAT, primarily because hard-copy books, journals and educational materials are zero-rated.  However, with the explosion of digital content and the corresponding VAT implications, many UK publishers may well need to review their VAT position in any event as well as prepare for the increased complexities that have arrived.

Process issues you need to address as a priority

With regard to the new rules, you will obviously first need to work out if you will be directly affected, and if so, how.  The key factor here is to determine who actually makes the sale to the ultimate purchaser:

• Publishers and sales agents will first need to identify all sales channels for digital products.
• For each of these sales channels. you will need to confirm where the VAT liability arises, and whether there is any VAT due.  For example with open access there may be no VAT liability in the first place if access is genuinely free of charge.
• You will need to establish the contractual position in relation to each sales channel, which may be different depending on whether you are selling through Amazon, a subscriptions agency or through your own website, for example.

Where ebooks are sold through an ebook vendor such as Amazon or journals are sold via a subscriptions agency, it is usually assumed that the ebook vendor or agency is acting in their own name on behalf of the publisher.

In practice, however, publishers and sales agents such as Amazon need to be aware of the terms of the contractual arrangement between the three parties potentially involved, namely publisher, distributor and consumer, and they will also need to be aware of the respective nature of the roles played by each of them.

So, as publishers, you will need to establish precisely what the contractual position is with your distributor/s, and should not assume anything.  Furthermore, you should also consider who the consumer thinks they are purchasing from as this may override the contractual position in the eyes of the tax authorities.

In the same way, you shouldn't assume that the Mini One Stop Shop scheme (MOSS), the simplified mechanism for registering once and paying once rather than having to register and pay separately in each jurisdiction, is a one size fits all solution preferable in every situation.

On the face of it MOSS is the obvious choice, being an attractive alternative to registering in up to 28 Countries. However, there will be occasions where it might not be appropriate and separate registration would be preferable: for example, where a publisher also sells goods and other services or significant VAT is incurred in other countries.

But non-EU publishers currently operating under the VAT on E-Services (VoES) scheme introduced in 2003 will also be caught by the changes and will have to re-register under the non-Union VAT MOSS scheme from 1 January 2015 as VoES registrations will be cancelled with effect from 31 December 2014.

As a matter of priority, publishers should also be tackling relevant systems and procedure issues before the January 2015 changes take place, especially if they are not selling e-services solely through a platform such as Amazon. These include:

• establishing how you confirm purchasers' locations
• deciding whether you are going to charge a single retail price, for example for sales to customers in the Euro zone, or whether your retail prices should vary to take into account purchasers' locations. You will need to bear in mind that, if you opt for a single price method, it will be your responsibility to advise platforms such as Amazon what the net price and VAT amounts are for each jurisdiction.
• reviewing and even renegotiating sales contracts, where the parties involved wish to protect their own positions.

You will need to identify the implications of your choices and ensure that you have understood the full impact.  For example, let's look at an illustration involving sales to Luxembourg, the UK and Hungary: if you decide to charge the same retail price in each country, the different VAT rates will mean that, although the consumer is paying the same amount, the net receipts will differ significantly. You may wish to take account of this variable outcome in your sales and royalty contracts."

The second post will cover the systems issues that you need to address as a priority.

This article has been prepared for the ALPSP by PKF Littlejohn LLP, the developers of AVATAR, the publishing management software system for book and journal publishers.  It has been prepared as a general guide.  No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication can be accepted by the author or publisher.  For specific advice please contact PKF Littlejohn LLP’s tax department at tax@pkf-littlejohn.com.

PKF Littlejohn is a member of the PKF International Limited network of legally independent firms and does not accept any responsibility or liability for the actions or inactions on the part of any other individual member or correspondent firm or firms.

Further information is available on the European Union website and HMRC website in the UK. Read the Part 2 post here.