I've been asked to write a 5,000-word chapter for a mostly academic imprint that I respect. I said sure, sounds fun, how much can you offer? The answer: we don't, uh, pay but let me get back to you. Then they got back to me: £100. A mini-thread.

I don't want to shame anyone involved, but I am genuinely baffled, so did some digging. The imprint's parent company last year made an operating profit of £218–on revenues of £560m! That is a healthy margin.

I suppose most companies would make such margins if they didn't pay for labor. But it seems an expected thing in academia that to publish is a public good, and academics have it cushy anyway, so why pay them extra for doing writing, their core job? Or something like that.

But nearly every university receives public subsidy, as does vast amounts of research. So the taxpayer pays the salaries and the research funding; private companies then take the result, add what value exactly?, and publish it to a 39% profit margin.

Everyone in this exchange seems to have thought this pretty normal until I politely said "huh?" Academics, publishing friends, what am I missing?