IU Press launches new digital shorts imprint

Today, Indiana University Press launched a new digital imprint, INshort, which will publish short e-content on contemporary and historical issues and provide discerning readers with short, engaging views of important and compelling topics in multiple formats. Titles in the series will feature original content from award-winning authors and will also showcase carefully selected excerpts from previously published IU Press books and journals.

Women in American Popular Music, by S. Kay Hoke, is a chapter from the edited volume Women and Music: A History, featuring composers, performers, patrons, musical contexts and an expanded view of women's contributions to music in the 20th century.

Patterns of War—World War II, by Larry H. Addington, is taken from his second edition of The Patterns of War since the Eighteenth Century and is an excellent introduction for students and general readers on the evolution of warfare during World War II.

“We chose to launch our INshort series with titles in music and military history because these are two of the most prominent areas in which IU Press publishes, and because our military history and music titles have traditionally done well for us as e-books,” said Kate Caras, Director of Electronic and Serials Publishing.

Titles planned for next season are on women in jazz and on Abraham Lincoln. Future plans for the imprint include the release of at least four shorts a year in the same wide spectrum of subject areas in which IU Press currently publishes.

“We’ve launched our INshort effort with the repurposing of previously published materials and with the goal of adding, in the very near future, original essays on topics of immediate interest,” said Caras. “We expect to receive the manuscript of our first original essay—on Martin Luther King and race in America in the age of Obama—early next calendar year.”

INshorts are available for purchase through all major e-book retailers and the IU Press website. The first two titles retail for $2.99 and $4.99.

“It is increasingly clear that the digital environment is the inevitable future of scholarly publishing. If we are to remain successful, we must be more responsive to the demands of our market and take advantage of the promises of these technologies,” said Caras. “Our INshort series is an attempt to do ‘right-size publishing’ in answer to our market’s current interest in online short-form content. It is the beginning of what I hope is a shift in our thinking about how we can use technology more effectively for the benefit of our readers.”