E-book or print edition, or both?
Traditionally, scholarly books are published in print only. Authors grant exclusive rights of use to the publishers, that is, they themselves cannot use the publication for any other purpose.
As with scientific journals, a transformation process is also underway for books. Increasingly, scholarly books are now published primarily online open access and have a parallel printed edition that is sold in bookstores. However, there are also an increasing number of books that are published exclusively open access online as e-books.
Open-access books are published under free licenses that allow the general public to reuse the content. Publishers obtain simple (nonexclusive) rights of use for the publication, which allow authors to a) reuse the content of their publication themselves and b) grant other parties further rights of use. When signing the publishing agreement, please ensure that you do not grant exclusive usage rights, if possible.