'Good books': is there a future for academic writing within the educational publishing industry?

This paper draws on questionnaire responses received (via e-mail) during the period 2002-2003 from senior commissioning editors located within seven of the major UK publishing outlets. Drawing on the analytical framework of an earlier study by Nixon (1999), it focuses on the mediation of educational studies by market forces operating within and upon the educational publishing industry. More specifically it explores issues relating to the construction of readership, authorship and editorship within that force field of market pressures. Central to the argument is the claim that, in its increasing exposure to market forces, the public space afforded by educational publishing is now highly restrictive. The paper concludes with a call for a sustained debate on the future of academic publishing in general, and educational publishing in particular.