MT Open Press
2026 Library Publishing Showcase Week: Publications and Programs / Cost Savings
The MT Open Press is a publishing imprint of the James E. Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University. It is a hybrid publisher with no author-facing charges. The MT Open Press publishes every book as open access and offers print-on-demand formats for epub, paperback, or hardcover versions. They publish scholarly, creative, and educational works from the MTSU community and region.
MT Open Press has published five books since 2023. Collectively, there have been 17,500 full-text downloads of the OA versions (PDF) and 161 print-on-demand purchases (epub, paperback, or hardcover). Reviewer quotes are used with permission and demonstrate book quality, which helps increase marketability and impacts the reputation of the press and its publishing operations. Anecdotal feedback about their library publishing values (transparency, community, quality, capacity) has impacted how the community responds to our books, program, and process, increasing press inquiries and author submissions. Some of their published books are also used in the classroom and have been the focal point of conference presentations by our authors, which impact their professional development or tenure/promotion portfolios.
While traditional university presses and commercial publishers select what they publish based on the potential market, an open press or library publisher can leverage campus expertise, server space, and open source software to provide access to educational or scholarly content that might not otherwise be available. Other benefits include author support, copyright remaining with the creator, quality review and editorial services at no cost to the author, shorter publishing lifecycle than traditional publishers, persistent identifiers (DOI, ISBN) and Creative Commons licenses to increase access and recognition of the work, attribution and credit printed in each book for paid and volunteer contributors (e.g., reviewers, proofreaders, editors, designers, accessibility testers, administrative services, etc.), and preservation and indexing practices that increase sustainability and discoverability. All editing, design, layout, and marketing are done in-house with feedback from the author, reflecting an intentionally transparent publishing operation. Read more about the MT Open Press’ publishing principles and philosophy here.