Public occasion

I don't know that I've ever read much on the scholarly press and academic publishers. It does seem logical to coordinate the publication of academic texts through the institutions since they have the author academics and the body most likely to take an active interest in their work and make the purchase.

I know when I was studying, there were certain texts that were compulsory for that course or subject and others that were "good to have" (rather than waiting to take one of the three or four copies out of the uni library). OpenMind's page on Charles Taylor went down and came back up just as I was readying to write this follow-up post so there too is the advantage of owning a hard copy when there's a deadline looming.

The publishers handling Taylor's work fit the profile: Belknap Press, the larger Harvard University Press; Oxford University Press, Acumen Press and Princeton University Press
I can see the argument forming in people's heads: this rarified environment skews the pitch; the university is bound to publish work by its luminaries and according to the disciplines it teaches, and there is a controlled readership. A professor not only has the books they produce according to their area of interest, published; their tenure ensures that they continue to earn a living regardless of how well those books sell, and the publishers are funded by the institution so it doesn't overly affect them either.

II

If I wanted to know why it was that Dad taught me to use a .22 and let me go hunting by myself once I'd learned, but didn't extend this to the more powerful .303 or a shotgun, I would have been best placed to ask him last year but I was too busy asking the pertinent questions about his history.
This would be where a reference or non-fiction work on firearms and children or access to firearms in Australia might fill in some gaps. If a publisher isn't in-house and/or doesn't have a ready market, they have to trust that there will be the readership. This explains why there's a common author complaint about having their manuscript rejected. It may be that the publisher considers that novel from a first person perspective of a boy out in the bush making up stories in his head is both a good idea and well written but just doesn't think there will the interest to recoup their investment. A short story taking place around a 'wood heap' has to likewise negotiate themes - particularly, how will it fit in a collection?