I went back and forth with Springer about publishing my book (Essentials of Metaheuristics). It was a completed, edited, typeset, and ready to go volume, and my rep really wanted it, but couldn't convince her higher-ups of the one requirement I had: that I retain copyright on electronic copies. The reason was that I intended to release new versions of the book once every two months or so, constantly modifying and updating the book, and didn't want to go through the hassle of Springer approval for new editions every month.

This was of course a non-starter. Springer believes that in the coming years it will make nearly all of its money on electronic volumes. Heck, they'd be glad to give me the rights to the bound volumes, but no way will they release the electronic volumes.

So I put out electronic versions for free and bound volumes for people who want to buy them at minimal cost through Lulu. It's been a moderate success in a very narrow field: maybe about 6000 downloads a year.