Re: Consequences.

In article <ghre31$33g$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
rkshullat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

David Friedman <ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <ghqlso$jk4$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
wdstarr@xxxxxxxxx (William December Starr) wrote:

In article <ghp2o1$po7$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
rkshullat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx said:

I don't know that it covers the cost difference, but one source of
the increased price of text books is a much higher editorial cost
combined with a much lower print run than is usual with books.

I would be surprised if all of that, combined, contributed nearly
as much to the price tag as the "Because we can" factor.

-- wds

Which leaves the question of why they can--why that market is less price
sensitive than other parts of the book market. One possible answer is
that the textbook is chosen by the professor not by the students who pay
for it.

I'll have to ask my wife how she picks her textbooks. Knowing her, I'm
certain it wouldn't be solely on price. A disorganized, inaccurate,
poorly worded, incomplete textbook isn't a bargain no matter how
inexpensive it is.

True enough. The question is whether, between books of comparable
quality, price is an important consideration.

My impression is that what makes textbooks expensive isn't making them
organized et. al., it's multi-color illustrations and a variety of other
bells and whistles, sometimes useful but not in the sort of category you
were discussing.

On the other hand, one would think that professors would rather extract
money from students as tuition, which helps pay their salaries, rather
than as expensive textbooks, which pays the publishers.

This might be true if there were a connection between the two, but if
there is it's only the most tenuous. In my wife's case her pay is set
by the district and the only adjustment is due to how many credit hours
she teaches above base load. The only way book prices affect her
monetarily is if they are so expensive there aren't enough students left
for her class to "make".

I was thinking of the university as an institution. It tries to get
professors to do various things, and rewards them accordingly. From the
standpoint of the university, the lower the amount students have to
spend on textbooks the higher the tuition they will be willing to pay,
all else being equal.

Two other and related points... . Textbooks tend to be revised pretty
often, which lowers the print run and raises costs. It isn't clear to me
that that policy is justified--most of what is worth learning in any
field was known ten years earlier--but a lot of people seem to think it
is. And publishers give away a lot of free textbooks in the process of
trying top persuade professors to adopt them.

The free copies provide an easy way for an instructor to get a copy to
check out. Book publishers typically provide examination copies, but
the copy has to be returned unless it's either adopted for a class or paid
for by the instructor who ordered it.

Not in my experience. Where does your wife teach and at what level?

I have lots of examination copies of textbooks cluttering up my
bookshelves, most of which I've never really looked at.

--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of
_Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World_,
Cambridge University Press.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Consequences.
    ... the increased price of text books is a much higher editorial cost ... combined with a much lower print run than is usual with books. ... as much to the price tag as the "Because we can" factor. ... than as expensive textbooks, which pays the publishers. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: Wizards of the Coast pdf policy
    ... purchased the hard-copy books. ... pay $18. ... ALREADY the honor system. ... pay a reasonable price. ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
  • Re: [E]Spinoza Fans
    ... I HAVE been known to pay full price once in a while, ... books. ... Amazon and BN discount it and all proceeds go to a very worthy cause. ...
    (soc.culture.jewish.moderated)
  • Re: [E]Spinoza Fans
    ... I HAVE been known to pay full price once in a while, ... books. ... Amazon and BN discount it and all proceeds go to a very worthy cause. ...
    (soc.culture.jewish.moderated)
  • Re: Wizards of the Coast pdf policy
    ... purchased the hard-copy books. ... pay $18. ... ALREADY the honor system. ... pay a reasonable price. ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
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