From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <0651a9d5ba7ce984ef91003240314335@bellsouth.net>
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:01:40 -0500
From: blstuart@bellsouth.net
In-Reply-To: <3e1162e60910131805t78687174n1e084aff9d895736@mail.gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 85ef5836-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

>> > Just got mine from bookbyte123 and it really is in a brand new condition
>> > and only for $10!
>> >
>>
>> I know you said you bought yours for $10, but why is the book $101.60 in
>> the
>> first place?
>>
>
> Why is any college textbook ridiculously priced?

I'm just the author so I can't speak for the publisher or even relate
everything that's part of it, but I have learned a few bit of the
puzzle.  I'm pretty sure I'm correct in saying that $10 is less than
the publisher's cost of manufacture, storage and distribution.
I can also say that the distribution channels do have a decent
profit on it.  You'll notice that the $101 is already discounted
over list.  And channels like Amazon are actually cheaper to
work with than colleges.  There's an extra big cost when it comes
to colleges.  There are over 1000 computer science faculty
which might have an interest in a book like this.  One of the
best avenues of getting adopted is the faculty desk copy.  So
a pretty good fraction of the first print run went out as free
copies.  Plus there are a number of people who represent the
publisher to faculty, and of course these people are part of
the cost.  Finally, the college market is a very small one compared
to most other markets.  By way of comparison, the last Harry
Potter book had about 4000 times the number of copies on
its first printing as mine.  So obviously, textbooks have a lot
less economy of scale.

As I said, I'm only the author, so I don't have all the numbers
to these things, but after being a little closer to the process,
I understand a little better where the cost comes from.  At the
same time, as the dad of a girl headed for college next year,
I would rather see textbooks be lower priced.

BLS