Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[Jacob Todd]

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On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:24:17PM -0700, Roman Shaposhnik wrote:
> To all those who might have hesitated (for all the wrong reasons I might add)
> to buy this book before, now is an ideal time:
>      http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1418837695/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255461503&sr=8-1
> 
> Just got mine from bookbyte123 and it really is in a brand new condition
> and only for $10!
> 
> Thanks,
> Roman.
> 

I know you said you bought yours for $10, but why is the book $101.60 in the
first place?

-- 
Jake Todd
// If it isn't broke, tweak it!

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[9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[Roman Shaposhnik]

To all those who might have hesitated (for all the wrong reasons I might add)
to buy this book before, now is an ideal time:
     http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1418837695/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255461503&sr=8-1

Just got mine from bookbyte123 and it really is in a brand new condition
and only for $10!

Thanks,
Roman.

Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[Josh Wood]

On Oct 13, 2009, at 12:24 PM, Roman Shaposhnik wrote:

> To all those who might have hesitated (for all the wrong reasons I
> might add)
> to buy this book before, now is an ideal time:
>     http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1418837695/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255461503&sr=8-1

I'd imagine bookbyte123 @ amazon may well be http://bookbyte.com,
where I got Stuart's book (plastic-wrapped-new) for similar prices a
couple weeks back.

-Josh

Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[David Leimbach]

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On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Jacob Todd <jaketodd422@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 12:24:17PM -0700, Roman Shaposhnik wrote:
> > To all those who might have hesitated (for all the wrong reasons I might
> add)
> > to buy this book before, now is an ideal time:
> >
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1418837695/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255461503&sr=8-1
> >
> > Just got mine from bookbyte123 and it really is in a brand new condition
> > and only for $10!
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Roman.
> >
>
> I know you said you bought yours for $10, but why is the book $101.60 in
> the
> first place?
>
> --
> Jake Todd
> // If it isn't broke, tweak it!
>

Why is any college textbook ridiculously priced?

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Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[Jason Catena]

>> I know you said you bought yours for $10, but why is the book $101.60 in
>> the first place?
>>
>> Jake Todd
>
> Why is any college textbook ridiculously priced?

Supposedly captive audience, and a monopoly purveyor.  Usually only
the university bookstore sells the latest edition, which professors
are pressured to use.

Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[blstuart]

>> > 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

Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[Roman Shaposhnik]

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 9:01 PM,  <blstuart@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> 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.

Interesting! Now, since we are on this (completely off-) topic: do
these $10 sales generate any kind of royalties for you?

Thanks,
Roman.

Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems

[blstuart]

> On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 9:01 PM,  <blstuart@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>
>> 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.
>
> Interesting! Now, since we are on this (completely off-) topic: do
> these $10 sales generate any kind of royalties for you?

To be honest, I'm not sure.  It all depends on where the dealers
got them from.  Unfortunately, there's one way some copies
get into the discount market that no one in the industry likes.
When the free desk copies are sent to faculty, not all faculty
keep them.  Now, most of us will put the books we don't
need out for students, but there are book buyers who go around
from campus to campus buying these free copies from the
faculty.  Of course, they buy them for very little and then put
them into the discount network.  In those cases, there aren't
any royalties.  Of course, I'm as much a bargain hunter as
anyone else, so I've been known to buy from the least expensive
vendor as well.  If on the other hand they had at some point
been purchased from the publisher, then in principle, I do
get some.  How much depends on a whole list of the things
that includes the phase of the moon and the closing price
of Dutch East India stock.  It turns out there's about a factor
of 5 difference on the same book just depending on the channel
it goes through.  And that doesn't even count international
printings or translations.  So the bottom line is maybe, maybe
not.

BLS