* [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems @ 2009-10-13 19:24 Roman Shaposhnik 2009-10-13 17:57 ` Jacob Todd 2009-10-13 21:36 ` Josh Wood 0 siblings, 2 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Roman Shaposhnik @ 2009-10-13 19:24 UTC (permalink / raw) To: 9fans 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. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-13 19:24 [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems Roman Shaposhnik @ 2009-10-13 17:57 ` Jacob Todd 2009-10-14 1:05 ` David Leimbach 2009-10-13 21:36 ` Josh Wood 1 sibling, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread From: Jacob Todd @ 2009-10-13 17:57 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs [-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 584 bytes --] 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! [-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 205 bytes --] ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-13 17:57 ` Jacob Todd @ 2009-10-14 1:05 ` David Leimbach 2009-10-14 1:50 ` Jason Catena 2009-10-14 4:01 ` blstuart 0 siblings, 2 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: David Leimbach @ 2009-10-14 1:05 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs [-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 752 bytes --] 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? [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 1305 bytes --] ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-14 1:05 ` David Leimbach @ 2009-10-14 1:50 ` Jason Catena 2009-10-14 4:01 ` blstuart 1 sibling, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Jason Catena @ 2009-10-14 1:50 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs >> 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. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-14 1:05 ` David Leimbach 2009-10-14 1:50 ` Jason Catena @ 2009-10-14 4:01 ` blstuart 2009-10-14 4:47 ` Roman Shaposhnik 1 sibling, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread From: blstuart @ 2009-10-14 4:01 UTC (permalink / raw) To: 9fans >> > 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 ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-14 4:01 ` blstuart @ 2009-10-14 4:47 ` Roman Shaposhnik 2009-10-14 5:11 ` blstuart 0 siblings, 1 reply; 8+ messages in thread From: Roman Shaposhnik @ 2009-10-14 4:47 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs 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. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-14 4:47 ` Roman Shaposhnik @ 2009-10-14 5:11 ` blstuart 0 siblings, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: blstuart @ 2009-10-14 5:11 UTC (permalink / raw) To: 9fans > 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 ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
* Re: [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems 2009-10-13 19:24 [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems Roman Shaposhnik 2009-10-13 17:57 ` Jacob Todd @ 2009-10-13 21:36 ` Josh Wood 1 sibling, 0 replies; 8+ messages in thread From: Josh Wood @ 2009-10-13 21:36 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs 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 ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 8+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2009-10-14 5:11 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 8+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2009-10-13 19:24 [9fans] Principles of Operating Systems Roman Shaposhnik 2009-10-13 17:57 ` Jacob Todd 2009-10-14 1:05 ` David Leimbach 2009-10-14 1:50 ` Jason Catena 2009-10-14 4:01 ` blstuart 2009-10-14 4:47 ` Roman Shaposhnik 2009-10-14 5:11 ` blstuart 2009-10-13 21:36 ` Josh Wood
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