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Re: Textbook prescribers of the world arise!

Unfortunately, I believe this is the price we pay for living in a
capatilistic, free-enterprise system. The book publishers and authors have
discovered a way to maximize their profits and take advantage of it.

In a way, textbooks are a lot like automobiles, each new edition has a few
(sometimes very few) new gimmicks and most often new styling. Over time,
some real improvements do get incorporated (ABS, electronic ignitions, Air
Bags, etc. in cars), (a wider range of problems, difficulty ratings,
refined and/or corrected text, addition of computer exercises, etc. in
textbooks). Yes, you can usually skip an edition without much loss, and
yes many of us get 'nostalgic' for the old tried and true--our 1960s texts
or a 1956 Chevy, but in truth, going back to the '56 Chevy isn't all that
great in terms of performance, maintenance, and comfort and I would suggest
such is the same with 'old-style' texts.

Of course there are a few of us still driving our '56 Chevys and using our
50-60s texts, but this is simply not for the masses. A few companies tried
to hold the line--look at VW and the 'bug' (but also look at what shape
that company is in today). Anyway--it may help a little to complain to the
publishers about this problem, but don't hold your breath that any real
change will occur--the golden goose is doing quite well!

Rick

----------
At 03:10 PM 10-01-97 -0800, palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer) wrote:

Some of us mean spirited cynical types believe that new editions
of poor textbooks are published solely because the publishers
want to soak a new generation of students and they cannot do
that if used books are readily available.
...
I urge you to confront this situation as I do. I don't use the
textbook's problems at all; I assign problems separately. It is
more work than simply spewing out a string of numbers, but if I
do that then the students can use older editions of the text or
even other texts instead of buying a new one.
...
Perhaps there is some niche market out there of
ethical professors who do care what their students have to pay
for their books. Hello? Anyone else out there feel that way?

Leigh