Re: textbook prices

[DSCHROEDER@cc.weber.edu]

Paul Camp says:

> I was told a number of years ago that textbook prices began to rise 
> very rapidly around 1980 due to changes in the tax code. According to 
> the story, the Reagan administration began taxing publishers on 
> inventory rather than sales so long (and economical) press runs were 
> dropped in favor of short runs and just in time deliveries. 

It's certainly true that publishers these days do relatively small
press runs--typically one or two thousand copies at a time for
upper-division physics texts.  But I don't see how this could 
significantly affect the cost:  even in these small volumes, the
cost of paper, printing, and binding ("ppb" as they call it)
is typically only about $3 (with some variation, I'm sure) per
copy.

-dan