| Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
| [Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
It is the cost of setup, especially for the very large presses used******************************************************
for book publishing. I used to work in a small paper with a small
press and it took hours just to get ready to print. Scale up to a
very large operation and the labor costs should increase accordingly.
In that case, it is much more effective to amortize the cost over
100,000 copies than only 1000.
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
Paul J. Camp "The Beauty of the Universe
Assistant Professor of Physics consists not only of unity
Coastal Carolina University in variety but also of
Conway, SC 29528 variety in unity.
pjcamp@coastal.edu --Umberto Eco
pjcamp@postoffice.worldnet.att.net The Name of the Rose
(803)349-2227
fax: (803)349-2926