Re: Costs of textbooks

[Joe Heafner <heafnerj@VNET.NET>]

> From: Laurent Hodges <lhodges@IASTATE.EDU>
>
> The cost of textbooks is worrisome to me.  We had a lecturer plan to use
> one of the major textbooks, in the multi-paperback version, and the cost
> was quoted as nearly $200 (for students).  I stepped in and contacted the
> rep, saying we wouldn't adopt it at that price.  They eventually gave us a
> special deal, dropping the price by 1/3 - still expensive.
The text I'm using for my calc-based course, Matter & Interactions (Wiley, 2002) is, much to the authors' amazement, drastically overprices at about $60 per volume and there are two volumes. The authors supplied camera-ready copy and the volumes are softbound! This is nothing more than a sign of greed on the part of Wiley.

Publishers are just as much an obstacle to the adoption and use of innovative texts as anyone else. They won't push what they don't think will sell. At a conference about two years ago, one rep (not from Wiley, but another well-known publisher) told me that textbooks that stray from the status quo typically won't get picked up by a major publisher ONLY because they know it won't sell in great quantities. This is a disgrace. I see this as a big reason authors are hesitant to create truly innovative textbooks.




Cheers,
Joe

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