Xref: utzoo sci.math:4973 sci.physics:4994 comp.edu:1475
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!ames!killer!elg
From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green)
Newsgroups: sci.math,sci.physics,comp.edu
Subject: Re: the high cost of text books!
Message-ID: <6304@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>
Date: 3 Dec 88 01:09:04 GMT
References: <278@heurikon.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 43

in article <278@heurikon.UUCP>, gtaylor@heurikon.UUCP (Ik betwijfel 't....) says:
> fantastic salaries is the relatively recent change in the rules for
> inventory. My experience has been that it's been monumentally to blame
> for driving the cost of some texts through the roof.

Not only has it been to blame for driving the cost of textbooks
through the roof, it has also reduced backlists throughout the
publishing industry to near ZILCH. Books appear on the shelves, spend
their 3 weeks in the limelight, and then are destroyed and written off
as a loss -- that's the ONLY way to get them written off.
The same thing also has happened in many other industries, e.g.
railroads are ripping up tracks left and right because of tax laws
that make it cheaper to destroy than to maintain.

> Of course, there was something of an outcry among a number of us back
> when the rules went into effect, claiming that this would have a major
> impact on the price and availability of everything except for Tom
> Clancy and Jacqueline (and, I suppose, Gardner's History of Art)
> Collins. The great sadness of all this for me is that I guess I was
> righter than I thought.

See Don Lancaster's monthly columns in Computer Shopper, which often
laments the situation (he had to resort to self-publication of his
older books... since they were not "best sellers", and were of a
hobbiest rather than academic nature, nobody was interested in
carrying them on the shelves for more than 6 weeks).

> One final note and essay questions: Have any of you budding analysts
> looked into the average profit margins of the currently constituted
> publishing market? 

Low. Real low. Even for academic books -- your local bookstore gets a
VERY small percentage of that cover price. The reasoning of the
publisher is, "they have a guaranteed market and sell hundreds of the
things, so they don't need a big margin". This also means that you
will not find books intended for academic use in a normal bookstore --
regular bookstores won't tolerate such tight margins.

--
Eric Lee Green    ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg
          Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 Lafayette, LA 70509              
"We have treatments for disturbed persons, Nicholas. But, at least for
the moment, we have no treatment for disturbing persons." -- Dr. Island