>> > Just got mine from bookbyte123 and it really is in a brand new condition >> > and only for $10! >> > >> >> I know you said you bought yours for $10, but why is the book $101.60 in >> the >> first place? >> > > Why is any college textbook ridiculously priced?
I'm just the author so I can't speak for the publisher or even relate everything that's part of it, but I have learned a few bit of the puzzle. I'm pretty sure I'm correct in saying that $10 is less than the publisher's cost of manufacture, storage and distribution. I can also say that the distribution channels do have a decent profit on it. You'll notice that the $101 is already discounted over list. And channels like Amazon are actually cheaper to work with than colleges. There's an extra big cost when it comes to colleges. There are over 1000 computer science faculty which might have an interest in a book like this. One of the best avenues of getting adopted is the faculty desk copy. So a pretty good fraction of the first print run went out as free copies. Plus there are a number of people who represent the publisher to faculty, and of course these people are part of the cost. Finally, the college market is a very small one compared to most other markets. By way of comparison, the last Harry Potter book had about 4000 times the number of copies on its first printing as mine. So obviously, textbooks have a lot less economy of scale. As I said, I'm only the author, so I don't have all the numbers to these things, but after being a little closer to the process, I understand a little better where the cost comes from. At the same time, as the dad of a girl headed for college next year, I would rather see textbooks be lower priced. BLS
