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Originally Posted by Dazrin
Why not? One of the nice things about physics is that it doesn't change.
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So, Scientific American should stop publishing monthly and become an annual magazine, then?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dazrin
By locking down those books (and similar 100-200 level textbooks) the strain of paying for textbooks could be greatly reduced for many students.
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Well....
On one hand, stretching out intro level textbooks to, say, update every 4 years instead of 2 would help somewhat. It would reduce selected costs and extend the lifespan of the used market. Great, right?
However, the latter in turn may be counter-productive. It will still cost a significant amount to produce that new textbook every 4 years; the publishers realize they'll make the most money in the first year, and sales will drop off significantly in subsequent years as students resell the books.
As such, the publishers may decide to actually charge
more for new, because they know the book will produce lower revenues in subsequent years.
To me, the best fixes I've heard so far are including textbook costs in tuition. This offers several benefits:
- It ends the "penny wise, pound foolish" error
- It encourages the school to keep costs down, because they're basically paying for the books now
- It may be easier to finance the book costs, since it will be included in tuition
However, in the same way that I don't believe this issue has one single cause, I don't believe it will have one single (let alone simple) fix.