Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewRlong
If you want someone to lay blame at the feet of, try the massive textbook industry that continually scams poor (literally) students. Change two paragraphs and you've got a "new edition" which is of course required for your class. The professors can't help but collude because of copyright laws.
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That's the mythology, all right. A shame it isn't true. Or certainly isn't universally true. My brother is the coauthor of a college psychology text. Every four or five years he works his butt off rewriting, reshaping, revamping his textbook according to what the publisher wants, what the teaching needs seem to be, and what the latest research shows. He would not take your characterization kindly at all.
On the e-side of the question, he reports his publisher (a major textbook publisher) to have no visible plan whatsoever for embracing e-publishing. He's not an ebook guy himself, so he doesn't worry about that very much. I keep suggesting that he, and they, ought to give it some thought.