Quote:
Originally Posted by MovieBird
It is absolutely unconscionable for undergraduate texts to cost as much as they do. Case in point:
Fundamentals of Aerodynamics
$186.19 for the 5th edition. I don't remember the authors for my chemistry text, but that one came out with a new edition every single year. For a basic text that has been common knowledge for at least 100 years.
It is simply ethically wrong in my eyes to charge undergraduate students this much for a required text, particularly when viewed as one of four to five texts needed for that term. |
As a former textbook author myself, I completely understand your viewpoint. The issue with textbooks is that:
1. They are EXTREMELY expensive to publish.
2. They have a VERY limited market.
Each copy that's sold therefore has to fund a large proportion of the production costs.
Sales of 5000 copies of a fiction book would be regarded as a miserable failure. Sales of 5000 copies of a textbook would be a major success.
That's why - in my student days, at least - many people bought their textbooks 2nd hand.