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- Path: sparky!uunet!uvaarpa!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UGA.BITNET!FDANE
- Message-ID: <STAT-L%93012815305704@VM1.MCGILL.CA>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.stat-l
- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 15:23:00 EST
- Sender: STATISTICAL CONSULTING <STAT-L@MCGILL1.BITNET>
- From: Frank Dane <FDANE@UGA.BITNET>
- Subject: Re: Price of textbooks
- In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 28 Jan 1993 12:34:53 -0500 from <pat@PO.CWRU.EDU>
- Lines: 25
-
- As somewhat of an insider (i.e. an author) I can provide some clarification
- of the pricing differential between for-profit and not-for-profit
- publishers and similar issues raised by Paul A. Thompson.
-
- Some books are more expensive to print; generally, more graphics mean
- greater printing expense. Similarly, color adds to the cost of a
- book. However, I believe the major influence of the retail price of
- a textbook is the expected number of copies sold. greater volume
- enables the publisher to set asmaller retail price. Yet another factor,
- but definitely less influential, is whether the author has a royalty
- or one-time-payment arrangement; royalties result in higher retail
- prices.
-
- almotforgot, textbooks tend to be slightly higher because the library
- market for them is almost an empty set. Professional books, however,
- arelikelyto produce a sizablenumber of library sales, so their market
- is, at times, larger than themarket for a textbook in an upper-division
- undergrduate or a graduate course.
-
- Dr. Francis C. Dane, Associate Professor and Chair
- Department of Psychology, Mercer University
- Macon, GA 31207-0001 USA
- Bitnet: FDANE@UGA Internet: FDANE@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
- Tel: (912) 752-2972
- Fax: (912) 752-2108
-