NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/bit/listserv/statl/2477

Text File | 1993-01-29 | 1.7 KB | 37 lines

Comments: Gated by [e-mail]
Path: sparky!uunet!uvaarpa!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UGA.BITNET!FDANE
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.stat-l
Date:         Thu, 28 Jan 1993 15:23:00 EST
Sender:       STATISTICAL CONSULTING <[e-mail]>
From:         Frank Dane <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Re: Price of textbooks
In-Reply-To:  Message of Thu, 28 Jan 1993 12:34:53 -0500 from <[e-mail]>
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: [e-mail]
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]