Submitted by Williamp (not verified) on January 23, 2009 - 7:44am.
Sales people but especially publishers have a vested interest in perpetuating their lies and phony reasons for high book prices. The standard one is: the high cost of production and the cost of the authors. They even go so far as persuading some colleges to present a complete (but phony) breakdown of the pricing structure on their bookstore's web site. Unwary student and their parents resignedly accept this hoax of an explanation as fact.
Nothing could be further from the truth as it appears that US college text books can be purchased brand new for less than the price of used text books at US college book stores at www.amazon.co.uk for example.
The same is true of college bookstores in Asia who do NOT pirate US text books but acquire them directly from actual US publishers at SUBSTANTIALLY reduced prices. The operative line her is that books are sold to those stores at "prices keyed to the local market."
Recession or not, damn the poor student seems to be the motto of the publishing cartel which operates much the same way as the oil cartel: hellbent on screwing US customers out of every penny they own and they will do it for as long as the ignorant sheeple continue to buy. The obscene profits in textbook markup should truly be regulated by government. I don't normally advocate government regulation on everything but since it affects EVERY college student and government controls a significant portion of education, it should also control out-of-control and rogue publishers. There is absolutely no need to reprint quality hard-bound books whose contents do not change every two years. Math and history books come to mind, for example. But as long as college professors have the sole reign on selecting college books for their students (for which these instructors never have to pay themselves) rather than the heads of faculty, the bewildering array of different books dealing with the same subject will remain. As will the rip-off pricing scheme.
Textbook pricing is a complete scam!
Sales people but especially publishers have a vested interest in perpetuating their lies and phony reasons for high book prices. The standard one is: the high cost of production and the cost of the authors. They even go so far as persuading some colleges to present a complete (but phony) breakdown of the pricing structure on their bookstore's web site. Unwary student and their parents resignedly accept this hoax of an explanation as fact.
Nothing could be further from the truth as it appears that US college text books can be purchased brand new for less than the price of used text books at US college book stores at www.amazon.co.uk for example.
The same is true of college bookstores in Asia who do NOT pirate US text books but acquire them directly from actual US publishers at SUBSTANTIALLY reduced prices. The operative line her is that books are sold to those stores at "prices keyed to the local market."
Recession or not, damn the poor student seems to be the motto of the publishing cartel which operates much the same way as the oil cartel: hellbent on screwing US customers out of every penny they own and they will do it for as long as the ignorant sheeple continue to buy. The obscene profits in textbook markup should truly be regulated by government. I don't normally advocate government regulation on everything but since it affects EVERY college student and government controls a significant portion of education, it should also control out-of-control and rogue publishers. There is absolutely no need to reprint quality hard-bound books whose contents do not change every two years. Math and history books come to mind, for example. But as long as college professors have the sole reign on selecting college books for their students (for which these instructors never have to pay themselves) rather than the heads of faculty, the bewildering array of different books dealing with the same subject will remain. As will the rip-off pricing scheme.