From: hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Subject: Re: High Prices of Math Books. I am pissed.
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:15:16 GMT

In article <1993Jan09.202015.19777@eng.umd.edu> clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin) writes:

>In article <pete.03o4@bignode.equinox.gen.nz>, pete@bignode.equinox.gen.nz (Pete Moore) writes:

>>On the subject of textbook prices, may I join the rest of the non-Americans
>>on the net in saying: I wish our paperbacks were as inexpensive as the
>>hardbacks you Americans are complaining about.

>    I have heard (and seen) paperbacks sold in India (and possibly Taiwan)
>which are sold for a fraction of the cost in the US.   I suspect these
>countries have pretty lax copyright laws, and no one could really afford
>the equivalent of a thirty dollar American book in rupees, anyway.  The
>two combined means that companies that want to make any money on the book,
>have to sell it dirt cheap.   The paper quality is usually not quite as
>good though.

These are authorized copies, to be sold only in certain parts of the world.
The copyright laws allow this; it is strictly illegal for these books to
be brought into the US except as personal texts for a student from that
part of the world.  The publisher makes essentially nothing on them.

>    I suppose it might be possible to have professional societies attempt
>to sell books.   Assuming the mathematicians are the ones in control
>of their own professional societies, they could probably find ways of
>keeping the prices reasonable, and still get a decent royalty.

The American Mathematical Society publishes and sells books, usually
research monographs, etc.  The Mathematical Association of America
sells more expository books.  Their prices are very definitely not
much lower than those of the publishers.  I believe that this is also
true of books published by other scientific societies.

Part of the cost of books is the initial setup.  Another part is the
publicizing and promoting the books.  We must have at least several
hundred calculus books; the publishers spend money on letting people
know about the new books.  Another part of the cost is stocking and
filling orders; this probably comes to around $10/book or more, and 
I may even be too low by a considerable factor.  Publishers do not
encourage direct orders; their costs of filling such orders are 
comparable to the large discount they give booksellers.

A note on this type of cost: our university library, and many others,
get most of their books from distributors, who get large numbers of
copies of each new book from the publisher, and if the book seems to
meet the description of what the library wants, it gets sent there,
together with many others, including many from other publishers. 
The reduction in cost for doing things this way is enough to pay.

Do not conclude from what I am posting that I approve of the present
system.  But the costs of production setup, distribution, and advertizing,
including merely letting prople know that the book exists, are likely
to far exceed the cost of producing the copy of the book you buy.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@snap.stat.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet)  
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