Eh. The Texas Board of Ed's grip on school textbooks has been loosening for years. It used to be that printing small runs of books targeted to a specific market is too expensive or impossible, so a single large actor can effectively dictate the textbooks everybody else uses. Nowadays, with better printing technologies that can tailor a textbook for a specific school district, much less an entire state, that means that the Texas Board of Ed's stupid policies are limited only to a cone of stupid around Texas.

I've tried a textbook on the ipad. Doesn't work very well. Every time I switch pages, the highlighter pen I used doesn't match up anymore.

so does this mean that textbooks will get cheaper?

Weaver95: so does this mean that textbooks will get cheaper?

As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/saved probably $75 by going through Amazon than the school bookstore
//still have other books to buy

germ78: Weaver95: so does this mean that textbooks will get cheaper?

As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/saved probably $75 by going through Amazon than the school bookstore
//still have other books to buy

there is no reason for textbooks to be so expensive.

germ78: As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

Once spent 800 bucks on textbooks.

Weaver95: there is no reason for textbooks to be so expensive.

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

germ78: As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

So you're only taking one class this semester?

RexTalionis:

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

unless of course I can pirate myself a PDF copy and put it on my ipad.

Weaver95: RexTalionis:

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

unless of course I can pirate myself a PDF copy and put it on my ipad.

If you want, I suppose. I just tend to be one of those guys who'd buy it. I'm friends with a bunch of professors who write textbooks to supplement their income, so I don't pirate that kind of stuff (or, to be honest, any kind of stuff).

RexTalionis: Weaver95: there is no reason for textbooks to be so expensive.

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

What I hated at school, was when teachers would make you buy 5 books for the class, and then 3 of those books were books of which they were the author. And then you'd usually only use a couple chapters from each during the semester.

One teacher didn't even bother with a real book. He printed off the "book" at home, and you had to purchase it from a local copy place who was friends with the professor, who would photocopy the original for you and charge you $20. The book was maybe 70 double sided pages. The obvious way around it was to get friends to pool the money to buy a copy and then duplicate it on a copy machine yourself. But I'm sure he still sold several hundred that way every semester.

RexTalionis: Weaver95: RexTalionis:

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

unless of course I can pirate myself a PDF copy and put it on my ipad.

If you want, I suppose. I just tend to be one of those guys who'd buy it. I'm friends with a bunch of professors who write textbooks to supplement their income, so I don't pirate that kind of stuff (or, to be honest, any kind of stuff).

I don't blame the professors who write textbooks, i'm just annoyed at what I see as a protectionist niche market that refuses to adapt new technologies and deliver a quality product at lower cost to a wider market.

Weaver95: RexTalionis: Weaver95: RexTalionis:

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

unless of course I can pirate myself a PDF copy and put it on my ipad.

If you want, I suppose. I just tend to be one of those guys who'd buy it. I'm friends with a bunch of professors who write textbooks to supplement their income, so I don't pirate that kind of stuff (or, to be honest, any kind of stuff).

I don't blame the professors who write textbooks, i'm just annoyed at what I see as a protectionist niche market that refuses to adapt new technologies and deliver a quality product at lower cost to a wider market.

It's all relative, my friend. I used to work for a company that did the pre-press work for a couple of major textbook publishers. There are several teams of graphic artist, photographers, and materials that need to be created for the books. There is far more work goes into a text book than just one or two people.

And on the science text need to be upgraded every two years. History text books as well.

I_Am_Weasel: I've tried a textbook on the ipad. Doesn't work very well. Every time I switch pages, the highlighter pen I used doesn't match up anymore.

Don't even get me started about using WhiteOut.

Darth_Lukecash:
It's all relative, my friend. I used to work for a company that did the pre-press work for a couple of major textbook publishers. There are several teams of graphic artist, photographers, and materials that need to be created for the books. There is far more work goes into a text book than just one or two people.

And on the science text need to be upgraded every two years. History text books as well.

yeah, but you're kidding yourself if you don't think it can be done cheaper and more efficiently.

Weaver95: RexTalionis: Weaver95: RexTalionis:

Yes, there is. It's because the book publishers know you have no choice but to buy it.

unless of course I can pirate myself a PDF copy and put it on my ipad.

If you want, I suppose. I just tend to be one of those guys who'd buy it. I'm friends with a bunch of professors who write textbooks to supplement their income, so I don't pirate that kind of stuff (or, to be honest, any kind of stuff).

I don't blame the professors who write textbooks, i'm just annoyed at what I see as a protectionist niche market that refuses to adapt new technologies and deliver a quality product at lower cost to a wider market.

We're working on exactly that problem. Most of the professors I've talked to about the subject agree with you. We remember shelling out hundreds of dollars on books in grad school, and we didn't like it either.

Right now, I'm working on mine, which I plan to sell as an ebook for about 30 bucks (the current average for intro textbooks in my field is around 140.00), but it's not easy to do. The majority of the cost of the textbooks I've had to use in the past goes to licensing fees for use of images, and most of the rest goes to the publishers. Even a successful textbook usually only nets the author a couple hundred bucks a month.

There are ways to avoid paying licensing fees, e.g. by producing all of your own images, illustrations and photos, but it's not easy, and it's really time consuming.

Weaver95: germ78: Weaver95: so does this mean that textbooks will get cheaper?

As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/saved probably $75 by going through Amazon than the school bookstore
//still have other books to buy

there is no reason for textbooks to be so expensive.

Yes there is. You think executive bonuses grow on trees?

Weaver95: Darth_Lukecash:
It's all relative, my friend. I used to work for a company that did the pre-press work for a couple of major textbook publishers. There are several teams of graphic artist, photographers, and materials that need to be created for the books. There is far more work goes into a text book than just one or two people.

And on the science text need to be upgraded every two years. History text books as well.

yeah, but you're kidding yourself if you don't think it can be done cheaper and more efficiently.

Text books, however, are not a mass market. It's limited to students and educators. And not every school upgrades at the same time. So it's a rather small market.

With the digitizing of books, will result in more staff added to make videos, programming for interactive and animations. Trust me- you may pay more, but you are getting a lot better product than what your parents had.

/CSB
Throw in that we had to do a version for Texas...which was hilarious. I remember for a German textbook, I had to go and remove all of the alcohol bottles from a dinner table scene. And extend circus performers clothing to cover their "Unacceptable parts"

The coolest was working on a history book during the Bush/Clinton election. We had two timelines prepared. One showing all the "good" things that happen during Bush era if he won. The second showed all the "Bad" things that happened in case Clinton won.

/CSB

ShawnDoc: What I hated at school, was when teachers would make you buy 5 books for the class, and then 3 of those books were books of which they were the author.

THIS

Weaver95: so does this mean that textbooks will get cheaper?

You don't buy ebooks, do you?

RedPhoenix122: Weaver95: so does this mean that textbooks will get cheaper?

You don't buy ebooks, do you?

This. I'm amazed at how expensive ebooks are, compared to stuff like music that dropped dramatically once people got rid of physical media.
I guess ebooks never really had piracy to content with either, which probably had a lot to do with it.

serial_crusher: This. I'm amazed at how expensive ebooks are, compared to stuff like music that dropped dramatically once people got rid of physical media.

You can blame Apple for this. Amazon had been pushing for cheaper e-book prices, even selling e-books below their cost. When Apple entered the market, they introduced the "agency model" which allowed the publishers to set the selling price, and Apple just keeps a straight % of that selling price.

Amazon got in a war with publishers over this, and in the end, the publishers won and Amazon was forced to offer the "agency model" as well. All the major publishers switched over to it, so they now set the price. E-Book pricing doubled overnight, and in some cases tripled.

Luckily, there plenty of talented independent authors out there who offer their books at reasonable prices ($.99 to $5), but you're screwed if you want something off the beseller's list.

I_Am_Weasel: I've tried a textbook on the ipad. Doesn't work very well. Every time I switch pages, the highlighter pen I used doesn't match up anymore.

White People Problems.

I_Am_Weasel: I've tried a textbook on the ipad. Doesn't work very well. Every time I switch pages, the highlighter pen I used doesn't match up anymore.

Aaaaand I just got the joke.

^{/walks away in shame}

serial_crusher: This. I'm amazed at how expensive ebooks are, compared to stuff like music that dropped dramatically once people got rid of physical media.
I guess ebooks never really had piracy to content with either, which probably had a lot to do with it.

Sad part is how much you pay for a EReader, only to save jack-shiat on actually buying books.

ShawnDoc: What I hated at school, was when teachers would make you buy 5 books for the class, and then 3 of those books were books of which they were the author. And then you'd usually only use a couple chapters from each during the semester.

I never had this problem honestly. Am I the only one?

Weaver95: i'm just annoyed at what I see as a protectionist niche market that refuses to adapt new technologies and deliver a quality product at lower cost to a wider market.

The real asshole part is the PDFs are the same price. It doesn't bother me much because I'm not a fan of e-books and they are terrible for class reference. Hell of a lot easier to flip through a real book.

I don't think ebooks will ever replace paperbacks for programming and other technical books. Half the reason to buy them is to stick the book on your desk so your coworkers see it and get the impression that you're working hard at learning new stuff.

BullBearMS: They set a price cap at fifteen bucks a copy for textbooks. This is quite a significant savings.

By Grabthar's hammer!

serial_crusher: germ78: As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

So you're only taking one class this semester?

That's for 2 classes. I have 2 more that I still need to buy. Worse yet, this is for a local community college, not some big name school.

/in case you were thinking that community colleges were so much cheaper

germ78: serial_crusher: germ78: As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

So you're only taking one class this semester?

That's for 2 classes. I have 2 more that I still need to buy. Worse yet, this is for a local community college, not some big name school.

/in case you were thinking that community colleges were so much cheaper

Textbooks cost roughly the same...Tuition really is much cheaper though.

germ78: serial_crusher: germ78: As someone who just spent $200 on textbooks today, I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

So you're only taking one class this semester?

That's for 2 classes. I have 2 more that I still need to buy. Worse yet, this is for a local community college, not some big name school.

/in case you were thinking that community colleges were so much cheaper

I've paid less than $200 for my textbooks for this and last semester combined. They play nice at my grad school.

ShawnDoc: What I hated at school, was when teachers would make you buy 5 books for the class, and then 3 of those books were books of which they were the author. And then you'd usually only use a couple chapters from each during the semester.

Every single subject i've taken in my current degree are written (or co-written) by my lecturer. I'm currently spending $300+ a term, at three terms a year. It's ridiculous.