Why do books cost so much?

me ^ | November 19, 2001 | Me

[JoeSchem]

Anyone else notice that the price of books is getting absurd? I mean, a paperback that sold for $.50 in the seventies will now go for $7 or $8. That's way out of line with the general inflation rate.

Then you've got the 'trade' paperbacks, which run to $14 on average. It's been a long time since I've bought a new hard cover, but I believe they're going for $25 on average.

It's the free market -- or is it? You would think that the Computer Revolution would drive down the cost of publication, but it seems to be going the other way!

[firebrand]

Yes, there are ways around the high cost of books. There are people with tables of used books on Broadway, and they sell every paperback for a dollar and every hardcover for two dollars, no matter what they are. Also, I just bought a bunch of Elmore Leonards on abebooks for 10 cents to 25 cents each (of course the shipping was $12, LOL).

[realpatriot71]

$100 college textbook

Are you getting that used? :-)

I haven't spent less than $120 on a book in some time.

[Antoninus]

I was looking for a set of the Narnia series for my son...$55! I'm just not paying that, and I'm surprised that people do.

Heck, you should be able to get a very nice set of the Narnia series for much less than that in a used bookstore... (did I just say that???)

[Carry_Okie]

My book cost $6 to print for a 5,000 copy run, $5 to mail and perhaps twice that to sell. Development and research costs exceeded $30,000. Then there was the patent at another $8,000. I took three years off work and blew $250,000 in lost income to write it working an average of 60-90 hours, six days a week (probably understating that). That's a total of over three hundred grand.

What they are getting is a transformational book that may be of historic import (and it's pretty too :). If people think that the home-delivered cost of $35 is too expensive for my 450 page paperback with 350 sources they can go stew in ignorance wishing things were different. It's cheaper than a couple of tanks of gas.

[farmfriend]

Did you see Jeff Heads reply. I think you both nailed that one to the wall pretty good. I thought your book was worth it as you surely know by now.

[ladyinred]

They cost that much because we pay it! A hardback today can cost from about $27 to $30. If you have Costco, they get some of the new releases and the price is about half or less. I try to buy them there, but if it is something I really want, like Barbara Olson's book, I pay full price.
I treasure books, reread a lot of them, and love to read so much, that I will pay the price.

[ladyinred]

Theaters make their profits on the snack bar, not the tickets. The prices they charge for a coke are just beyond the pale, as it is one of their cheapest purchases. I managed a sandwich shop with a soda machine, trust me, a fountain drink is almost all profit.

[Carry_Okie]

Most people don't realize that publishers also require new authors to carry much of the cost of promotion. I have twenty grand budgeted for that in travel, mailings, phone and materials, overheads, graphic aids, etc. Although I am covering most of my current costs, I am definitely NOT making money, but then, that wasn't the point of the effort. I have to rely upon word of mouth. The good news is that it is starting to happen and I am getting raves from some serious people.

All that said, I can agree that the power of desktop publishing and graphics and Internet promotion and propagation is such that an individual can compete with a publisher. An added benefit with a hot potato like my book is that I don't have to deal with a stupid editor. One that would be capable of helping me with my book would have been unaffordable. Self-publishing was definitely the way to go.

[TopQuark]

I'm convinced that's a well thought out scam. Have you ever talked to faculty about this?

[Senator Pardek]

They're part of the conspiracy, I tells ya!

[TopQuark]

corporations saw books as commodities, and pursued the mass market, which worked against scholarly books, that in the end became more expensive to produce. The inflation rate on books seems to be similar to that of higher education. And the reason is that the instructor's or author's labor is hardly mechanizable. So, the relative price for professors and authors increases.

The second, I believe less significant, reason is the higher specialization in the society that results in smaller runs of each book. Again, the fixed costs do not keep up, and the price of books is rising faster than the average inflation. This is, of course, more visible with highly technical books.

THere is also category substitution: witness how many FReepers refer to the Web as "education." When one browses the net, one does not read.

[TopQuark]

OK, so you did not. COnspiracy is the theory for lazy people. One can just close his eyes and explain everything by someone's conspiracy.

Alternatively, one may try to pursue the truth. Which is why you are buying textbooks in the first place. You missed the point of your classes.

[rockfish59]

that's why i never buy new books. i think it's ridiculous.
but i did make an exception and bought a $65 book on photographer w. eugene smith.
he was in WW2 and at iwo jima, but later became a druggy & peacenik!
he was a great photographer tho', and that's what matters to me.

i just found a copy of 'a special valor' (the U.S. Marines in the pacific war) by richard wheeler at a local thrift store for 75 cents. it's a hardback w/cover. it pays to get down on your knees to scour those bottom shelves.

from ebay i got a copy of 'the muzzle loading cap lock rifle' by ned roberts for $25 w/dust cover,(shipping included).
barnes & noble had 30 copies and the cheapest one (because it didn't have a dust cover) was $70!! what a rip!
other prices varied from $90 to $450. gakkkk!!

[PJ-Comix]

Textbooks are the biggest scam going. Do you actually think Calculus today is any different than 10 years ago yet typically each edition of Calculus lasts only for about 3 years until a new edition, with minor changes comes out. Why the new editions? Calculus doesn't change from year to year. The reason is to make students buy more new books at inflated prices. And the reason why this scam works so great is that the students are captive consumers. They have NO CHOICE but to buy those textbooks.

[mathurine]

The production costs are significant, but the main costs come from heavy promotions, which include a cadre of textbook salespersons with an array of expense-account perks which are about as good as those any salespeople could offer, behind which is an actually rather good array of promotional features from computerized test banks to a rich variety of audio-visual supports to simple "payola" which accrues to the faculty member who adopts a textbook in the form of consultation fees, review honorariums, sometimes minor equipment, audio visual equipment, test banks and other amenities. A lot of this which comes in the package with a textbook adoption is good stuff and makes the course as presented better, in all probability, than any instructor could make it without the help. But it does drive up the cost, in the sense that the cost is entirely shifted to the product, and is recoverable only with the sale of the original edition, new. This, in turn, means that frequent revisions are necessary, not so much for scientific or philosphical reasons, but simply to keep the newest edition on the college bookstore shelf and thus to drive the used book prices down and hopefully drive a used book out because it does not contribute anything to the original publisher's bottom-line. The fact that a huge number of courses are taught by graduate students or relatively new teachers makes the kind of stuff that publishers offer to those who adopt their textbooks all the more attractive. Experienced teachers already have a lot of teaching "stuff" and are not so dependent on an outside source. Please bear in mind that the teachers could probably produce the AV and other material. They are smart enough and able enough, but they would need a great deal more preparation time and access to production equipment much better than they now have if they were to do it. In addition,this textbook and multi-media thing is embedded in school systems and it is slick. No teacher alone can make videos or CD's of classic experiments, for example, or even come close to the kind of quality that the textbook publishers can bring to a good supporting package for a course. But the fact will remain that you pay heavily in the bookstore for what helps make some of the classes you possibly cut sometimes rather interesting!

[Koblenz]

Books cost a lot because there aren't that many people in the country that buy books. Selling 100,000 copies of a book is almost always a great success, unless the advance was huge. But 100,000 copies in a land of 280 million is only 0.1% of all households. A few books -- Grisham, Clancy, those Oprah books -- sell a lot of copies, but most trade books sell relatively few copies.

So why do books cost so much? There are several reasons. First, the industry is structured to allow returns. If you're a publisher, and Barnes and Noble orders 20,000 copies, and then sells only 11,000, then they can return the other 9,000 to you for a full credit. Of course, this means that any successful publisher is going to get returns: books won't sell evenly across all bookstores, and if a publisher doesn't get returns, then the publisher has not distributed the book enough. This is unlike most industries: when Bic pens sells pens to Staples, Staples has to sell them. If they don't sell, then Staples will lower their price, but they won't ship them back to Bic for a complete credit. So when you buy a book, you're not just buying your book. You are also buying a remainder book somewhere that's made into toilet paper.

Despite the fact that retailers can send books back to the publisher, they get a 50% markup. It's not completely without merit: bookstores must inventory a huge number of items (a typical large chain store may have 25,000 different titles) and bookstores service a relatively small portion of the population. When stores discount, they get a smaller profit per book.

The production costs of a book are not high. For a book with a print run of over 50,000, production costs are likely around $2 - $3 per book, with the dust jacket. Author royalties are typically 15%. If a book is a $25 book, then the publisher gets the remaining 25%. This must cover the costs of editing, promotion, and distribution.

[Zon]

It's the free market -- or is it?

Not a free market anymore than the 2nd Amendment has not been violated.

[Calico]

Textbooks are the biggest scam going. Do you actually think Calculus today is any different than 10 years ago yet typically each edition of Calculus lasts only for about 3 years until a new edition, with minor changes comes out. Why the new editions? Calculus doesn't change from year to year. The reason is to make students buy more new books at inflated prices. And the reason why this scam works so great is that the students are captive consumers. They have NO CHOICE but to buy those textbooks.

My university rents textbooks to students. From what I gather, we don't pay an inflated rate for tuition either. How does that work?