4 ms·

I spent a little time working at Pearson on a textbook project, and yeah, they're pretty profitable, but the up-front costs are enormous. The production budget

I spent a little time working at Pearson on a textbook project, and yeah, they're pretty profitable, but the up-front costs are enormous. The production budget for the biology book I worked on was $10 million. And that was for a book that would be widely used at the high-school level. For a math book like this, I'd guess they spent more like a million getting it done. I wouldn't be surprised if it was $50-100K just for the typesetting.

digler999 10y ago
> The production budget for the biology book I worked on was $10 million Most of that probably went to lobbying public school district administrators to uses Pearson's edition. you know, "greasing the wheels".
tzs 10y ago
There is something more than just high production costs going on, though, for math books. Consider Apostol's "Calculus". Volume I new is $150-270 on Amazon. Volume II new is $160-270. These were first published around 1961. A second edition of Volume I was published in 1967, and a second edition of Volume II in 1969. There have been no further editions. The schools that use Apostol today are still using those late '60s second editions. They were about $20 per volume when I bought them in 1977, which is equivalent to about $80 per volume in today's money.
- jcranmer 10y ago
  I estimate the "fair" price of a textbook to be around $50-80; math (particularly calculus) is a textbook price I consider to be more naturally expensive, since they tend to cover more material. Your estimation of decades-old textbooks costing about $80 in today's money seems to vindicate that viewpoint.
- Finnucane 10y ago
  A book that cost $20 in 1977 and was made to the same standards today--some paper and binding quality, etc.--would probably have to cost at least $100 today retail. Unfortunately, costs for paper and printing have outpaced inflation generally. Most trade books now are printed very cheaply--the paper and binding are crap.
impendia 10y ago
You've gotten me extremely curious. How did they manage to spend $10 million?
- gech 10y ago
  Transparency from business, transparency from govt, is a future we can aim for
w22116972 10y ago
This book for "International Edition" costs roughly $35 in Asia. ($35 vs. $280) So I don't believe the reason for "the production budget". These "International Edition" usually marked by something "Not allowed in USA" slogan.

digler999 10y ago

> The production budget for the biology book I worked on was $10 million Most of that probably went to lobbying public school district administrators to uses Pearson's edition. you know, "greasing the wheels".

tzs 10y ago

There is something more than just high production costs going on, though, for math books. Consider Apostol's "Calculus". Volume I new is $150-270 on Amazon. Volume II new is $160-270. These were first published around 1961. A second edition of Volume I was published in 1967, and a second edition of Volume II in 1969. There have been no further editions. The schools that use Apostol today are still using those late '60s second editions. They were about $20 per volume when I bought them in 1977, which is equivalent to about $80 per volume in today's money.

jcranmer 10y ago
I estimate the "fair" price of a textbook to be around $50-80; math (particularly calculus) is a textbook price I consider to be more naturally expensive, since they tend to cover more material. Your estimation of decades-old textbooks costing about $80 in today's money seems to vindicate that viewpoint.
Finnucane 10y ago
A book that cost $20 in 1977 and was made to the same standards today--some paper and binding quality, etc.--would probably have to cost at least $100 today retail. Unfortunately, costs for paper and printing have outpaced inflation generally. Most trade books now are printed very cheaply--the paper and binding are crap.

impendia 10y ago

You've gotten me extremely curious. How did they manage to spend $10 million?

gech 10y ago
Transparency from business, transparency from govt, is a future we can aim for

w22116972 10y ago

This book for "International Edition" costs roughly $35 in Asia. ($35 vs. $280) So I don't believe the reason for "the production budget". These "International Edition" usually marked by something "Not allowed in USA" slogan.