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This seems like a failure on the part of the publishers to collect all the money they could. There are large fixed costs to produce the first textbook, but rel
by rflrob 15y ago
This seems like a failure on the part of the publishers to collect all the money they could. There are large fixed costs to produce the first textbook, but relatively low marginal costs to produce the next million. If the publishers had some sort of "budget-impacted schools" program, under which schools that would otherwise share textbooks among students could buy textbooks at a relatively small markup over marginal cost (as opposed to the full amortized total cost), then they'd still be making more, and the schools would get the benefit of the use of the textbooks.
- robrenaud 15y agoPrice discrimination is hard. I've heard of Americans picking up crappily bound but reasonable priced big name texts, like Norvig's AI book, or CLRS's algo book produced for India. 276 RS < $6 US http://www.dealsandcoupons.in/resources/3986-discount-book-Introduction.aspx http://www.dealsandcoupons.in/resources/3986-discount-book-I... The publishers don't want to risk shaking up big profits to sell near cost to the low end. If you sell cheaply to the poor schools, what prevents the poor schools from reselling the books to the rich schools 20 miles away?
- DanBC 15y agoA big green stamp on the side (closed pages) of the book saying "BUDGET BOOK PROGRAMME"?