3 ms·

> That's a very small effect. A professor doesn't make much money off of a single textbook- selling to one class wouldn't be worth the trouble of writing. Unle

by brazzy 14y ago

> That's a very small effect. A professor doesn't make much money off of a single textbook- selling to one class wouldn't be worth the trouble of writing. Unless you sell it to a new class (possibly multiple classes) every year. > Even revision (working with the editor) is aggravating. That assumes an editing process that isn't streamlined and automated towards the singular goal of making previous editions obsolete and forcing students to always buy the most recent one.

dhimes 14y ago
Unless you sell it to a new class (possibly multiple classes) every year. For what? $1K a year? Would you do it? I wouldn't. The money isn't there. That assumes an editing process that isn't streamlined and automated towards the singular goal of making previous editions obsolete and forcing students to always buy the most recent one. That's quite a conspiratorial stretch to think the authors do that. Think for a moment about what it would take to write a textbook that would be acceptable to a group of experts. You would be an expert in a very small part of the field. It would take you immense work and study to make sure you had the facts right on all of the parts for which you are not the world authority. That is really hard work. The three-year obsolescence plan is a publisher model, not an author model.
- dave5104 14y ago
  If I were a professor who wrote a textbook based on a class I teach, of course I'd make it the textbook I use and make everyone buy a copy. Chances are that the textbook's material closely matches what I actually want to teach in the class. Why wouldn't I want to use my own path through the material? No other textbook is going to match identically or synthesize the material in my way.
  - dhimes 14y ago
    I agree. So you would sell, assuming it was an introductory-course textbook for a popular class (best-case scenario), what- a few hundred copies? And that's under the conditions above. My mechanics teacher wrote our textbook. We had about 10 people in our class. How much money do you think he made? Even if a few other schools adopted it (a VERY difficult task unless you work on your network of friends- which doesn't always go over well in academia), we're talking small money. He could consult a few hours a year for an aerospace company or something and make a lot more. That's my point.
  - Evbn 14y ago
    Why not give the book away to students as part of their tuiton and earn your salary as a university professor?
    - nnnnnnnn 14y ago
      Because human beings generally have selfish interests. If you tell a person they may own and control a thing for profit, many will choose to do so. Unsurprisingly, this is a choice made by a large number of professors

by brazzy 14y ago

dhimes 14y ago

Unless you sell it to a new class (possibly multiple classes) every year. For what? $1K a year? Would you do it? I wouldn't. The money isn't there. That assumes an editing process that isn't streamlined and automated towards the singular goal of making previous editions obsolete and forcing students to always buy the most recent one. That's quite a conspiratorial stretch to think the authors do that. Think for a moment about what it would take to write a textbook that would be acceptable to a group of experts. You would be an expert in a very small part of the field. It would take you immense work and study to make sure you had the facts right on all of the parts for which you are not the world authority. That is really hard work. The three-year obsolescence plan is a publisher model, not an author model.

dave5104 14y ago
If I were a professor who wrote a textbook based on a class I teach, of course I'd make it the textbook I use and make everyone buy a copy. Chances are that the textbook's material closely matches what I actually want to teach in the class. Why wouldn't I want to use my own path through the material? No other textbook is going to match identically or synthesize the material in my way.
- dhimes 14y ago
  I agree. So you would sell, assuming it was an introductory-course textbook for a popular class (best-case scenario), what- a few hundred copies? And that's under the conditions above. My mechanics teacher wrote our textbook. We had about 10 people in our class. How much money do you think he made? Even if a few other schools adopted it (a VERY difficult task unless you work on your network of friends- which doesn't always go over well in academia), we're talking small money. He could consult a few hours a year for an aerospace company or something and make a lot more. That's my point.
- Evbn 14y ago
  Why not give the book away to students as part of their tuiton and earn your salary as a university professor?
  - nnnnnnnn 14y ago
    Because human beings generally have selfish interests. If you tell a person they may own and control a thing for profit, many will choose to do so. Unsurprisingly, this is a choice made by a large number of professors