|
||
|
1988: Production cost, before sale of first book: $100K+ (not including generic use of salary, buildings, etc. - just the time and resources directly involved in THIS book). Price of package to bookstore:$60. Bookstore price to student: $80. Royalties to author(s): about 10% of price to bookstore per book SOLD. (Some difference in royalt for workbook, and for various quantities). Who gets paid first? In-house staff (salaries), subcontractors. Who gets paid next to last? Authors Who gets paid last? Investors (=the profit to the company). Examples of expenses: 6.5 miles of 1.5-mil mylar reel-to-reel tape. Who gets (sort of) rich? A few authors, especially of series or multi-language projects. Few or no authors of big-dividend books quit their professor jobs. Who can lose money? Authors generally have secure paychecks (even if they don't write books). But the time… Subcontractors don't lose money- they get paid up front (but not much, perhaps). The publishers can lose - books can fail, even totally (0 copies sold). Estimated profit margin on textbooks: 2-3% (like grocery chains). Even at 5%, one book that is printed but not sold must be offset by the sale of 20 other books. Tales of woe: the gluepot error; the adopters get the student version, not the IAE Why are textbooks expensive? Fact checking; careful editing (Fahrschwein; grob for groß); specialized media; obsolescence; need for people with special skills. Demand for supplements that may not be used but have to be in the offered in the big package, but may not be purchased. What the author gets: Todays' textbook @$150 to student: Price to bookstore is $100. Author(s) get $10. Assume 2 authors and sales of 5000 copies/year (a significant success, equivalent to 40 PSUs, or perhaps 200 Linfields adopting the German book). 5000 x $10 = $50,000, or $200,000 ($100,000/ author) over 4-year life of the edition. To produce the book each author has worked 3 EXTRA hours / day for 3 years (= 1000 hrs/ yr = 3000 hrs). $100,000 / 3000 = $35/hr., before expenses and taxes. A full prof of German at PSU earns about that much an hour anyway (after taxes). So why bother? Fun, glory, challenge, sense of contribution, and of course the admiration of the students. PSU first-year German: Same materials, but now on disk. Disk price $10 (from lab fee). 150 students per year * $150 per ink-on-paper textbook = $22,500 / yr $22,500 - $1500 = $21,000 yr. * 10 years = $210,000 savings to students. Thankyouverymuch. Increased textbook prices? Not sure. 1967 Ivy League one year tuition, room and board: $3000 1966 My parents' AGI: $15,000 (one mechanic, one schoolteacher) 1955 our three-bedroom house in Grants Pass: $19,000 1960 gallon of gas at my father's gas station: $.28 1963 first class postage stamp: $.05 1965: pack of cigaretts $.35. |