edgar@shape.mps.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar) (08/22/90)
>>ISBN 0-13-912296-6. The book is a short collection of essays on uses >>of TeX. > >>This book was selling for $76. Huh? Does anyone know anything about > >Will anyone buy the book? Maybe. After all, books of a similar >nature have gone for similarly outrageously high prices (the 2nd >European conference on TeX and Scientific Documentation had a >proceedings volume around $50-some-odd bucks). To all authors: the time you can assert some influence on the price of your book is BEFORE you sign the contract. If the publisher won't agree to a reasonable price, get another publisher. There were 3 publishers that wanted to publish my book, so I chose the one that offered the lowest price, $29.95. The publishers told me that lowering the price would not increase the sales, but I didn't really believe them. -- Gerald A. Edgar Department of Mathematics Bitnet: EDGAR@OHSTPY The Ohio State University Internet: edgar@mps.ohio-state.edu Columbus, OH 43210 ...!{att,pyramid}!osu-cis!shape.mps.ohio-state.edu!edgar
wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) (08/22/90)
In article <1990Aug22.120444.9962@zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu> edgar@shape.mps.ohio-state.edu (Gerald Edgar) writes: > > > >Will anyone buy the book? Maybe. After all, books of a similar > >nature have gone for similarly outrageously high prices (the 2nd > >European conference on TeX and Scientific Documentation had a > >proceedings volume around $50-some-odd bucks). > > To all authors: the time you can assert some influence on the price > of your book is BEFORE you sign the contract. If the publisher won't > agree to a reasonable price, get another publisher. There were 3 > publishers that wanted to publish my book, so I chose the one that > offered the lowest price, $29.95. The publishers told me that > lowering the price would not increase the sales, but I didn't > really believe them. > Did someone say "book prices"? I think it's time for a genuine Australian horror story. The last book I bought was "Simulated Annealing: Theory and Applications" by van Laarhoven and Arts. When I ordered it I was not told how big it was, nor the exact price, but I was told to expect it to cost about A$80. It turned up *4 months later* and the final price was A$110! Moreover it was a slim volume of just 187 pages. In US prices that's about US$90, so it's very close to US$1 per page! Since two pages will easily fit on one A4 page, the cost of photocopying the entire thing (if I had a mind to flout the law) would be about A$4.75. Like a fool I also have on order the "Nutshell" book "Lex & Yacc", but from a different retailer, and again I have been told to expect to wait at least 3 months and to expect to shell out about $80. Slugggg! US book prices? Hah! Chickenfeed. What a load of wimps you all are. Edgar, I guarantee that when your book comes on sale in Australia, the retail price will not be less than $90 despite what the publisher says the price will be in the US. I don't know why the Australian book market is so heavily and openly in the grips of the Mafia, but clearly it is. The costs cannot be explained by freight charges either, since the typical 3+ month delay, (sometimes up to 6 months) comes about because they use the absolute cheapest rate, (pack mule & paddle steamer, I suspect.) I would be very interested to hear of any large retailer of technical books in the US, (or the UK or Europe), that is willing to cater directly to private individual customers in Australia. I have got rather too many scars from the local sharks and crocodiles. I think it's time to join you wimps. -- -- Bill Venables, Dept. of Statistics, | Email: venables@spam.adelaide.edu.au Univ. of Adelaide, South Australia. | Phone: +61 8 228 5412
scottd@kowande.bu.oz.au (David Scott) (08/24/90)
In article <WVENABLE.90Aug22235129@spam.ua.oz.au>, wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) writes: |> |> I would be very interested to hear of any large retailer of technical books |> in the US, (or the UK or Europe), that is willing to cater directly to |> private individual customers in Australia. I have got rather too many |> scars from the local sharks and crocodiles. I think it's time to join you |> wimps. |> Hi Bill, Blackwell's in Oxford and Heffer's of Cambridge in the UK both have substantial mail-order business for all academic and general books. I have dealt with Heffer's for many years. Prices are good, airmail takes a couple of weeks if you are willing to pay for it. The Seminary C-oop in Chicago offered to send books to Australia too on request when I was in drooling at their range and prices a couple of years ago. Like you, I laughed at what was supposed to be an outrageous book price. My most scarring experience so far is about A$100 for Maindonald's Statistical Computation a few years back. David Scott -- David Scott: School of Information and Computing Sciences, Bond University, Queensland 4229, Australia email: scottd@kowande.bu.oz.au Phone: +61 75 953322 Fax: +61 75 953320
MMAC@vax.oxford.ac.uk (The_Edible_Dormouse) (08/26/90)
Colin Plumb asks where the cost of his book comes from. Well of the $60 about $30 goes to the book shop, nominally to pay their rates, employees, cost of stocking etc (having a lot of cash tied in slo moving stock is expensive I guess). Cost of production is way down there at a few bucks tops. Heck you can print a 72 page glossy cover magazine for less than a dollar. Some (a few percent) goes to author, artist etc) and the rest is profit (after paying for the publishing companies 666 fifth avenue office and staff :-)) A small company can often produce very cheap books but are hampered by small print runs. Photocopying is rarely economical. CHeers Edi =============================================================================== MMAC@UK.AC.OX.VAX (Janet) = The opinions expressed above are MMAC%VAX.OX.AC.UK@UKACRL.BITNET (Bitnet) = not necessarily those of any person MMAC%VAX.OXFORD.AC.UK@NSS.CS.UCL.AC.UK = living, dead, undead or the subject (Internet) = of a Schrodinger's cat experiment. "Trust me I'm a Physicist !" (DoD #162) = They may or may not be my own. ===============================================================================
ritchie@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com (David Ritchie) (08/27/90)
>Colin Plumb asks where the cost of his book comes from. Well of the $60 about >$30 goes to the book shop, nominally to pay their rates, employees, cost of >stocking etc (having a lot of cash tied in slo moving stock is expensive I >guess). >Edi This may be true overseas, but is definitely not true in the U.S. For high end technical books (i.e. anything by Prentice Hall or Addison Wesley), wholesale price is 80% of list. For really obscure books, there may be *no* discount off of list (ouch!). Discounts are better if the store orders from the publisher in sufficent quantity to qualify for agency plans, but not much. Dave Ritchie N4DJS member of American Booksellers Assocation