Xref: utzoo comp.text.tex:2556 sci.math:12100 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au!spam!spam.ua.oz.au!wvenable From: wvenable@spam.ua.oz.au (Bill Venables) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,sci.math Subject: Re: Expensive books (was: expensive TeX book) Message-ID: Date: 22 Aug 90 14:21:29 GMT References: <8164@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <1990Aug22.120444.9962@zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu> Sender: wvenable@spam.ua.oz Organization: Adelaide University. Lines: 60 In-reply-to: edgar@shape.mps.ohio-state.edu's message of 22 Aug 90 12:04:44 GMT 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