Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Books are not too expensive

millersbookreview.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 216 posts

Re: Books are not too expensive

#111

Post by sync »

vhanda wrote: post #4

The bigger problem for me is buying Ebooks without DRM, which are cheaper than the paperback. I see no reason why I should be paying the same (or often more) than the paperback version. Just let me buy the ebook and let me own it. Right now, after pirating it, I have to find the author's patreon / something and contribute some money that way. It shouldn't be this hard to give someone money.

You can strip the DRM fairly easily these days if you have an ACSM file, I vibecoded this the other day after I couldn’t find any online converter that actually worked: https://www.acsm-converter.com

Re: Books are not too expensive

#112

Post by Dylan16807 »

philips wrote: post #103

Sort of on topic but I wonder about the CO2e or energy cost of books. My friend recently opened a book store and the supply chain seems crazy: - Make paper somewhere - Ship paper to China - Print the book in China - Ship the book back across the ocean to the publisher's distribution center - Ship the book the bookstore to shelve - Ship the book back to the publisher if it doesn't sell The CO2e of all of these steps m…

Crossing the ocean twice costs less than half a kg of CO2 per kg of book. Rail is almost as efficient and goes smaller distances. The truck portion is probably the biggest factor in shipping but it's still not that much. And it's the part that's hardest to remove from the supply chain.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#113

Post by Miraltar »

mrwh wrote: post #109

Tangential, and very anecdotal, but I've been seeing more books on the BART. While almost everyone is hunched over their phones of course, it feels like there's a growing number reading a paperback. (Oddly? it's been a while since I saw a kindle.)

Bay Area Rapid Transit?

Re: Books are not too expensive

#114

Post by rahimnathwani »

"EBITDA serves as a standard profit metric across companies and industries"

No it doesn't!

EBITDA is not standardized metric. It's not defined under GAAP or IFRS. Companies calculate it differently, often adjusting it in ways that make their results look better.

If you want a 'standard profit metric', use net income. That one is actually defined under GAAP and IFRS.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#116

Post by ebiester »

dyauspitr wrote: post #98
ivansavz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the textbook cartel is outrageous. I started a textbook publishing company to fight this! I was working on web copy describing how crazy the mainstream textbook prices are, and used the price C$300 for the calculus book, trying to be flippant (to exaggerate the competitor price to make my prices look better). I decided to check the price in the bookstore, and to my surprise the price was even higher than that! (…

Well someone sat down and wrote a 1000 dense pages that probably took 2-5 years of their life. That deserves to be rewarded. Of course there are problems with professors prescribing their own books for the class etc. but when I went to school you could return that $300 book for $200 to the bookstore once the semester was done.

First, the authors make very little money on most textbooks. You would be shocked. The money is staying with the book publishers.

Second, they've started publishing new editions so quickly with only the problem sets changed (in general) so that students can't use previous editions. If you're learning on your own, you can get some good deals on older editions for just that reason.

And on top of that, they maintain their own platforms so that even if you buy them used, you have to subscribe to a service to take the tests! All of this lines up to finding as many ways to extract money from students and at interest after it's all said and done.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#117

Post by cestith »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #66
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #5

At some point you just have to move to Ebooks. It's way cheaper (usually ~6x cheaper) and it's much more convenient, as you always have your entire library with you. Sometimes even in duplicate, i.e. on more than one device at the same time, in the same place. I was very reluctant to make the move at first, as I love everything about physical books -- their feel, the way they smell, the cover art -- but I was accumul…

Where do you find e-books that are several times cheaper than paperback? Sometimes they're half the price, but often they aren't cheaper at all. And that assumes you find a DRM free copy at all.

Often I can get a used paperback or sometimes even a used hardcover book cheaper than the ebook.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#118

Post by hgoel »

I'm not very convinced by the thesis of this post. When I look at book prices, I'm not thinking "well they're cheaper when adjusted for inflation!". I'm thinking "damn, this costs way too much to buy unless I am certain I'd enjoy it".

I've switched to ebooks almost entirely, they're cheap enough to buy just out of interest, and they leave space free for the books I care about enough to put physical copies in a shelf.

Besides the US, the places I grew up in all seemed to have much cheaper books, though as a tradeoff they didn't seem to have strong public library systems.

This is all without getting into the college textbook cartel.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#119

Post by cestith »

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #108
Till_Opel wrote: post #78

The pricing framing in the article confuses cost-to-produce with willingness-to-pay. Two completely separate things. A book costs $4 to print and $25 at retail not because of margin gouging, but because the price reflects value-to-reader times conversion-elasticity, not the printing line item. Same thing happens in services. Agencies that cost-plus their pricing leave 30-50% on the table because they're solving for c…

Using the cost to print instead of the full cost of production is very misleading. Someone needs to write, edit, typeset, market, etc. the books. Most books don't sell a ton of copies, so there usually isn't a lot of profit left over after those costs.

You left out shipping, storing, and logistics.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#120

Post by gambiting »

nelsonic wrote: post #96
gambiting wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where I studied in the UK the university provided all books. Which meant they had a lot more negotiating power, because they wouldn't pay £300 a book nor allow a professor to have a £300 book as a requirement for the course. So companies had to make sure their material was within the price range that universities were willing to pay for it.

where did you study? and is it still like that?

Newcastle University, and yeah, at least 2 years ago it was still true.
Post reply on HN