Textbooks. The market is controlled by a half dozen huge companies that charge around 10x too much because they can. I intend to tackle it one day. The biggest hurdle is actually finding instructors willing to write a textbook.
I think the question to ask is why are the professors who tackle writing these books going through such distribution chains? It is not the monetary incentive. My friends who have contributed chapters to books generally see essentially zero return from royalties when the books are printed/sold. Academics are more concerned about getting their name out (i.e. prestige). The business a professor runs is his/her name and…
I agree with you, but I wonder what makes a publisher reputable? I can't even name one out of the blue.