5% is generous?
It's a requirement at some universities so I wouldn't be surprised if it's higher. Then again, I don't know what % of universities requires it either.
I think 5% is generous if you're looking not just at computer science degrees, but "computer and information science" degrees (which is what the government tracks).
Re:Stanford Compilers Course
by nerpderp83 on Monday November 20, 2017 @05:59PM
(#15744140)
The authors are already generously compensated. I am super curious how much they actually make, or is this the same as the paper paywall? Inflation adjusted this book is way more expensive than it used to be in its first version.
The hardcover version of the first edition is $2.50 in Alibris. New this book shouldn't cost more than $90.
Priceonomics breaks it down: https://priceonomics.com/why-are-textbooks-so-expensive.
tl;dr version: you're ignoring all the other stuff that goes into selling a textbook and grossly overestimating how much margin publishers have. Professors don't submit PDFs ready to hit "print." The books must be edited, typeset, etc. This can't be done by minimum wage workers because the editors have to actually understand what they're editing. The hypothetical $230 book nets about $40 in profit.
It seems a lot of computer science books I read that have been published lately talk about their build process (web, PDF, EPUB/MOBI) in the same way they would talk about compiling code. How much typesetting is really done these days?
Why? How many copies of these textbooks do you think they sell? There is about 50,000 "computer and information science" bachelors degrees awarded each year (which is broader than what you'd think of as CS). Let's say, generously, 5% take a compilers course. That's 2,500 books per year in the entire subject. Let's say any one book gets about 1,000 of those sales. At $190 per book, that's $190,000 gross. Over an entire edition, maybe you sell 2-3 times that much (considering campus book rentals, people buying used books, etc.) That's maybe $500,000 to write, edit, publish, and distribute an entire textbook. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me at all.