Thanks for this post. I'm in law school right now, and I've had several casebooks run me $500!! And 80% of the material in those books (e.g., court decisions) is publicly available!! Feel terrible that the authors only see a small fraction of that.
I also think you're understating the publishers' margins. If you compare their net revenue to the price at which they sell to bookstores, the margins are upwards of 50%. For your example, if publisher revenue on a $130 book is $71.50, and they have a net revenue of $45.50, that means their profit (prior to paying author royalties) is ~63%!! Would be interested to see how that stacks up against trade publishers.
Thanks for this post. I'm in law school right now, and I've had several casebooks run me $500!! And 80% of the material in those books (e.g., court decisions) is publicly available!! Feel terrible that the authors only see a small fraction of that.
I also think you're understating the publishers' margins. If you compare their net revenue to the price at which they sell to bookstores, the margins are upwards of 50%. For your example, if publisher revenue on a $130 book is $71.50, and they have a net revenue of $45.50, that means their profit (prior to paying author royalties) is ~63%!! Would be interested to see how that stacks up against trade publishers.
Hope you are well, Professor Hollowell!