Originally Posted by
rb336
In a lot of fields, new information is added at a rapid rate and it is important to update the texts to show the most current data, theoretical frameworks, etc. Books are expensive, no doubt, but they do not have the economies of scale of mass-market publications, and often have higher production costs due to higher paper quality, photographic plates, better bindings, etc. for almost 100 years, text book publishing had a government subsidy to keep costs down. that went away in 1981/82. students in college saw book costs double the next semester.