Reply to Justyna's "Opinions? Comments? Textbook Publishing!" Post

I swear this site hates me. Tried doing this comment as cut and paste. Then tried manually retyping it and still, nada. It's the same verification problem, only it loads and there's nothing to see. Is anyone else having this problem? I'm using Firefox version 3.0.6. Maybe I need to update...

Funny, my writing process class was also discussing this today when we breached the "technology and how it affects writing" topic. It seems the overwhelming consent was that while publishing is a dying industry and despite everything being digitized, many still love books and because of that, traditional publishing as we know it will continue. But not for long...

It's a sad thing to see publishers and text-book writers participate in this "scam" as you put in and it is a scam. I'm torn about it, knowing that perhaps text-books is the only place that will consistently and continually generate profits in the present and future while the rest of the book market fluctuates. But as a student and consumer of books, it frustrates me to no end to find that the 100+ dollar textbook I bought at the beginning of the semester is now worth $15 or worse, nothing because a new edition is out. Of course, it's not always a scam. Sometimes, there are valuable new additions to the edition, like interactive links, which can be very useful for a science major like me- nothing helps like visuals and online quizzes. But other times, it seems like a new edition is an excuse for a makeover. A new shiny cover, a few different pictures and it's the next must-have textbook while older editions are instantly obsolete. I don't approve of such practices. If there's a genuine need to update and often there are with the new things we discover, then a new edition is warranted. Otherwise, for majors where things are pretty static and don't change much, like math, it's a waste of money for students.

Realistically though, the publishing industry will do what it has to do to survive. I guess I'm only glad that I won't be a student forever and won't have to keep on purchasing the most up-to-date text-books too.