Sunday, June 27, 2010

School debt

Watching the increase of the need to educate those who need to expand their future potential and the education industry that feeds on them is becoming more and more out of control.

Just like the ATM, the banks said it would be cheaper for the consumer because there would be no attendant needed to make the transaction. WRONG! We now pay huge fees for this service.

Education now sells eBooks. The links to these eBooks now cost the same as a real hard copy book. The student pays less and the publisher invests less.

Just think about it.

Publishers get 80% of the net process. Authors get 10%, maybe a little more if they are a big time author. (Maybe, 5 in the USA).

I published with Prentice Hall for over 25 years. I was told to create a new edition every 3 years to push up the royalties that had been taken by the used book market.

The new wave is to deliver online material that requires an access code. So a used book is now a dead animal but can live on with an access code to the same material online. The access code alone is now the cost of a text book.

Just think, in many European nations education is free.

Go figure.

Don

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