Sucks for us…

I will take your statement at face value and assume for the sake of argument that your company is one of the more responsible university presses that does actually put much effort into keeping their product updated and careful attention to a high standard of quality. However, the majority of commercial textbook publishers do the bare minimum and force newly “updated/revised” editions on students solely for the sake of the bottom line. When the successful completion of a course is dependent on the mandatory purchase of the latest edition textbook despite said latest edition being virtually indistinguishable from the previous volume, then perhaps you can begin to understand why the people in the educational chain least able to afford it (the students) consider a $200+ price tag nothing short of a publisher rape of already stretched and inadequate resources. Multiply this scenario by many courses and the problem is crystal clear to all who have had to endure this shameless profiteering. Harassment of your customer base through petty legal threats does not put the money in their pocket to pay the inflated prices charged by many. If four people each put in $50 to buy one copy of a $200 textbook and then share it why is it so outrageous for some to use a digital copy if they can’t afford a physical one?

You may feel that your industry “prices to have their books bought and not to make a huge profit”, but I assure you that that is not the view of those who are your customers. Your industry exists in a rather unique niche of the publishing world in that rather than having to compete and provide quality AND value (read=reasonable price) like mainstream publishers, you cater to a captive audience whose academic success or failure is directly tied to the required purchase of your product. It is quite apparent to most people that textbook publishers long ago realized this and ever since have exploited that fact by pricing at a standard totally in opposition to mainstream publishing.

I’m sure you would like to point out that a university press does not sell titles in the numbers that mainstream books do, and you’re absolutely correct. But $150, $200, $300 for a single hardback textbook? Your numbers sold may be lower than mainstream books but your costs of publishing/printing are in no way proportional to your sales prices. If you say they are, I will be happy to direct you to several vanity presses who will be happy to print high quality hardbacks in small numbers for a tiny fraction of what you charge. Your industry could easily cut retail prices in half and still be very profitable. But instead price gouging and outright banditry seems to be the order of the day.

So, if you are one of the minority of text publishers who do act responsibly by putting out a quality product at a FAIR and REASONABLE price, then I wish you well. I am not anti-business nor anti-profit. I am, however, irrevocably and steadfastly opposed to those who would take advantage of their industry’s unique position to pillage those who are, in most cases, struggling financially as it is to complete their education. And for THAT segment of your industry, I have no pity.

1. You don’t register a domain or get a host using your real personal info. They can’t sue if they can’t find who you are.

2. Never, I repeat, NEVER use hosting or a server based within U.S. territory.

This site should have been hosted anonymously and located in an area where Geekman would have had the luxury of telling the publisher’s to go f**k themselves.

But what’s done is done. I’d like to express my thanks to Geekman for all the effort and hard work he put into running the site. Both the site, and Geekman himself, were always a class act from beginning to end.

R.I.P. Textbook Torrents. :(

And a word to the publishers…….My scanner will be getting quite the workout over the next month as I create new scans of your latest overpriced offerings. You bozos need to learn that you while you might kill a site, you don’t kill us. Strike one down and 100 will rise to replace it. :)

$750,000
- 75,000 (10% royalty)
———–
$675,000
-100,000 (production at $10 a copy)
———–
$575,000
-100,000 (overhead)
————
$475,000
- 47,500 (promotion)
————-
$427,500

So far it looks like they’ve invested $275,000 and made a profit of $475,000. That seems pretty good. Even if you want to add another $75,000 for warehousing, sales reps, and parties at conferences, that still leaves a profit rate of just over 100%, which seems pretty high to me. Most businesses don’t have that high a rate of return.

Thank you for all stuff and esteemed admin.

a) how do you start a torrent site?
b) can’t safe torrent sites like Pirate take over?

Anyone know?

And there are rumors, and rumors of rumors of a new site just starting being discussed in different fora.

It’s a real crime when textbooks cost $200 and are something you’ll only need for a few weeks. Even if you keep your books, they’re out of date pretty quickly. And when you have to buy 5 or 6 of them each semester …

Sure, people are paying but what does that mean? If you’re lucky enough to be young and underwritten by the ‘rents, well, they’re paying. A lot of them are cashing in their retirement money to do that. I know, because I work in a retirement advisor’s office and that’s a sizeable chunk of what I do these days.

If you’re like me, trying to get an advanced degree to get a job like the one you got downsized out of, these outrageous prices are nonsensical. I’m borrowing up past my eyeballs. And don’t tell me I can’t buy virtually the same book in the “international” edition for half the price or less!

I found out about TextBook Torrent too late and it didn’t have any of the books I needed this semester anyway, bec. all the books I needed were relatively new.

So I say to the textbook industry: You’re WORSE than the RIAA, and that’s not a complement, believe me! I wholeheartedly support ANY and ALL means of getting around your usurious pricing. If any of my books show up on LimeWire, I dare you to stop me from downloading it.

No textbook is worth more than $50. No excuses. Fix your system or go down in flames. Get bailed out by the government lawyers, like the RIAA and people will STILL find a way around it. Someone will come along like iTunes and give us a cost-effective alternative you can’t get around. And not a minute too soon.

the request section is in the forum for those needing assistance locating that special publication

http://www.h33t.com/tocat.php?id=6

the index is public and fully moderated

enjoy

Where do we go now?

I hope we do see another one soon. It’s hard to believe that we’d see more agressive protection from Textbook Publishers than the MPAA and RIAA. Gotta get a non-US host.

We invested our saved cash in this business instead of putting a small deposit on a home for us and our two toddlers.

We continued to hold down our day jobs to survive.

We spent countless months researching our topics, editing, consulting and working around the clock just to make the business fly.

We got screwed by agents, publishers, printers, distributors and retail outlets. Which is how the print business hierarchy works – Authors (the true copyright owners) come last.

Eventually we self-published. The public loved the publication, we received praise regularly – phone calls, letters. It was the content that was key.

And yet, we lost every cent and every hour of the many thousands we invested… and then some.

Torrents are great … but don’t ever delude yourself that the content is free. There’s always a price paid by someone, somewhere.

Sometimes it’s a very high price.

Since Are Economy Is Not doing good right now why not buy stuff before inflation goes up?

Free Shipping and great deals.

http://bsolum.avonrepresentative.com/

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yeah, i’m going to buy books from someone that doesn’t know the difference between “are” and “our”

too bad about tbt though. at least i still have bitme.

@satanshallow, i only need about 1 gig of upload credit to be a power user so if i get in in the next couple weeks i will try to remember to get you and invite.

Your arguements are so, so flawed.

For one the costs of producing the most expensive books are nowhere near the cost of producing most of the cheapest, low budget films.

Secondly the risk of a feature film not being profitable are much greater than a textbook not being so.

Would anybody here running a line of “textbooks should be free and legally so” actually work for nothing ? I highly doubt it – if you would, then get out there and DO SOMETHING about it.

I like stealing textbooks and depriving the author and publishers of their profit because I obtain it for free.

HOLY WOW! logic, rationale, and above all, VIABLE suggestions for CHANGE, in a forum predominantly filled with narcissistic pseudo-intellectual, budding socialist fourteen year olds who don’t, as a group, have more than a handful of worthwhile opinions between them.

color me both surprised and impressed.

even if you are a pirate, we need more of your kind around here. a pirate with the balls to pose possible answers to tough questions rather than just hiding behind juvenile rhetoric and the usual unrealistically idealistic, rooted-in-nothing, poetic waxings that make up of the majority of these comments…

How can we make production of OA textbooks economically viable?
Maybe contributions from authors who want name recognition? Maybe some way to have advertising in textbooks? Maybe government subsidies for production?

SHIT!!

Fucking copyright whores.

Free Shipping and great deals.

http://bsolum.avonrepresentative.com/

Good riddance.
=-=-=-=

More important is that when you and people like you die, the world raises a collective sigh each time and also says, “Good riddance.”

satanshollow@hush.com
satanshollow at hush dot com

No, the book publishers have it MUCH easier than either the record companies OR the movie studios.

Creating a dead tree copy of a text is CHEAP. See lulu.com for the “expensive” type of one-off printing, which is still relatively cheap.

Text books also carry virtually NO “risk” for the publisher – they have a guaranteed audience that HAVE to read the book to pass the exam (and maybe even learn something as well). The fact that they have this captive market means they can abuse it, which is why you see textbooks that cost $450.

To actually WRITE a text book, the only real input is time – the author has to sit down, research the subject and compile all the info into something cohesive. No multi-million dollar salaries for actors, no expensive film gear, no months of special effects work, no massive advertising campaign, just a few people and their laptops.

Entertainment is entertainment, but free education improves the whole world.

This is sad.