Re: GEN - Outrageous Pricing

["Rhonda Smith (LIS)" <rsmith2@luna.cas.usf.edu>]

I know $133 for a book sounds outrageous, but...Books on Demand doesn't
have stacks of books on its shelf.  It has the right to reproduce out of
print texts - books that the original publisher has decided will not sell
sufficiently well to justify printing.  In effect, you're paying royalties
and for someone to scan or photocopy the book.  If your original is 260
pages, you're being charged 50c a page for a very labour intensive
process.  To say they were happy to pay Books on Demand rates would be an
exageration, but I know some people who have been very relieved to be able
to use them to get out of print academic works when the alternative was
illegally xeroxing a whole ILL copy themselves.
(P.S. I don't have shares, I just think they provide a valuable service.)

Rhonda Smith
rsmith2@luna.cas.usf.edu

If I do not learn to use the new words people keep inventing,
I will one day find I am talking a dead language.
--Alasdair Gray, _10 Tales Tall & True_