Textbook prices are outrageous. My daughter recently purchased a Java textbook for $150, and next quarter she will need to purchase a C++ textbook for another $150. That’s $300 in textbooks for two classes.
Do you think the textbook authors make a very good living? I’ve tried to estimate how much they might make but really can’t put my finger on it. Offhand it seems like a lot of hours go into creating the book, and since they might only be used for 5 years or so, I’m not convinced that that the authors get very much on a per hour basis…
My husband wrote a chapter for a graduate physics text; he got paid exactly zero dollars for it. Several of the researchers at the biotech research institute I used to work for regularly wrote chapters of graduate textbooks; they got paid a token amount–a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. (If they wrote on company time–which they largely did, they had to reimburse the the institute whatever they earned on the book.)
Most authors receive 5% of the retail price of their books. A $150 textbook would give the author $7.50.
The majority of new textbooks do not sell well, so it is difficult to make a good living as a textbook author. Many textbook authors also teach, so their teaching salary is their main source of income and book revenues are supplemental.
Occasionally a textbook makes it big. If an introductory book is a adopted at many colleges and universities, it can generate hundreds of thousands of sales. If it goes through several editions, the authors can become wealthy. Think Halliday and Resnick, “Fundamentals of Physics.” That franchise was around for decades!
“…receive 5% of the retail price.”
In your dreams. Textbooks are their own forms of contract, depending. And mainstream authors also are subject to considerations.
As far as it being a racket, that really refers to a college insisting on pricey textbook X. The authors aren’t sipping exotic drinks on an island somewhere, with their profits.
Payment could range from 0 to hundreds of thousands as earlier commenters noted. Part of this may also depend on whether the book/chapter was written to add original research/new interpretations of a given topic on the field or a textbook meant to provide an overview of the field/topic for undergrads in an intro/intermediate course.
If the former, payment’s likely to be of an extremely nominal kind or even a mere “thank you”…though that’s somewhat compensated by being considered a legit entry onto the research/publications section of one’s CV which enhances one’s academic reputation and will be considered heavily in determining who gets tenure or faculty promotions.
If the latter, compensation could be high if it sells well as a widely used text across colleges or better yet, also gains popularity among the reading public. However, since it doesn’t contribute new knowledge/interpretations of the field, it won’t count as a legit addition to one’s CV section on research/publications.
In either case, most authors can’t really make a living from their publication royalties alone so no…most don’t get rich from authoring those books.
Still in widespread use, although I believe another author has taken over the editing in order to put out the requisite new editions every few years. Current trend is to include online materials so that the student has to buy NEW textbooks or buy the online access code separately.
At my kids’ state U, professors have been mindful of the cost of new textbooks. Most allow older versions of textbooks and give assignments on the computer instead of problem sets out of the books. It saves hundreds every semester for us. Between private sales, used books, and rentals, books cost us about $200/semester for both kids. Obviously, authors get nothing for these transactions.
By the way, I had Robert Resnick for Physics 1 back in the 1980s. Interesting guy - he did research on supersonic flight back in the 50s. His physics books cost about $40 each (there were 2) in 1982. I have a 1963 combined version that cost $11.05. The modern version is just north of $200.
I have a friend who does independent contract work writing elementary/middle schools text books. I think she makes in the range of $15-20/hr. All work done up front with a several week delay in payment. ALWAYS seems high stress…last minute assignments/changes etc.
I know a guy who took a contract teaching job for 3 years in West Africa 45 years ago. He had nothing to do in the evening … except write a textbook. He made half a million pounds from it within 10 years, a lot of money back then.
Of course they can put textbook work on their CVs, depending on the field and what’s customary. And no, you can’t generalize about what they make. Depending on the field, many pub houses are small and/or run on a shoestring. The have to cover costs first, before sharing profits. DH made maybe 2k (over some years)for an important research book in his specialty, the only English source for that material. He might make $100-150 or 1k for an entry in a larger book or reference set, depending on what it was for, how long and specialized, and what the market was. Plenty of work was free. Humanities.
To make a half million pounds, there has to be a broader market than the classroom or grad studies.
That’s a really high percentage. The market at the time may have influenced the contract. And the urgency.
@FatherTim, did she look for used books? Or look into renting? You do have to compare the exact ISBN number, which is the specified edition. And if it’s a new ISBN, you check to see why. Eg, in some cases, there’s a vital add or revision. It’s wacky, yes. But mine were able to rent what they needed.
Greg Mankiw at Harvard has made $40 million according to Wikipedia on royalties and advances for his introductory economics textbook. It is a very popular book but at the same time it isn’t dramatically different from the other books out there. Other textbook writers don’t make as much.
They can, but tenure/promotion committees won’t “count” it for consideration of tenure/promotion purposes because textbooks aren’t considered a contribution of original research/new interpretations to the field/subfield.
If all a tenure-track Prof has on his/her CV are textbooks meant to provide an overview of the field like Greg Mankiw’s intro econ texts when tenure/promotion decisions come around, the committee will perceive that Prof as dimly/more dimly than a Prof who had no research/publications on his/her record(including monographs or textbooks which contribute original research/new interpretations to the field/subfield) and act accordingly.
One reason why Greg Mankiw and Jonathan Spence(Search for Modern China’s a popular intro text for intro courses on Modern Chinese History) became the prominent bigname Profs in their respective fields is that in addition to writing those textbooks, they published many more original research/new interpretations for their respective fields in the form of journal articles and more advanced textbooks/monographs which do the same.
In order to make a lot of money on a textbook, you have to be a fairly famous scholar to begin with. Mankiw and Spence were well known in their fields long before they “wrote” – i.e., put their names on, and maybe even directed the writing of – textbooks. Untenured faculty don’t get a lot of interest from textbook publishers, unless they are working in a field that’s red hot with no decent product available.
For a couple of years many decades ago, I was a research assistant to a famous professor who was the author of the most successful textbook in his field. He published a supplement every year – that was my summer job one summer, along with two other research assistants – and a new edition every 5 years or so. He had inherited the textbook from a mentor, and he passed it on to colleagues when he retired. It made him a fair amount of money – nothing remotely close to $40 million, but it was probably more than his actual salary at the time. The textbook certainly enhanced his prestige as a leading figure in his field, but he had the text because he was a leading figure in the field, not the other way around.
There was actually quite a bit of creative work and thought involved in the text. Working on the damn thing gave me a lot of respect for textbooks and their authors, at least good ones. Edition to edition, the changes were fairly modest, but if you looked back 20 years the books were very different. There was real art to giving fair consideration to all sides of various controversies in the field while making a subtle, nearly invisible case for the author’s preference, without giving anyone who disagreed with him reason to change texts.