Academic publishing (royally screwed)

This is a bad spiral to be caught up in:

* a professor spends three years writing a book. All the while he is paid by his university. After all, he’s supposed to “do research.”
* a university press eventually publishes the book. It sells exactly 482 copies, all hard-back at $65 each. The copies are bought by the 481 large university libraries that exist in the world. The last copy is bought by the professor’s rich maiden aunt.
* the 481 libraries complain that books are too expensive. The university administrations, worried that their libraries will not be competitive, raise tuition fees to cover the costs. After all, students are the ones who will be reading the darn things.

In this way the universities end up being royally screwed by the publishers. They pay for the book twice — first in the form of the professor’s salary and then in the form of the book’s price. But the universities don’t care since they can claw back the money from students. Students are consequently the ones who end up doubly penetrated. The reason they don’t care is that they think they can pass the cost off to a future employer. Good luck!

This is the logic through which universities are taken over by market forces. It turns education into a product which is restricted to those who can pay. Meanwhile, the professor’s book never reaches a proper book-shop. It’s forgotten on some library shelf where it’s discovered only by those students who can afford to get access.

It is up to the professors to stop this madness. The way to do it is to publish on-line. Let’s give our thoughts away for free! After all, we make only a pittance from the present system and we have already pocketed our monthly salaries. This way too perhaps someone will actually read what we’re writing.