Apple Launches iBooks 2 with Interactive Textbooks

So...still no way to read iBooks material on a Mac huh?

I'll voice it here again. No iBooks for Mac is very frustrating. Will have to take my readings elsewhere.

This means the average textbook author makes $12,000 on sales. The problem is that to write the textbook, the author needs to work nearly 24-hours a day for at least 5 years. That is very little money for that much work.

24 hours a day for 5 years to produce one textbook and make $12K.

That sounds real believable.

This is awesome! But it still doesn't change the price of high school text books. The books are bought by the students. So if the school plans on paying for them, it will have to buy a new set of books every semester for $14.99 per student. Typically high schools use books for 3 to 5 years and they cost about $100, but they can pass them from student to student. With this price point, the cost of the books for the schools will be $14.99 * 5 years * 1 to 2 semesters per student (depending on whether it is a 2 or 1 semester course). So really, it will cost schools $75 to $150 per 5 years, which is about what they pay now for a single text book.

Yes but your forget, the students get to keep their textbooks (not give it back), new kids get brand new books (not a book full of highlighted material, and doodles on the sides), plus the content is more interactive.

So if the cost is the same for schools, they can give their students more for the same price. Plus I think Apple must be setting up some volumen purchasing scheme, where Schools can get a decent discount for buying say 50+ books.

Textbooks are not overpriced.

Have you actually tried to write a textbook?
Do you know how much work it takes to write a textbook?
Do you know how much of your own money it takes to write a textbook?

Answer: a lot.

A single author usually has to work nearly 24 hours a day for 5 years to write a single textbook on a single topic of a subject.

Since the total sales of a textbook are usually less than 1500 copies, it is a huge investment to write a textbook.

oh thats funny how exactly is a new edition released every 2-3 years then?

I suppose they're writing brand new textbooks are they? Pretty sure they're just trying to get as much money out of students as they can so they don't but used ones.

But yeah, I'm sure writing 1 textbook takes a long time, revising and rereleasing it to screw students over though, does not.

This is awesome! But it still doesn't change the price of high school text books. The books are bought by the students. So if the school plans on paying for them, it will have to buy a new set of books every semester for $14.99 per student. Typically high schools use books for 3 to 5 years and they cost about $100, but they can pass them from student to student. With this price point, the cost of the books for the schools will be $14.99 * 5 years * 1 to 2 semesters per student (depending on whether it is a 2 or 1 semester course). So really, it will cost schools $75 to $150 per 5 years, which is about what they pay now for a single text book.

If your theory holds up, at the very least the 5 year old textbook has up-to-date information if it were an iPad version.

Students purchasing a textbook at $15 is a lot better than what I paid for textbooks. Schools would also have a different buying plan I'm sure, since students don't get to keep the iPad.