The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 50, December 15, 2002, Article 8

BOOKS OUGHTA COST MORE

  In response to the item on "Why do books cost so much?",
  author Morten Eske Mortensen asks about "the most
  OBVIOUS cost of all factors: the amount that one has to pay
  the author for the work of writing the book.  Or is it somehow
  that everyone puts that amount to: 0  [zero]  ? ! ? ! ?"

  Howard A. Daniel III writes that the item reminded him of
  his first book, "The Catalog and Guidebook of Southeast
  Asian Coins and Currency, Volume 1, France."  He writes
  that it took him two years of evenings while on active duty
  in the Army from 1973 to 1975 to write the book on an
  IBM Selectric typewriter.

  Then he found a local printer in a very small shop who had
  just immigrated from Germany and needed all of the business
  he could get.  He worked with Howard and his book was
  published in one hundred copies with a spiral binding.

  Someone told him to double the cost for the retail price in
  order to make a profit.  He did this and sold (except for
  a few donated to numismatic libraries) all of the copies in less
  than 90 days, and then was promptly transferred overseas.
  Once he was settled into his military quarters and had his files,
  he added up his printing costs, advertising, donations, etc. and
  subtracted it from the total received from sales.  Howard
  remembers making less than $10. for two years work, and
  his book was a sellout!"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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