October 3, 2008

Textbook Publishers Lose at Their Own Game

To the Editor:

Regarding drops in textbook sales ("Textbook Sales Drop, and University Presses Search for Reasons Why," The Chronicle, online edition, September 4): The booksellers have brought this down upon themselves. As a professor, I resent the games that academic publishers play with changing editions and rendering older ones — many of which are superior to the "latest & the greatest" — unavailable. What is happening now is that the publishers are being