In article <a382521e.0408070820.4a341ff6@posting.google.com>,
kbc <kbc32@yahoo.com> wrote:

I need this info because i want to purchase those books.

Also, please suggest some shops in USA where i can get these books
at very low prices !!! ( I will have to convert between my
currency and dollar - hence the low price requirement. ) I dont
mind the condition of the book.

Why are technical books so costly in USA ?? Food is cheap ; cloth
is cheap ; why not book also ?? ( I guess most of this money goes to
author. )

How about some books in popular science and maths categories ?

I find Dover books and AMS ( american mathematical society ) books are
interesting.

In communication,
Wozencraft and jacobs
Van Trees
Franks - signal theory
Kailath

Every college has used bookstores. Look for your preferred books on
Amazon, they'll often list used books for a substantially lower price.
Ebay is another option, but with pretty sparse offerings.

Technical books can be outrageously priced. I've sometimes wanted to find
a list of the best cheap textbooks.

--
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is
poetry, imagination." -- Max Planck

In article <a382521e.0408070820.4a341ff6@posting.google.com>,
kbc <kbc32@yahoo.com> wrote:

I need this info because i want to purchase those books.

Also, please suggest some shops in USA where i can get these books
at very low prices !!! ( I will have to convert between my
currency and dollar - hence the low price requirement. ) I dont
mind the condition of the book.

Why are technical books so costly in USA ?? Food is cheap ; cloth
is cheap ; why not book also ?? ( I guess most of this money goes to
author. )

How about some books in popular science and maths categories ?

I find Dover books and AMS ( american mathematical society ) books are
interesting.

In communication,
Wozencraft and jacobs
Van Trees
Franks - signal theory
Kailath

Every college has used bookstores. Look for your preferred books on
Amazon, they'll often list used books for a substantially lower price.
Ebay is another option, but with pretty sparse offerings.

Technical books can be outrageously priced.

..I've sometimes wanted to find
a list of the best cheap textbooks.

In comp.dsp,sci.math,sci.physics,

I need this info because i want to purchase those books.

Also, please suggest some shops in USA where i can get these books
at very low prices !!! ( I will have to convert between my
currency and dollar - hence the low price requirement. ) I dont
mind the condition of the book.

Then you'll love these, bookfinder even has an option to show
prices in various non-USA currencies:
http://www.bookfinder.com
http://used.addall.com

Also http://www.amazon.com - if they (or rather, someone selling
through them) have used copies of a particular book, there will be a
"show used copies" link.

Why are technical books so costly in USA ?? Food is cheap ; cloth
is cheap ; why not book also ?? ( I guess most of this money goes to
author. )

Because technical books cost a lot to write and publish (I suspect
editors like to go over such books with fine tooth combs to reduce or
eleminate embarrasing technical errors), and there's a much smaller
market for them than (for example) popular fiction, so they have to
charge more to break even.

How about some books in popular science and maths categories ?
I find Dover books and AMS ( american mathematical society ) books are interesting.

Dover does paperback reprints of classic technical texts, so they
don't have to pay much if any royalties to the author or his/her
estate. And it seems they do the more common titles, so they can sell
enough to break even when charging $10 to $15 per book.
Also, two publishers of popular "hobbiest" technical books are Tab
and Sams, though some of these titles have content as valuable as many
academic books.

In communication,
Wozencraft and jacobs
Van Trees
Franks - signal theory
Kailath

come to mind .


thanks
shankar

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley

On 7 Aug 2004 09:20:51 -0700,

I need this info because i want to purchase those books.

Also, please suggest some shops in USA where i can get these books
at very low prices !!! ( I will have to convert between my
currency and dollar - hence the low price requirement. ) I dont
mind the condition of the book.

Why are technical books so costly in USA ?? Food is cheap ; cloth
is cheap ; why not book also ?? ( I guess most of this money goes to
author. )

Ha ha ha ha.

Two years after the 1st edition of my DSP book was
published, my income (from royalties) was
roughly 75 cents for each hour I spent writing
the book.

Whew! I only **WISH** "most of the money"
went to the authors. As far as I can tell, the
bookstore that sells a tech book realizes a profit of
approximately three times the royalty paid to
the author.

Here's what I think for a $100 tech book:
A publisher's profit is ~$44, $14 dollars of which
are paid in corporate taxes.
("~" means approximately.)
A bookstore's profit is ~$44, $14 dollars of which
are paid in corporate taxes.
An author's income is ~$12, $3.5 dollars of which
are paid in personal income taxes.

So here's the really shameful part:
The dirty rotten stinkin' State and Federal
governments receive ~$32 on the book sale
while the author earns only ~$8.5!!!


[I have no idea what is the publisher's cost to
produce a single copy of a technical book.]

Tech books are expensive because they cost much
more to produce than typical novels, and tech books
have a much much smaller audience than novels sold
at the drug store.

But, tell me this: is an $80 tech book worth
its cost if it helps you solve a problem in
building a $1,000,000 system?

[-Rick-]

On 7 Aug 2004 09:20:51 -0700,

I need this info because i want to purchase those books.

Also, please suggest some shops in USA where i can get these books
at very low prices !!! ( I will have to convert between my
currency and dollar - hence the low price requirement. ) I dont
mind the condition of the book.

Why are technical books so costly in USA ?? Food is cheap ; cloth
is cheap ; why not book also ?? ( I guess most of this money goes to
author. )

Ha ha ha ha.

Two years after the 1st edition of my DSP book was
published, my income (from royalties) was
roughly 75 cents for each hour I spent writing
the book.

Whew! I only **WISH** "most of the money"
went to the authors. As far as I can tell, the
bookstore that sells a tech book realizes a profit of
approximately three times the royalty paid to
the author.

Here's what I think for a $100 tech book:
A publisher's profit is ~$44, $14 dollars of which
are paid in corporate taxes.
("~" means approximately.)
A bookstore's profit is ~$44, $14 dollars of which
are paid in corporate taxes.
An author's income is ~$12, $3.5 dollars of which
are paid in personal income taxes.

So here's the really shameful part:
The dirty rotten stinkin' State and Federal
governments receive ~$32 on the book sale
while the author earns only ~$8.5!!!


[I have no idea what is the publisher's cost to
produce a single copy of a technical book.]

Tech books are expensive because they cost much
more to produce than typical novels, and tech books
have a much much smaller audience than novels sold
at the drug store.

But, tell me this: is an $80 tech book worth
its cost if it helps you solve a problem in
building a $1,000,000 system?

[-Rick-]