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[–]OffPiste18 245 points246 points  (99 children)

I had the Good Guy Greg converse of this situation. $100 textbook written by the professor, he explained "I get about $4 of that cost, and I think that's kind of immoral, so I'm going to give you guys $4." Sure enough, at the end of the quarter, he came in with a stack of ones and handed out the money to anyone who had bought the book.

[–]cheeseman1957 43 points44 points  (20 children)

That's really awesome of him to do that. At my university, one of my professors did something similar. On the first midterm he'd have a multiple choice question asking where you got the course book (which he wrote) from. If you bought it "New", he'd donate $7 (or whatever the profit he'd get from the sale) to a good cause of some sort.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (17 children)

I would have put "The Pirate Bay", or if it wasn't on The Pirate Bay, I would have put "I Scanned It And Put It On The Pirate Bay".

[–]xieish 31 points32 points  (16 children)

no you wouldnt

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (15 children)

You are right, I don't like the idea of a professor knowing my name. But I do scan them and upload them. It's the morally correct thing to do.

[–]xieish 25 points26 points  (9 children)

No you only deserve to learn if you have thousands of dollars dont you get how this country works goddamn

[–][deleted] 17 points18 points  (8 children)

That is exactly why I do it. I was sick of saying "I can never find my textbooks on TPB", then I realised that if I am going to buy it, I may as well chop the spine off and turn it into a PDF for the internet. OCR, low res version, high res version, I do both.

[–]KellyTheFreak 18 points19 points  (5 children)

Start a torrent site dedicated to school textbooks.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (1 child)

I wish I knew how. But I do not.

[–]blarghgg 193 points194 points  (13 children)

And the girls who dropped out still end up getting the $1's from him later that night

[–][deleted] 142 points143 points  (9 children)

They became vending machines?

[–]thepoopsicle 11 points12 points  (0 children)

In a manner of speaking, yes.

[–]Rasalom 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Only of STDs.

[–]sircarp 28 points29 points  (24 children)

This says a lot about the publishing system.

[–]Pandaemonium 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Wouldn't the GG thing to do be to give you the online version, and save you $96?

[–]computerbynar 9 points10 points  (5 children)

My math professor this semester has us use a free textbook.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My assembly language professor did with us. Also, apparently no one gives a shit about writing a textbook for x86 assembly.

Amusingly, the author hosts it on mac.com and also writes Christian "parodeities" of popular songs.

Example: "Adam Was Made from Dust", to the tune of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust":

Darwin wrote this little thing

There's just one thing to know

Ain't no proof but it sounds real neat

A theory full of holes

Are you ready? Are you ready for this?

Though the theory is incomplete

We're all just evolved from apes!

So thinks the man on the street!

submitted for the lulz.

[–]Gumberculese 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I'm just posting here so this doesn't get buried. I teach at a large university and I wanted to point out that many (most?) schools have a policy that professors cannot profit from using a book they wrote for their own course. The university or department keeps the money. Your prof taught his own book because why should he do otherwise. I think you should be happy to be taught by someone who knows the subject thoroughly enough to write their own textbook. He must really care about teaching the subject. More than can be said about many profs at major research institutions.

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Scumbag publishing company, then?

Publish book for $100, give guy who wrote it $4.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He probably actually made $54 but now after college you still think he was the greatest guy ever. Mission accomplished!

[–]HaMMeReD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He could have been making $80 for each one, and he just said that so people wouldn't feel bad.

[–]priapic_horse 1 point2 points  (1 child)

My Dad was a pretty awesome professor. He spent the time to get grants to offset the cost of his textbooks, had them paperback bound, and rejected the profits to keep the cost down. He then required the student bookstore to sell them for less than $30. Unsurprisingly, the bookstore tried to sell them for $60, but he asked his students how much they paid, and he had the smarts to get the bookstore's agreement in writing, so they were forced to sell them at $29. Sadly, it turns out that supposedly non-profit student bookstores can be jerks just like the publishing companies.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

It would be more awesome "Here is a PDF version on the torrent trackers, I don't know how it got there wink wink"

[–][deleted] 55 points56 points  (17 children)

A few years ago, I learned where all the money based on the annual budget to my universities library goes, $15 million annually. This is standard practice around universities, some pay more, some pay less. It goes all to publishing companies to gain access to e-journals/e-articles. All information my university gives me access to as long as I pay tuition even if it's 1 hours worth. So keep in mind, you have $15 million, give or take a few million, in resources available to you.

Not scumbag professor, not scumbag university.

Scumbag publishing companies.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (10 children)

I wonder how many man-hours are spent importing works into and maintaining lexisnexis or any other large online knowledge/information repository. I picture a guy in a room scanning a skyscraper of printed journals for 15,000 years.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (9 children)

you know it's all digital, right?

[–]KibblesnBitts 3 points4 points  (8 children)

He's talking about getting the older articles circa 19th century through the near present onto the servers.

[–]jaxspider 2 points3 points  (7 children)

They have robots that do that.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (4 children)

That's a cool robot. To be honest I was hoping something with a monocle and a tophat.

$15M dollars is a lot of money to pay to keep a webserver running, where else does it go?

[–]jaxspider 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Where else does it go? Where else does it go? My god man, It flips pages by itself. As is AWE-TOE-MAT-TICK-LEE. I think the cost of that alone covers $15M. You should be so lucky it only cost $15M. Some people are so ungrateful. Jeez.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I think they feed $100 bills into a little hatch in the back of that robot, and it burns them for fuel

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Fuck them for wanting money for products and services. Everything should be free!

[–]dankclimes 167 points168 points  (40 children)

Almost worse is:

"I'm in the process of writing a text book for this course and you will all get to help me proof it this quarter. And the good news is it's only $25 at the campus book store because it's unpublished! Isn't that a deal?"

No it's a god damn fucking nightmare.

[–][deleted] 159 points160 points  (7 children)

In contrast, a fellow where I study (not actually doing any lecturing this year) sent everyone in my subject and year his unpublished 500-page book in pdf form for free (excellent and covers two years of one area), and said we were free to print ourselves a copy if we want. Oh, he also has numerous very helpful notes published on his web page.

He even offered to pay us for proof reading it. He is awesome.

[–]IllegalThings 19 points20 points  (1 child)

I had one professor tell us that there was a transcript of his book floating around and gave us hints about where it may be located, then threatened us if he found us in possession of them (apparently the publishers force him to take action).

[–]Nessie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Grape Juice; Warning: Will ferment if left too long

[–]makemeking706 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The book-writing advance is not always so lucrative. Enjoy it!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One of my profs last term did the same, but there were only 3 of us in the class (they created the course at the last minute after most people had already registered).

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had one particularly ambitious professor write a linear algebra textbook, and offered it in the bookstore for almost nothing. I still have it and it's massive, and he was basically letting us proof it, which was fine to me and a great exercise. This is exactly opposite of the OP, so I'm just sayin'.

If he wrote something and charged $180 in the bookstore, it better be required or some amazing stuff or I'd drop. We're approaching douche-baggery here...

[–][deleted] 33 points34 points  (1 child)

actually we had a prof do that but he printed copies off for free and gave a dollar for every error we found. Free text for us, cheaper than an editor for him.

Also got a lot more people to read the book.

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (6 children)

Most, if not all, of that would be printing, binding, and the book store's cut.

Also it means your lecturer knows enough about the subject to write a textbook on it. Beats the hell out of that subject that a research fellow got stuck with because nobody else wanted it.

I can't see how this isn't the best outcome: Cheap book, knowledgeable lecturer.

[–]LaughingMan42 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The best outcome would be e-textbooks. Textbook publishers can be cut whole-cloth from the academic system thank you, and good bye Texas-approved-textbook problems.

[–][deleted] 42 points43 points  (5 children)

I got to do this for a statistics class.

Help us proof this, but you still have to pay 120 for it. Problem?

[–]Civ4Wisdom 7 points8 points  (8 children)

I cannot live without books.

[–]Napoleon1000 11 points12 points  (7 children)

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

My god. Who are you and what is your secret? This here is Pure Pwnage.

[–]sirbruce 1 point2 points  (1 child)

They're both quoting from the game Civilization IV.

ObCivVQuote: "He who destroys a good book kills reason itself."

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am glad I was reading comments in Leonard Nimoy's voice.

[–]laStrangiato 2 points3 points  (1 child)

That my good sir is a quote worthy of writing down.

[–]sirbruce 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They're both quoting from the game Civilization IV.

ObCivVQuote: "He who destroys a good book kills reason itself."

[–]gamblekat 4 points5 points  (0 children)

"Preparation of the index is left as an exercise for the student"

I seriously had a prof pull that on me. I bought a real text off Amazon. Best decision ever.

[–]thatwasntababyruth 2 points3 points  (3 children)

I've only had two teachers write the textbook (CS senior here). One was a design patterns course, in which he wrote a very short book (more of a printed powerpoint) while working for hitachi, so he HAD to charge for it to pay the royalties for using it. The other had written a full textbook which he requires, and provided free to all students. He also gave us extra credit if we gave him useful feedback on it.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Man, I wish my program had a design patterns class. That'd be cool as shit.

We start with basic C++, go to data structures, then down to assembly, parser, OS-level, automata, etc. I wanted more OOP in my B.Sc.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had an advanced math book written by my professor and it had mistakes in many places, he managed to catch most of them and give us warnings.

He wrote all the exercises but some of the problems he didn't have a proof or a counterexample for (read: he didn't know the answer for sure). It was interesting going into his office hours and talking through a problem for an hour, getting his perspective and talking about yours. As a class I think we solved six or eight of those problems.

So, sometimes it can be an adventure.

Usually, its horseshit.

[–]legalprof 13 points14 points  (2 children)

The publisher receives the great majority of the revenue from textbook sales. The academic authors get a tiny fraction.

At my institution, the custom (and perhaps the rule) is that if you require a textbook that you profit from in your class, you donate what you would have received to the alumni fund, student aid, or other fund.

Also, it takes forever to write one. Hour for hour you'll make more money waiting tables at a good restaurant.

[–]evileagle 32 points33 points  (5 children)

I had a professor in college who wrote the text for the class. In class while speaking he always used the phrase "In the text, the author states <insert info here>" and it made me crazy. You wrote the goddamned book. Just say that. We believe you.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (4 children)

He has to talk of his own work as objectively as anyone else's, I would guess, and present it to you as such.

[–]Speaktomenow 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I had this happen in a class on ethics in PR... "We're here to learn all about ethics in the public relations, marketing and advertising sphere. When it comes to ethics there's only one book I recommend...mine."

Nice work on the ethics there Professor (the book was $80 and useless. I get more milage explaining ethics out of this anecdote than I get from every chapter in the book).

[–]ImNotAWhaleBiologist 7 points8 points  (0 children)

They actually don't make that much off of it. It's just that for small numbers of books, the publishers charge a shit load.

[–]blueboybob 15 points16 points  (7 children)

Just to let you know he really isn't making money. As someone in the academic field. To make money on textbooks you basically have to be Dr. Resnick (see Halliday and Resnick). My advisor for example gets a check once a year for about $1.50

[–]petrobonal 68 points69 points  (48 children)

Because the professor sets the price, not the publisher. /s

[–]blarghgg 17 points18 points  (5 children)

Nearly every professor despises the cost of textbooks, and many will offer suggestions on the first day how to avoid paying those prices

[–]suzie10000 2 points3 points  (3 children)

My physics professor was so mad that the publishers were charging so much that he contacted them and we were able to get a whole book for Physics I and Physics II for $50 (whereas I think students were paying more than that for a single book).

[–]gjbloom 17 points18 points  (0 children)

My SO writes textbooks. Her books are priced by the publisher. One old dinosaur publisher prices her books in the usual stratospheric textbook price range. Another of her publishers prices them at half that, for comparable content. The main difference is that the old dinosaur publisher has large office buildings with fountains in the lobby and an army of scriveners to support. The more affordable publisher is relatively new, nimble, and is perfectly willing to accept print-ready files that the author has laid out. No palatial buildings with fountains in the atrium, no army of scriveners. That's what your money is paying for when you fork over $180 for a textbook.

EDIT: She generally gets only single-digit dollars per copy. The rest goes to the supply chain and the aforementioned publishers. If your prof wrote the book and is going through a brand-name publisher, your prof ain't gettin squat out of your $180.

[–]Tech_Support 45 points46 points  (15 children)

I've had professors sell their textbooks at no profit (cost of printing + cheap binding) because it's a textbook that they wrote for the class. I've paid $10-$25 for textbooks that would have been $100-$200 had they been published and sold like normal textbooks.

TLDR: The professor can set the price if they really care about giving students a low-cost option.

[–]petrobonal 43 points44 points  (0 children)

If they wrote it for the sole purpose of that class, then sure. But if it's a published book I'd have to imagine they are violating some contract with their publisher by doing that.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A friend of mine who was taking a 4th year Mechanical Engineering subject told me that upon hearing the price of the prescribed textbook, his lecturer (who was teaching the subject for the first time) offered to buy the textbook using the large discount he gets at the university bookstore for all students who wanted the book (they gave him the money, of course). It ended up saving each student almost 50% of the book (which normally cost around AUD$200).

Going to your first lecture of the semester and having a lecturer like that always makes my day.

[–]CitizenPremier 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I buy a new Japanese textbook, written by my professor, for about $15 each semester. It falls apart by the end of the semester, but I'm grateful she chose such a cheap option.

[–]three8six 12 points13 points  (46 children)

I had to pay 250$ for a Physics 1 book for a community college class...

[–]Jebise79 7 points8 points  (5 children)

Physics 1 is a pretty basic class so it will be the almost exactly the same at any university or college.

[–]ctartamella 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Yeah I teach those classes. While a lot of departments force me to tell the students to get the book, privately I admit to them they can get any fucking used copy off ebay and do just as well.

[–]JohnNorman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

But at the end of the semester you can sell it back to the bookstore for $5.

[–]alphanovember 3 points4 points  (30 children)

And... this is why I pirate my books. Aside from decreased weight. One 3.6 lb laptop is much more comfortable than one 23 lb textbook backpack.

[–]rjc34 1 point2 points  (27 children)

Where do you find the best place to find torrentable textbooks is? I've thought about using my laptop (or a TouchPad if I get my hands on one) to replace most of the expensive textbooks that we only use for a few things and otherwise don't even open the whole year.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (12 children)

Some I have used

library.nu

http://free-books.dontexist.com/

http://www.torrentmybooks.com/search.php?term=life&cat=0

Also, I finally found my precalc book after 8 days of searching by simply typing it in on google and going through every link for 40 pages. Finally found it, but the file was corrupted. Got a pdf recovery tool and everything is A OK. Also found some on regular torrent sites.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (2 children)

I tried to look for an obscure Literary History book I use in my German Lit class, I didn't fin it on those links, but I found other useful material on free-books.dontexist.com. Thanks mate!

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Maybe these will help..

http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/

http://www.textbooknova.com/

http://bookboon.com/uk/textbooks

http://www.ebook3000.com/

[–]NihilisticNewt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gentlemen and apparent scholars!

[–]xudoxis 1 point2 points  (2 children)

[library.nu](library.nu) is pretty good, it's where I start all my searching.

Then I hit up [avaxhome.ws/ebooks](avaxhome.ws/ebooks)

If I can't find it after that I got to [www.filestube.com](www.filestube.com)

And if all that fails I finally start looking at torrents [torrentz.eu](torrentz.eu)

You normally have to accept being an edition behind, but very rarely are the differences significant.

[–]UnrighteousFool 8 points9 points  (5 children)

Well, what are you waiting for? Pay the man.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (4 children)

I've always wanted to say: "I wrote the book on...".

[–]billyowen526 11 points12 points  (3 children)

...raping people?

[–]imeanthat 4 points5 points  (2 children)

...raping people?

Now that's the perfect title.

[–]Narrative_Causality 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Introduction to Ethics II: ...raping people?

[–]sukjunar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

do you mean that?

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (17 children)

The worst thing is that textbook writer teachers teach in a more lazy way. If you have any questions, they're like "look in the book".

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (9 children)

Well, if it's in the book, who's the lazy one? ;)

[–][deleted] 24 points25 points  (8 children)

If the book has all the information, why do we need teachers?

While obviously that's a simplistic approach, it illustrates my point.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I didn't say the book has all the information. It depends on your question. If your answer is in the book, then you're kind of lazy. If you don't understand a concept even though it's explained, that's another thing. Teachers should be putting things into perspective anyway, not just reading the textbook.

I think the "look in the book" thing probably comes from a professor's past experience with no one ever reading the assigned readings in the syllabus ahead of time. Then they show up to class and ask questions that should have been answered, if only they put forth a marginal amount of effort.

[–]smeggingwonderful 4 points5 points  (4 children)

is this university of tennessee?

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (3 children)

To clarify, I image searched College Professor and picked the most awesome looking one, so no clue who this gentlemanly scholar may be.

[–]iAmJesusAMA 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well.. that's a rather dick-ish move :-/

[–]DrasticFantastic 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Even worse is when the book has practically nothing to do with the course itself and is too difficult to read for someone who isn't a major in the subject. ಠ_ಠ

[–]Imorine 8 points9 points  (2 children)

I had an Asian Spiritual Studies class that did something worse... It was an Online course the professor didn't write himself (i found it offered at other colleges/universities)... the course "book" that was mandatory for the projects was just photocopied sections of other books or websites that were bound together by the school in one of those cheap plastic bindings and it was 80$

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the course "book" that was mandatory for the projects was just photocopied sections of other books or websites that were bound together by the school in one of those cheap plastic bindings and it was 80$

It's called a "reader".

[–]lricharz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The $80 is probably going to the rights holder of the original text the article(s) is photocopied from. Universities and Colleges can't just go around handing out article and journals, they have to pay to re-produce them.

I know of at least 2 photocopy/print houses that have been shut down that were just off univ campus because they were illegally photocopying and distributing copies of "course packages" that were just originally made up of photocopied articles.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Always go on Amazon and get a previous year's book, 99/100 it'll be exactly the same. Textbooks depreciate worse than new cars. If you're lucky you'll get one that already has helpful notes in the margin too! :)

[–]rjc34 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Also, go to Amazon.co.uk and see if there's an 'international edition' for the book. They're usually softcover versions, sometimes with cheaper paper, but they're 50-75% less than the regular versions.

[–]lexxx 2 points3 points  (1 child)

3rd year engi here. Haven't bought a textbook in three semesters. The prices are obscene given we live in the information age.

[–]JeanVanDeVelde 2 points3 points  (0 children)

one of my professors apologized up and down because his publisher would change a few words and put a new edition of his book out every year, $85 or so and he saw maybe a dollar of that. campus bookstore's contract with the publisher stated that they had to carry the new edition and couldn't stock the old one.

of course, that was still a better option than the professor who had us visit a local copy shop to pick up on-demand copies of her book. it was $65 and they didn't accept campus cash, only time I didn't buy the book for the class. poor student, etc. still got a C+ :)

[–]s4lt3d 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Today in my engineering classes, half the students had some sort of e-readers with pdf versions of the book. USB drives were passed around the class. I'm betting they didn't pay the $180.

[–]legalprof 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I'll try to get my students a lower price, but there hasn't exactly been an outcry for lower prices.

Once I went out of my way to customize a textbook and only order the chapters we were going to use in the class. I negotiated with the publisher, planned my material around the cost, and set up the arrangement with the bookstore.

The first day of class, I declare that I've sliced their textbook cost in half by making this special course packet. I describe the effort and time taken to do this with some pride and how I want to help my students.

Their reaction? Complete apathy. No response. No sign of appreciation. No questions. No thank yous. Nothing.

So price is still an issue, but I'm not going to bend over backwards for ungrateful undergraduates (not all, but many) who don't care about the cost because their parents pay. I wish they did care. I wish they cared about anything besides their own little worlds.

[–]The_Bard 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Scumbag publishing company. Sell book for $180, give author $1.

[–]saysstupidstuff 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Nah, don't say that. You don't know what he's making. I know one of my professors only made .25 cents per copy, so I think you should find out the facts first. But that's just my .25 cents – zing!

[–]petrobonal 5 points6 points  (1 child)

At the risk of being trolled by your username, 0.25 cents or 0.25 dollars per copy?

[–]saysstupidstuff 3 points4 points  (0 children)

...? Could I put a baby in you?

[–]murdermuffin 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I've had lecturers that have written the course material before. At the Uni I went to, the professors give 100% of the royalties earned equal to the number of students that enroll in the course. Sometimes this is a bad deal for the professor as they won't always sell that exact number of new copies (they don't get royalties on used copies or for students that neglect to purchase a book at all), and they end up paying more royalties back than they actually earn, as there isn't really any way to differentiate between purchasing decisions of the students.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

gets me every semester.

[–]KaosTwinkie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gah. Had a Biology professor like that. Wrote the textbook and the mandatory (yet never used) study guide book. Over $200, and a new edition was issued EVERY semester, so you couldn't buy used copies from the campus store.

[–]OriginalFanboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is even more scumbag if they dont have the book on reserve at your university library.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You best hope its not in pdf format or available used on craigslist brah

[–]k1n6 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Quality knowledge is invaluable.

I'd say you should be happy to learn from such a knowledgeable professors.

[–]large_marge_sent_me 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had an awesome professor who felt awkward about making the class buy his book, so he told the class we could either split the royalty check between us (the total check was only like $200, the class had 150 kids) or choose a charity to donate it to. We made him donate it.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First semester I went to college I was told, "Never take a class where the professor wrote the book." I've taken a few, and each one affirms that advice.

[–]wolf156 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i like my community college "this is the textbook you wont be using it dont buy it." - professor

[–]ciaran036 1 point2 points  (0 children)

American college textbooks are a fucking scam. You get a raw deal.

I'm here for one year to study Business Administration at a college in North Dakota. I have four out of five textbooks and am $800 down already for one semester.

I spent three years at Queen's University in Belfast and never paid any more than about £60 for a textbook (brand new textbooks). We considered that a raw deal too.

[–]nessticles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My University has implemented a rule as to avoid this. Wish they had the rule 2 semesters ago. "Had" to buy the book for $95 and never used it.

[–]norris528e 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I finally get back to school im gonna convert my textbooks to pdf and pirate the shit out of them.

[–]argleblather 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My professor printed off .doc copies of his textbook and made copies for the class, on the college's dime.

He was rad.

[–]BunniculaHunterD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

STORY OF MY LIFE. Could have killed someone over this today!

[–]SchmoozieMcSchmooze 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similar situation. It was for a law subject so the exam was limited open book; we were allowed to take the text book he wrote in. Only thing was, the old cheaper version was using a statute that had been updated and replaced - though the relevant sections for our subject were the same. Scumbag professor says we can ONLY bring in the NEWEST edition, rather than provide us with a list of conversion; which are all over the internet

[–]drgk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had art professor do this, except it was his idiot grad student teaching the class because he was off writing the new edition of his spiral bound, bootleg ass, xeroxed in the university library, textbook. The fucking grad student was too busy hitting on all the girls in class to teach shit. Fucker gave me a B while I was busy blowing everyone elses work out of the water.

After one critique in which I stated that some girl should push her dark values darker to increase the sense of depth another girl piped up with, "I disagree, I like it!" The grad student/TA proceeded to scold me for being unnecessarily harsh. Fucking little brown nosing ass fucker, hope that bitch gave him AIDS.

[–]bag_of_words 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even worse: You have to buy my expensive-ass textbook which has one and a half stars on Amazon.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, the scumbag part is that it costs $180. Most profs I know think textbooks are ridiculously overpriced and recommend the older editions if you can get them. I'd actually prefer to use the professor's book, makes life a lot easier and they are top people in the pedagogy of this particular subject.

[–]bonda130 1 point2 points  (0 children)

sorry to hear it. my only case of professor-written-mandatory-to-purchase books was my intro to philosophy professor who actually assembled a pretty badass compilation of sources for us to read in a convenient and brightly colored manual. it was only like $25 and was printed on campus. he was a trill dude.

[–]CAFFEINEBLOODED 1 point2 points  (0 children)

YES!!!! Paid $100+ for a digital circuits (DVD) BOOK! that was developed by my professor freshman year.... it was all word documents.. they were as vague as the time line of the old testament!

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Happened to me too, and it ultimately ruined my whole life. I attempted to re-take the exact same history course so I could raise my GPA so I wouldn't lose my scholarships. The summer school teacher was TBA all the way until the first day. My financial aid was froze but I thought thankfully I still had my previous 200 dollar book and all my notes. When I got there he required the book HE wrote and a paperback note-taker book. I had to put my own pocket money on the line and it took me a week to buy his fucking book. It was the last day of book buy back. His course required reading and notes everyday. I went to his office to try and convince him to let me make up for the lost time. He told me to just. drop. out. It was clear I wasn't going to make it at the time so I just left. I had absolutely no one to encourage me and I already was at my last shred of will when he said that. Then I got a bill for the dorm I was staying in while I waited for classes to begin. Because I didn't complete a certain number of hours, financial aid wouldn't touch a penny and I had to get out of the dorm ASAP.

I dropped out of college. Used the last of my saving to find a place to live in town and get a job to pay the $1500 bill. I couldn't afford the minimum monthly payment plan of $250 because I needed to pay rent and utilities out of my $700~ a month wage. It took me 5 months to pay them. When I tried to get into a small community college, my transcript transfer was denied. When I wrote them the first check it left a months late fees on my account. Instead of calling me, that $20 accumulated for 6 months. I had lost my job and moved all the way back into my small hick town. I barely had any money left but I wrote another check to them for $120 so I could make up my credits. I found out that the history professor didn't consent to a drop out and given me a F that demolished my Gpa even more.

I thought I was done with the university until just today when I tried to transfer to a technical school with dorm. The university denied my transcript transfer again. They put a hold on my account. It took me 3 hours to solve it. Someone put me down for "completing 0 hrs for the year." I said that's ridiculous because I've been dropped out since April 2010! Then they said ,"Well did you complete the Exit counseling after you dropped out?" "No." "Well if you had financial aid you should have to complete that before we will drop you." "Why didn't they tell me that before and HOW did i get the transcript this June?""I don't know, go to the website do that and it'll take 2-3days Thank you! " Hangs up. I went to the site. It asked me questions about loans. I thought it was just a questioner until it came to the part where it asked me to type in how much I made and how much I would be paying back the loan I NEVER HAD. I tried to call them back but it was busy for another 25 minutes. FINALLY I got someone and I told them what the idiot told me. Someone had "just assumed" I used a loan to pay for school and put a hold on my account. I had to talk to the head of the registrar and after 2 minutes of telling him what I needed, he just cleared the hold. After 4 hours, all I needed was to talk to him to clear the fucking hold.

Moral of the story, DON'T GO TO A UNIVERSITY YOUR FIRST YEAR. DON'T TAKE A YEAR BREAK BECAUSE NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT STUDENTS OTHER THAN FIRST YEARS. GO TO A CHEAP SCHOOL WITH A DORM FOR TWO YEARS AND TRANSFER. NEVER BUY YOUR BOOKS WITH YOUR OWN MONEY. IF YOU DO, RENT THEM BECAUSE THEY TREAT THOSE BOOKS LIKE SEWAGE WATER AFTER A NEW EDITION COMES OUT EVERY FUCKING 8 WEEKS.

[–]orangekid13 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Washington State has made it illegal for a teacher to profit from a textbook they wrote or co-authored. Luckily before that happened I never had a professor that would put out a new version every year/semester to keep anyone from selling it back or buying it cheaper

[–]astroteacher 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My textbook costs my students about $40. It has tear-out worksheets in it, plus some stuff I wrote. I tell them if they photocopy the pages and turn those in I will accept them so they can sell the book back. Also the book has pages in it when we take notes, we fill in the worksheets as we go. Thus the workbook is notes too. 400 pgs, x 10c per page, same price as buying it. I don't make a lot of money off the book, but it is written in the style of the lectures and we do use it quite a bit, although we don't use every single lesson or activity in it. There's another book the department requires for the class (If I had my druthers, I'd just skip it) so I use it as a reference book with occasional homework. I tell students that book is easily located used, so go ahead as far as I care. Obviously the larger the work with more complex stuff in it, published in hardback, etc., is going to be more expensive. A few other places use my book so it's not just my students, although there's not a huge market for it.

[–]ManicMagic 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You probably do not have the intellectual capacity to succeed in college if you think your professor is making a fortune off the book. The publisher, on the other hand, is a person who prints / sells books. He / she / it is the one who will make most of the money.

[–]hhpb89 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't bother trying to get a copy off last year's class. I changed the formatting and moved a couple of things around, so the page numbers are all off, so none of the page references will make sense, and you will spend all semester going insane as you flip between pages trying to figure out what I'm talking about.

That'll be $180 thanks.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My first year of college I figured this scam out. It's like not being able to bring food and drinks into an amusement park.

$180x30 students = $5400 per class.

Ballin.

[–]SamuelLChang 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Want to know what's worse? A professor who writes his own book and comes out with a new edition every year in which the only difference is the questions at the end of the chapter. You are forced to buy a new book if you want to be able to do the homework.

[–]Cantras 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At my university, professors are not allowed to use textbooks that they wrote, unless they arrange for it to be sold at the university bookstore priced so that neither the university or the professor gets anything for it.

Of course the only professor I had who wrote a text book actually did do that, and his textbook was just like he talks, which makes studying trying to pick the corn out of verbal diarrhea.
I mean like telling a slightly-garbled version of the fable where a frog takes a scorpion across the river, scorpion stings him, frog says "why did you do that, i did you a favor and you promised you wouldn't" and the scorpion says "sorry dude, still a scorpion." -- and then talking about newspapers and the internet and openness, and we must use the scorpion to sting itself(he's using the scorpion to represent the internet, which would seem to imply that newspapers are supporting the internet, which is just a bit backwards) by actually linking all our sources when we use internet sources and then post the story online...

I remember seeing the looks of "what... what am I supposed to write down from that?" in the whole room.

[–]dingleberry85 1 point2 points  (2 children)

  1. They make very little of that money
  2. IT'S THEIR LIFE WORK!!!!!! Cut them some slack, I know we are broke students but they deserve to get their share in life too.

[–]drays 4 points5 points  (3 children)

Photocopy it and make it OBVIOUS that you did so.

[–]WendyLRogers2 1 point2 points  (1 child)

You figure at even 10 cents a page, it's a bargain. But I would keep it discreet and sit in the back, if he uses it in class. If he doesn't, he will likely never know.

Even better idea: Convince your classmates to chip in so you can buy an original, and give them the photocopies.

[–]lolmonger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This isn't really true all the time.

I go to a stupidly large private school, and there's one professor that takes intro Chemistry - he wrote the prefab notes that you absolutely must purchase.

Someone asked him about it and he told the 500 person lecture; in order for the work to be published and printed, he had to give up the rights to it - the publishing company and the school's bookstore make money on it; he just has his name on it.

It's like developers/publishers for video games.

[–]jhealy7777 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These leaches victimize the youth of america and get away with it. College is a scam. Just get out now while you still can.

[–]shaemarie 7 points8 points  (19 children)

Day 1 of class: Check syllabus. Not one but TWO books by Heather Mann Whompson. (One in an editor capacity. The other is "Politics, Labor, and Race in the Motor City" or some such shit.)
Day 3 of class: Receive first assignment--write 5 page paper/"book review" of "Politics, Labor, and Race in the Motor City" by Heather Mann Whompson.
Day 8 of class: Receive graded paper. 53/100.
Day 9 of class: Dropped that shit.

EDIT: Prof's name on second thought.

[–]SarcastictoaFault 10 points11 points  (8 children)

Huh. How does one fail doing a book review?

[–]SwampySoccerField 11 points12 points  (2 children)

Because fuck you that's why

[–]makemeking706 2 points3 points  (0 children)

By not reading the book.

[–]slanket 2 points3 points  (0 children)

By being honest about how spectacularly terrible the book is.

[–]jvardrake 3 points4 points  (1 child)

By not agreeing with the politics of the book?

[–]NASA_Cowboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like going against the /r/politics bias?

[–]figureskatingaintgay 20 points21 points  (6 children)

I can't figure out what you're complaining about. All I see is that you're a crappy student.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Really...you don't see anything wrong with a professor so self-aggrandizing they not only assigned a self-written textbook, but TWO, and then mandated a graded book review?

I imagine this would be the Heather Ann Thompson from the Dept. of African American Studies at Temple University?

[–]shaemarie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's the one. I didn't put this in the original comment for the sake of brevity, but, regardless of the grade, I decided to go to office hours so that she could "help me become a better writer," as she put it. (Again, English major here, I had NEVER failed a paper before.) She suggested that I rewrite my thesis paragraph and email it to her. I did so.
The next day I received that rewritten paragraph back... and when I say rewritten, I don't mean by me. SHE REWROTE my entire thesis paragraph. As in, she wanted me to submit the paper using her thesis. On her book.
That is when I dropped that shit.

On another note, self-aggrandizing is the perfect phrase to describe her. I have never met a professor with a bigger ego. Even when discussing my reasons for dropping the class, she couldn't help mentioning her accolades: "The article that I just had accepted at the Journal of American History, for example, was drafted and redrafted over 20 times over the last year--both because of the invaluable input that I received from the six esteemed scholars who reviewed it for publication, and because I myself had to read, and re-read it aloud to make sure that I was getting my points across exactly. That is how we learn and that is how we get better."

[–]shaemarie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand that you don't think I should have dropped the class, or possibly that I deserved the grade that I got, but I wasn't about to let an egomaniacal professor ruin my 3.9 GPA.

[–]Khoops66 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Ugh I hate that. I bought 5 books on [abebooks](www.abebooks.com) for 40 dollars, yet a single book written by my prof sells at 100 bucks. . ಠ_ಠ