Digital guru Seth Godin made bloggy headlines over the weekend with a rant about textbook publishing, finally concluding: “This industry deserves to die.”
Godin’s grim post broke down the problems he saw in the traditional industry, but nevertheless, this market is on the verge of massive changes. Last week, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he hopes to switch students to digital math and science textbooks, and many companies are vying for control of this digital market.
Here’s more from the post: “They are expensive. $50 is the low end, $200 is more typical. A textbook author in Toronto made enough money from his calculus textbook to afford a $20 million house. This is absurd on its face. There’s no serious insight or leap in pedagogy involved in writing a standard textbook. That’s what makes it standard. It’s hard, but it shouldn’t make you a millionaire.”