Math textbook author made $26 million

[davewill]

I'm going to say that it's not the author's but the publishers that are overpricing the books.  The author spends the time to write a textbook, and from what I've seen, this particular author has written a very good one.  He DESERVES to make money off of his books.  Should he just give away his labor?  I think not.

The publishers are the ones that price them (and overprice them), not the authors.

The real problem is that there's no free market for college texts. The student can't just say, "This book's too expensive, I'll buy this other cheaper one". Worse, too many professors care more about perqs and favors offered by the publishers than they do about students and textbook costs. So they happily require the latest editions of expensive texts. The only real solution when the market doesn't work is regulation, either by schools instituting protections for the students, or, in the case of public education, lawmakers imposing reforms.

Another one of the great things about alternative credit is that texts or study materials are usually included in the price.