Professors should read this short article, but beware of the hidden agenda! It is based on experiences with both traditional and do-it-yourself textbook publishing for profit. Previously, one author coauthored a traditional text on operating systems. Recently, the authors collaborated to produce and self-publish a fully buzz-phrase-compliant software engineering textbook. They used LaTeX and Amazon. They hired freelance professionals for specialized services such as graphics and indexing. They claim that buyer ratings give it higher scores than the rival texts. It cost them $12,000 and their royalties are roughly $5 per copy. So they need to sell more than 2,000 copies to break even. They must do this without the sales force and advertising provided by traditional publishers. Perhaps this article will help sell copies.

Their comparison of traditional publishing versus self-publishing matches my experience. They highlight the ability to rapidly keep the text up-to-date at a low cost, but do not mention the advances publishers offer authors to develop a text. They also dismiss free/open-source solutions. Using the web, at zero cost to me and my students, I replaced an expensive text with a searchable hypertext in one of my classes. It was preferred by my students to traditional textbooks. I’d like to see a study comparing all of the options in terms of student outcomes.