Victor D. López's Blog: Victor D. Lopez, page 89
September 12, 2013
Low Cost College Textbooks for Business Law, Legal Environment and Related Courses
The demise of the traditional textbook has been hugely exaggerated. Nor have recent state and federal legislation intended to reduce the high cost of college textbooks had much of an impact to date. (I’ve written about the issue elsewhere on this blog before.) Online books, book rental schemes and even the ability to buy books one chapter at a time from some of the few remaining large publishing houses have also not much diminished the effective cost for students as renting a book or “buying” an online version that is non transferable and expires after a year or less can cost more than buying a used copy of a textbook and then reselling it at the end of the semester.
Nevertheless, low cost alternatives exist though they are hard to find since their low cost (and low profits for the publishers and authors that produce them) leave no room for hiring legions of sales reps to spread the word or massive mailings of free desk copies to prospective adopters. Thus, sales are slow to build and there is little incentive for such books to be produced as a consequence. I can offer my own two recent textbooks as examples. My Business Law: An Introduction, published by Irwin/McGraw Hill for more than a decade was released as an updated, expanded second edition by textbook Media Press, my new publisher, two years ago. The original hard cover edition paid my mortgage for the better part of 10 years, was used in more than 100 community colleges, technical colleges and universities in 37 states and sold for three times its current updated paperback version. The new edition is available both in various electronic and online formats as well as in paperback ranging in price from $18.95 to $39.95. But it remains virtually unknown–even to the loyal adopters that refused to let the outdated edition go out of print for about a decade. The same is true of my Legal Environment of Business book from Prentice Hall which has been significantly updated and expanded and released as a second edition also within the past three years as Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business 2e also from Textbook Media Press at the same price point as the shorter book. It has been adopted by a range of colleges and universities from technical colleges through at least one AACSB accredited school of business (not, it is not my current university), but sales are weak because the title is also virtually unknown.
I don’t see an answer. But I find it difficult to justify even thinking about a third edition of either book unless sales can justify the time and energy required for the projects. Which means they too may wither on the vine and yet another viable low cost alternative to the $240 textbooks with which it competes will soon disappear. As long as faculty and students don’t see a problem with a $240 or a $100+ book rental these will continue to exist until the entire industry collapses in on itself as fewer and fewer students buy a product made extraordinarily expensive in no small part by the push-marketing costs associated with its traditional means of distribution.
Meantime, my books–and those of other authors willing to sacrifice royalty earnings for the chance to make textbooks available at a rational price will remain a little known secret destined to die of neglect.
For what it’s worth, here is some additional information about my two latest textbooks. Just click on the name of each for my publisher’s information and expanded free chapter previews or on my publisher’s name for a link to their current catalog of college textbooks.
Business Law and the Legal Environment of Business 2e, Victor D. López 2011, (Textbook Media 2011)
Business Law: An Introduction 2e, Victor D. López 2011, (Textbook Media 2011)
September 11, 2013
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream free Kindle promotion postponed to 9/12/2014
My apologies to all who tried to download my free Kindle book today. For some reason, it has been listed as free tomorrow (September 12, 2013) rather than today. It is the second issue I’ve had in as many tries with my Kindle Direct listings. My apologies. The short story WILL be free on Thursday, September 12. You can download it here tomorrow:
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream . . .
September 10, 2013
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream . . . Free on September 11, 2013
The Kindle version of my short story, To Sleep, Perchance to Dream, is available free only on Wednesday, September 11, 2013). It is one of the eight stories that appears in my Book of Dreams Second Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories.
To download the story, just click on its cover below during the giveaway period. Note too that all of my short stories, the short story collection and my intellectual property book can currently also be downloaded free of charge at any time by Kindle owners who are also Amazon Prime members. (You can click on my photo below for a listing of some of my books currently available through Amazon.)
Thank you!
September 7, 2013
Delay in posting Mergs as a free title today (September 7, 2013)
As I posted yesterday, my Kindle title Mergs (Or Why Godot Can’t Come . . .) is free today from Amazon for one day only. Unfortunately, as of 9:37 a.m. EST, the title is not yet available for free download for some unknown reason. I’ve contacted Amazon but they tend to be slow to respond. I’ve verified that the giveaway is supposed to be live today and hope Amazon will correct the error as soon as possible.
I apologize for any inconvenience and hope that Amazon will remedy the issue quickly. Just in case Amazon does not resolve the issue quickly, however, I’ve also added another free promotion day for tomorrow. Therefore the title should be available for free download both sometime today, when Amazon fixes the error, and tomorrow. Again my apologies to anyone who tried to download the title and noticed the free promotion was not yet live. The link to the short story is here: Mergs.
September 6, 2013
Free download 9/7/2013 – Mergs (Or Why Godot Can’t Come)
My short story Mergs (Or Why Godot Can’t Come) is available as a free download from Amazon tomorrow only (Saturday, September 7, 2013). You can access it by clicking here. It is a stand-alone reprint from my short story collection Book of Dreams Second Edition.
In a world that worships power and raises human beings onto pedestals erected from the insubstantial building blocks of ego, hubris, and self-delusion, it is no wonder that we look for meaning and enlightenment in all the wrong places. We turn a dismissive eye to human suffering and most other things that might blur the image of our own reflection in the world around us. We walk by a homeless person while looking away at more inviting vistas, or perhaps assuage our guilt by putting a dollar in their empty cup with the knowledge that there for the Grace . . . . But what if we could see that each one of us–even the most wretched soul amongst us living in despair without hope of redemption–were, in fact a god in a universe of one whom sentient beings worship and depended totally upon for their own salvation?
Tagged: contemporary fiction, science fiction, scifi, SF, short story, speculative fiction
September 4, 2013
The Day the Dolphins Vanished – Free September 5, 2013 from Amazon
This is a short story (2825 words) reprinted from Book of Dreams Second Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories (C) 2012 by Victor D. López.
Human beings are not the only intelligent life forms on Earth and possibly not the most intelligent. Efforts at communicating with marine mammals such as wales and dolphins whose brains are larger than our own have had very limited success to date, less so than the success we’ve enjoyed in teaching some gorillas and chimpanzees to communicate using sign language despite the fact that their brains have less capacity than our own. This short story explores the possible consequences of bridging the language barrier with dolphins whose larger brains may well provide them with intelligence that exceeds our own. When a dedicated marine biologist/linguist makes the breakthrough in the near future that allows true communication to take place, what rewards may we expect from her research, and what might our aquatic cousins learn about us and teach us about ourselves?
Book of Dreams Second Edition
Tagged: science fiction, short story, speculative fiction
August 12, 2013
Earth Mother – Free for the Kindle Tuesday August 13
This is my last free promotion for the month. Earth Mother (short story) free only on Tuesday, August 13. You can download it in the U.S. by clicking on its photo below. Links to all of my Kindle books in international sites where readers have previously downloaded my books can also be found below.
At present, Kindle Prime members can borrow three of my Kindle books and seven short stories free through their Prime membership. Brief information about and links to these are available HERE.
To my readers, colleagues and friends, thank you for your interest and support!
August 10, 2013
Book of poems free only on Sunday, August 11
My book, Of pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems, is free for the Kindle for one day during August (Sunday, August 11). You may download it by clicking on its cover below in the U.S. (See links below for some other world regions where my books have been purchased in the past.) Please bear in mind that Amazon in the U.S. at least, uses west coast time to start and end the “day” so that depending on your location the giveaway will most likely start and end other than at midnight your time. As I write this it is 3:14 a.m. on 8/11 on the East coast and the book was not yet “free” as of a few minutes ago.
At present, Kindle Prime members can borrow three of my Kindle books and seven short stories free through their Prime membership. Brief information about and links to these are available HERE.
If you would like to hear me read a ten-minute eclectic selection from the book, please click HERE.
To my readers, colleagues and friends, thank you for your interest and support!
August 9, 2013
Free Kindle short story one day only – Saturday, August 10
Mergs (Or Why Godot Can’t Come) free for the Kindle for one day only, Saturday August 10.
In a world that worships power and raises human beings onto pedestals erected from the insubstantial building blocks of ego, hubris, and self-delusion, it is no wonder that we look for meaning and enlightenment in all the wrong places. We turn a dismissive eye to human suffering and most other things that might blur the image of our own reflection in the world around us. We walk by a homeless person while looking away at more inviting vistas, or perhaps assuage our guilt by putting a dollar in their empty cup with the knowledge that there for the Grace . . . . But what if we could see that each one of us–even the most wretched soul amongst us living in despair without hope of redemption–is, in fact a god in a universe of one whom sentient beings worship and depended totally upon for their own salvation?
At present, Amazon prime members can also borrow three of my books and a number of other short stories for the Kindle. You can see the list and view the links for these by clicking on my photo below. Thank you for your interest and support!
Books and Short Stories Currently Available for Free Download to Amazon Prime Members
My recent fiction, poetry and individual short stories are now available for free download to Amazon Prime members. My Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets book is also available for free download to Amazon Prime members in its Kindle format (the book currently retails for $8.99 for the Kindle and $17.99 in soft cover, though Amazon is currently selling it for $14.35 as of this writing, most likely due to a price-match for a competing retailer.)
For additional information about any of these, please click on the appropriate covers below or on the books’ titles in order view the most current information about each book in their individual Amazon page. As always, I am grateful for your interest and will gladly respond to any questions below.
Books:
Intellectual Property Law: A Practical Guide to Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks and Trade Secrets [Paperback and Kindle Editions]
Book of Dreams 2nd Edition: Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction Short Stories [Paperback and Kindle Editions]
Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems [Paperback and Kindle Editions]
Short Stories:
End of Days (Science Fiction Short Story) [Kindle Edition]
Eternal Quest (A Speculative Fiction Short Story) [Kindle Edition]
What Price to Live the Dream? (short story) [Kindle Edition]
Earth Mother (short story) [Kindle Edition]
The Day the Dolphins Vanished (Short Story) [Kindle Edition]
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream . . . (Short Story)
Mergs (or Why Godot Can’t Come . . .) [Kindle Edition]
Click Here for Book Trailers with Sample Poetry and Fiction Readings
For more information about me and my recent publications, please click on my picture below. Thank you!
Tagged: contemporary fiction, copyright law, copyrights, free books, free short stories, intellectual ptoperty, law, patent law, patents, science fiction, short stories, speculative fiction, trademarks
Victor D. Lopez
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