Publisher of Free Textbooks Says It Will Now Charge For Them, Instead 156
An anonymous reader writes "In a surprising blow to the movement to create free textbooks online, an upstart company called Flat World Knowledge is dumping its freemium model. The upstart publisher had made its textbooks free online and charged for print versions or related study guides, but company officials now say that isn't bringing in enough money to work long-term."
At some point the college kids need a paycheck... (Score:5, Insightful)
well, duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Surprising? I think not. (Score:4, Insightful)
For over 15 years I've been paying $24/year for a free-for-life email address.
eh? who's that with? Seriously you could have your own domain plus email form less
Re:Surprising? I think not...Open Living. (Score:5, Insightful)
Textbooks that are old are worth lots. The newest ones are often worthless .... except that I am speaking from a homeschooler's or tutor's point of view. To a professor with 100 students, it's more important to have everyone use the same book, than for the book to be correct.
He can instruct the students on what to ignore, and why. He can check the answers to problems, and come up with an errata sheet. He can't even hope to read 20-odd different texts, though.
OK several people didn't read your post. (Score:2, Insightful)
Neither, apparently, did you.
"Free doesn't always work". You say this and this implies that sometimes it does work. Indeed we have several cases of it working very well indeed. That implies that "Free" IS a business case. Indeed, since 90% of all new ventures fail, that a majority of cases of a busniness case fail is no reason to claim it isn't a business model.
Therefore the opener "you need a real business model" is even under your auspices a load of bollocks: FREE IS A BUSINESS MODEL.
That you then have to snide a "Once you get kicked out of your moms house" shows that you're actually immature as well as a dumbass, deciding to go for a rote homily rather than think up something at least vaguely original.
Re:Surprising? I think not...Open Living. (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, if the textbook is old, it is worthless
Ahh that's the problem. I took a university class on pre-civil war american history. That could be updated every month as the historical academic journals publish new papers, but almost nothing would be changed each month and approx zero value would be added, although the price for all that churn would be extremely high. Or you could update the text every generation or so, maybe as what boils down to a PHD's dissertation project. Not sure if that would be an Ed PHD or a history PHD project or a collaboration more likely or .... That's probably good enough, and basically free.
On the other hand, I was forced to take some idiotic IT helpdesk support training type class on Excel '97, which was only one generation obsolete at that time. That textbook obviously has to be completely rewritten every time MS wants to re-cash-in on all the previous Excel sales.
Generally speaking if its a training textbook then an old one is worthless, and if its an education textbook then an old one is perfectly fine.
Re:OK several people didn't read your post. (Score:4, Insightful)
"Lack of revenue" is NEVER a business model.
Re:At some point the college kids need a paycheck. (Score:5, Insightful)
Free doesn't always work.
Non-free doesn't always work either. I have been involved in many businesses as founder, owner, consultant, adviser, etc. Some based on open source/content, some not. One company I was involved in gave the software away and sold t-shirts. That actually worked fairly well. The trick is to find a revenue model that works before you move out of Mom's basement. Remember that Mom isn't just giving you free rent, you are also getting free meals, electricity, laundry service, etc. Those all add up.
Re:Having an aneurysm - send help. (Score:5, Insightful)
But reading reference books on a kindle sucks, where one is often needing to quickly flip to different parts of the book that may not be connected by actual hyperlinks within it, or if you are searching for a particular full-page picture.
If actually reading anything but fiction on an electronic device was just as convenient as reading a physical book, where you can flip forward or backward an arbitrary number of pages entirely at your own discretion, it might replace them. Not before.
Re:Who said there was no revenue? Free != no reven (Score:5, Insightful)
Red Hat does not sell software, they sell support. Software needs support because it is complex and buggy. Books, not so much. Because Red Hat makes enough money selling support (and much of the software is created by others anyway), they can afford to give away unsupported software. That does not prove 'free' is a viable business model.
Radiohead made a ton of money selling albums the traditional way. The fact that they can afford to give one away for free is no more proof that 'free' is a viable business model than anyone else donating their time to something is proof that free is a viable business model.
Re:Surprising? I think not...Open Living. (Score:5, Insightful)
Fixed that for you.
Re:OK several people didn't read your post. (Score:4, Insightful)
One way or another, you have to have a way to bring in revenue. Even non-profits need, at least, some donations.
So, yes, "free" is possible. But "free without any other adequate source of revenue" is not. And it sounds like their plans to sell hardcopies for revenue simply wasn't producing adequate revenue.