Behind The Scenes Of Specialized Literature

If like me you are highly specialized in a scholar field and if you are a regular user of auction websites, you may have already chanced upon those sellers proposing $150+ books for just a few bucks. Logically, you must have thought that those resellers are illegal, that their items are fakes, or worse, that their only business is to swindle gullible people. Wrong.

I happen to be a mathematician, and as such, I am interested in the Springer-Verlag editions, which provide high-quality content in various scientific and economic fields. Notwithstanding their sky-high prices, I have already acquired dozens of their most valuable books in mathematics. Not to say that I do not own electronic versions of those, but everybody agrees that you do need a paper copy when you plan to study some material in details.

I had never regretted my purchases until my last trip to Beijing last summer, where I found, with the help of a local resident, a bookshop reselling most of those books for about a thirtieth of their price, the only difference lying in a slightly cheaper paper quality (which does not constitute any problem).

Legal ? Illegal ? Legal ! The American company has agreements with China Press allowing the edition of those books in Mainland China, their reselling being authorized only there (understand: no shipping overseas).

Your first reaction would probably be to think that this is a very clever and fair way to proceed, since it both prevents illegal reproductions and addresses the currency gap issue. However, considering the poorest regions of China, a $100 book should be sold on average 100 yuans there. I paid 35 yuans per book (think about about it: $5 per book, where one would pay $150 overseas). Why so much generosity ?

Does the fact that specialized literature is read by so few people really justify high prices, or do editors make huge profits at our expenses ?

If you are a specialist of any kind, you may perfectly plan a special trip to China to enrich your bookshelves. Just remember to take an empty bookcase !

The author of this site is a trained mathematician, and has been a full-time resident of France (in Paris and Marseille), New York City and China, where he is still residing and working as a college lecturer. He has retained a keen interest in various fields related to sports, literature, philosophy, psychology and mathematics. As an obvious corollary, his writings are largely dominated by a spirit of logic and obstinate rationalization. Indeed, one of his ultimate quests is the conciliation of logics with emotions.

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