[URPE] Query from Dollars & Sense about possible health care textbook and labor textbook

[Chris Sturr]

Dear URPE folks,

We at Dollars & Sense are considering expanding our roster of textbooks to
offer two new titles:  *Real World Labor* and *Real World Health Care. *These
would be (like most of our other textbooks) anthologies of articles
from *Dollars
& Sense* magazine (though we could include new material and/or material that
has been published elsewhere if that would help round out coverage of key
topics).

We are asking for help from URPE members so that we can decide whether it is
worth going ahead with either of these projects, and (if so) to decide how
we should proceed. We are most interested in hearing from URPE members who
teach classes in the relevant areas and (especially) who might be interested
in adopting these textbooks if we decide to go ahead with them.

*Real World Labor *would be (we are thinking) for labor economics and labor
studies courses. We think our coverage of labor issues has been quite strong
over the years. We publish an annual (Sept/Oct) labor issue of the magazine,
each of which includes three or four feature articles and four or five
shorter articles on labor topics; the other five issues in any given year,
taken together, include about an equivalent number of labor-related
articles. Several professors we have met at the ASSA and the EEA and other
conferences have told us that there is a real need for a reader of this
sort.  What we need advice on is what kinds of courses a D&S labor anthology
might be used in, how we can tailor it to those courses, what topics are
essential, what a useful chapter organization would be, what gaps there
might be in our recent coverage in the magazine, etc.

*Real World Health Care *would be for health economics courses or for
introductory econ courses for students in health-related degree programs.
Our precedent for this book is that an econ professor at a pharmacology
program asked us to put together a reader for him last fall; he wanted *all*
of our articles related to health care, public health, etc. (single payer,
health-care finance, Medicare/Medicaid, Medicare Part D, the global AIDS
crisis, inequality and health, etc.), plus a few articles not directly about
health care but that would be useful for students evaluating health policy
(e.g. critiques of cost-benefit analysis and of basic assumptions of
mainstream economics). We came up with a nice little reader that the
professor found useful, but we think a lot more work would need to be done
to make this into a useful (and marketable) textbook. (For one thing, the
reader we put together is not divided into chapters; the articles are just
in reverse chronological order according to when they appeared in the
magazine.  For another thing, it is quite likely that there are gaps in our
coverage.)  We need information about:  what courses such a reader might be
adopted for, what topics it should definitely cover, what a useful chapter
organization would be, what gaps there are in our current coverage, etc.

For both of these (potential) projects, we are seeking people who can give
us quick feedback on the issues I mention above. But we are also hoping to
find people who would be willing to co-edit the books (with our staff
editors) or to be on an advisory committee. We are also hoping to line up in
advance instructors who can commit to adopting the book for their courses.
We are both cash- and time-strapped, so we are leery of investing in these
projects without having an idea in advance about whether the books will sell
well enough to repay our efforts.  If we knew in advance that two or three
instructors who teach relatively large classes (and who had a hand in
putting the books together so that they meet their needs) could guarantee
sales, we would be much more likely to go ahead with these projects. One
option would be to micro-publish one or the other of these textbooks (as
something between a coursepack and a textbook) for one or more instructors,
as sort of a "dry-run," and then spruce it up and market it the following
semester.  We have started to work with a "print-on-demand" company that
makes it possible for us to do smaller print-runs (this is how we were able
to produce the health care reader I described above), and this will make it
possible for us to experiment in putting out textbooks on narrower topics.
(We are also thereby able to produce custom textbooks; please contact us if
you're interested in anthologies of D&S articles on topics other than these,
or in a different mix of articles than we have in our existing textbooks.)

Anyone who is willing to help us with either of these two projects is
invited to send feedback to me and to our book editor, Dan Fireside (
fireside at dollarsandsense.org).  Also let us know whether (even if you can't
help us out) whether you want us to let you know when these books come out
(if they do).

*On a different (but related) topic:* we would appreciate any feedback URPE
members can give us about some of the challenges we are facing given the
rapid changes in the publishing industry.  For example: while subscriptions
to the print edition of *Dollars & Sense* have declined (something all print
publications are facing) and printing and mailing costs are increasing, we
are trying to figure out how to go electronic with the magazine.  But at
least some of the ways of doing so (e.g. putting all of our archives online,
for access via password for e-subscribers) risk undercutting our textbook
sales, which is the source of most of our revenue. Similarly, we want to
make our articles widely available, and so have for years allowed online
databases like ProQuest to make our archives available to colleges and
universities by subscription. But we are worried that this, too, undermines
textbook sales. Also, we would like to be able to offer e-book versions of
our textbooks (possibly as a lower-cost alternative to our print editions).
But we don't have the in-house expertise to create e-books that would allow
us to protect our copyrighted material.  While we have our political
objections to copyright, but relying on it is currently the only way that we
can pay the bills.  Since we have always operated on a shoe-string and on
the edge financially, it's really important that we figure out a viable way
to survive in the changing publishing industry; even a small decline in our
textbook revenue could mean the end of Dollars & Sense.  So please send us
any thoughts you have about these topics (viable online subscription systems
that won't undercut our textbook sales; e-books that you have had your
students use that worked well; alternative models for making our content
available to professors that also allow us to stay afloat financially).

I hope that it goes without saying that if you make use of our articles in
the classroom without paying for them (or having your students pay for
them), we very much hope you will consider either adopting our textbooks,
paying for copyright permission, working with us to develop a custom
textbook, or at least making a donation. We are celebrating our 35th year as
a collectively-run publishing house dedicated to making left economic
analysis accessible to the general public, including students and
professors. If you find what we produce useful, please help us continue to
produce it.

In solidarity,

Chris Sturr (co-editor, *Dollars & Sense*)
<sturr at dollarsandsense.org>
-- 
-- 
Chris Sturr
Co-editor, Dollars & Sense
29 Winter St.
Boston, Mass. 02108
phone:  617-447-2177, ext. 205
fax:    617-447-2179
email:  sturr at dollarsandsense.org
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