Publishers Weekly: Indie Authors on Campus

Bob Hoyt, an instructor and director of the Health Informatics program at the University of West Florida, knew his students were struggling with the high cost of their textbooks. The nominal price of college textbooks has “risen more than fifteenfold” since 1970 -- which is three times the rate of inflation -- according to a recent article in the Economist, while the Wall Street Journal notes the cost of new print textbooks has risen, on average, about 6% a year for the last decade. Hoyt was also frustrated that new developments in his field meant information in the books was already obsolete by the time they were published. “There were no textbooks that were up to date or easy to read,” Hoyt says. To solve the problem, he decided to create his own, with associate editor and adjunct instructor at the University of West Florida Ann Yoshihashi, and self-publish it on Lulu.com -- and sell it for about a third of the cost of a regular textbook. To read the rest of this story, please visit Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/65338-indie-authors-on-campus.html.