An edition by any other name smells as sweet

Every three years or so, textbook publishers release a new edition of a textbook. One has to wonder, though, why? Calculus hasn’t changed much since Sir Isaac Newton, so what’s the point? More importantly, what has changed from that last edition to the latest one?

In four words… not a whole lot. Sure, there are textbooks that change substantially from one edition to another – ones in dynamic subjects that actually change (like planetary geology, or current political science). Most textbooks, though, don’t change – especially introductory ones.

Let’s look at what does change from one edition to the next:

• New Cover – This is the oldest trick in the book. Put a new cover on an old book and it looks like new! It makes the new edition look nicer, but it certainly doesn’t help you study any better.
  
  
• Chapter Re-order – Another familiar trick is to juggle the order of chapters. This makes for a new book without bothering the authors, but it doesn’t help you a bit.
  
  
• New Examples – This one’s a bit of help. Instead of the two examples in last edition, you get two different examples. Umm… maybe that isn’t much help after all.
  
  
• New Pictures – Charts, tables, graphs, and photos, all appealing to our attention-disordered TV generation. The new stuff is no more effective than the old stuff, but once again they don’t need to bother the authors.
  
  
• Error Correction – Woah, here’s something useful – fixing the damned errors! We paid good money for the old edition, they couldn’t throw that in too?!?
  

So what’s changed here? Nothing much, except for the price.