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Well most universities are in the business of exploiting both faculty and students. The administrators make all the money, while most of the faculty make a pittance. Professors often try to make a little more pocket change by writing a textbook and making their students buy it. Then they make a few edited changes every couple years so that the used copies are obsolete and the students have to buy the new one again.
I'm a professor and I have my students buy my textbook, but I barely make any money off it because the paperback costs only $15 and I make $1.50 royalty per book. 10% is pretty standard, which is next to nothing. If I wanted to make more, I'd ask the publisher to charge more, then you guys would have to pay it because you have no choice.
It's really a scam. If you're a good teacher you have little need for textbooks at all, let alone a new edition every couple years.
But I wouldn't blame the professors, because they're just as exploited by the administration as the students. They have the advantage of being a little above the students on the totem pole, that's all. This little textbook scam is one of the few things they can do to make up for having to constantly beg for a decent wage.
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