I ordered a copy of my old PHY456 Quantum Mechanics II notes for myself, and it arrived today! Here it is with it’s buddies (Grad QM and QFT):
With the shipping cost from the US to Canada (because I’m now paying for amazon prime anyways) it’s actually cheaper for me to get a regular copy than to order an author proof, so this time I have no “not for resale” banding.
This little stack of Quantum notes weighs in at about 1050 pages, and makes a rather impressive pile. There’s a lot of info there, for the bargain price of either free or about $30 USD, depending on whether you want a PDF or print copy of this set. Of course, most people want neither, and get all their quantum mechanics through osmosis from the engineering of the microchips and electronics in their phones and computers.
I have to admit that it’s a fun ego boost to see your name in print. In order to maximize the ego boost, you can use my strategy and do large scale vanity press, making a multiple volume set for yourself. Here’s my whole collection, which includes the bulk of my course notes, plus my little book:
Based on the height of the stack, I’d guess this is about 3000 pages total, the product of about 10 years of study and work.
Making these all available for free to anybody in PDF form surely cripples my potential physical copy sales volume, but that doesn’t matter too much since I’ve set the price so low that I only get a token payment for each copy anyways. Based on linear extrapolation of my sales so far, I’ll recoup my tuition costs (not counting the opportunity cost of working part time while I took the courses) after another 65 years of royalties.