Comments on: The High Cost of College Textbooks

By: rBST

rBST — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:45:08 +0000

As a fofmer editor of college textbooks (in the Computer Science field), publishers take a hit in profits due to the used textbook trade, which evolved from the wells of college bookstores. Though college bookstores do not make a big profit from new textbooks, the profit margin from selling used textbooks is more significant. As such, students slurp up the used books ebfore shelling out the list price of brand new texts. Obviously, the publishers get hit the hardest.
Making books, in general, has plainly become more expensive. The digital age of swapping copy from here to there has made the production of textbooks more expensive, not less…for a whole bunch of other reasons, some of which escape me at the moment (it’s New Year’s Day after all).
It’s a very competitive market. And thanks to passionate professors who devote their lives to their subject matter, publishers have the good luck of never having the author well run dry. In other words, Keep On Truckin’, Jim.

By: green

green — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:31:31 +0000

I would suggest using GreenTextbooks.org
Save Money, Save The Planet
GreenTextbooks.org specializes in the recycling of textbooks, DVDs, CDs. Buying used textbooks not only saves you money, but cuts down on greenhouse gases caused by the manufacturing of new textbooks.
With GreenTextbooks.org you’re not only saving trees, you are saving some green.
http://www.greentextbooks.org

By: nico

nico — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:27:09 +0000

I bought used ( one edition behind the class but still current) and international editions.
I just could NOT afford the 125 dollars for about 5 books. I don’t know if the price of texts is just insanely inflated or what, but they might sell more if the price wasn’t absolutely horrific.
Worse if your class requires multiple texts.

By: JimFiore

JimFiore — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:47:39 +0000

Jerry, I would say that that stipulation is part laziness and part an effort to keep your sanity. The problem with allowing students to use any edition is that it gets confusing for all parties. That is, assignments don’t line up. Reading pages are different, problem 15 in 4E might be problem 12 in 3E and may not even exist in 2E, etc. I usually tell my students that they can use prior editions but they must be aware of gotchas like these. I only prohibit old editions if there has been a major overhaul of the text.
Even if every professor said “use any edition”, pretty soon the used book market would be flooded. There would be no new books sold. If a publisher knew that they could only count on a three or maybe four year run before the new book market dried up, what do you think that would do to the cost of new titles and do you think publishers would be eager to go after niche markets?
When I wrote my first book, my publisher supplied me with detailed sales data. It was amazing the way sales climbed for a few years, peaked, and then went straight into the dumper as the used books started to circulate. I realize that some might think that this was because a superior text appeared but consider the following: A few years ago I took an informal poll of my students to see how many had purchased my Op Amp text (left sidebar) used versus new. Virtually everyone bought it used. Now, as I’m the only person who teaches this course at our college, I know all the students who have taken it over the life of this text. Some students had used books with the prior owner’s name written in them, and they were names I had never heard before. These books came from a large reseller, not other students at our college. If my students sell them, the books return to this big pool of used books and the cycle continues until the books are physically worn out or outdated.
I don’t see an easy solution to this, although something modeled after the open software concept might work if enough people had an interest (but again, how do you get it all started? Are we trying to herd cats?)

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:58:17 +0000

In order to mitigate the lost revenue, the publisher produces a new edition of the text. As most courses stipulate “the most recent edition”, this cuts off the flow of used books.

There is absolutely no reason to demand the newest edition of the text in every course. By doing this, professors are exacerbating the problem.

By: JimFiore

JimFiore — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:52:08 +0000

Neil, my experience with fellow profs is that most don’t consider the cost of books. They see what’s out there, choose what works for them and that’s that. On the other hand, I’ve NEVER had a publisher’s rep say to me “AND, our title is less expensive than the competition!” which is the sort of thing you hear in almost every other market with the exception of luxury goods. I know a few profs who are concerned about the high cost of books and who would probably not do anything as crazy as requiring a $250 book for just two chapters! I also had a CS/math prof while in grad school who made a point of specifying thin little inexpensive paperback books, maybe two for a class, in order to keep the cost down. That idea sort of stuck with me.
I know that some companies (such as the afore-mentioned Thomson Learning) will create a custom text by combining various sections and chapters from within their catalog. I don’t know how their formula for costs, but for someone who requires several texts but only uses a few chapters of each it might be a lower cost option.

By: kahootz

kahootz — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:15:01 +0000

I can actually accept paying 250.00 for a textbook. However, when the professor only requires we read 2 chapters of the book, then I have an issue. It was a class in which the professor had the students summarize and present the chapters. One group did chapters 1-2. Another group presented chapters 3-4. Etc.
I paid $250.00 to read 2 chapters.

By: Neil Schipper

Neil Schipper — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:27:44 +0000

Jim, I’m certainly not going to start impugning any malicious intent on your part, but I just can’t get my head around the kind of market we’re talking about being unable to call the shots — if there was appropriate consideration on the part of profs for the student’s predicament.
Intro Phys & Cal & Chem books changing as often as wireless network comms standards and major versions of Windows — Come on! Do Feynman’s lectures or the Selfish Gene get revved than often — even just the cover art?
Sorry, I’m really committed to my paranoia on this one.

By: JimFiore

JimFiore — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:22:13 +0000

I’m not so sure about the colleges, Neil. I work at a public college in NY state (part of the SUNY system) and the colleges don’t make money on books per se. Rather, the bookstores are run by a third party under contract.
Regarding the idea of profs getting together to tell a publisher that they want X edition for Y years, I don’t think any publisher would bow to that. I can’t see them printing and stocking an older edition along with a newer one (as some people will want the newer one). Heck, several years ago I asked one of the publisher’s reps if it was possible to order the third edition of our electronic devices text as I REALLY disliked the fourth edition. His answer was “No effing way” though phrased in more polite terms. It turned out that I was not alone in my dislike of 4E and they put together an improved 5E (though still not as good as 3E) in just a couple years.

By: Neil Schipper

Neil Schipper — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:21:55 +0000

I was hoping to hear from others (post #13). My inner cynic tells me that colleges and publishers are generally in cahoots in trying to separate students from their money. I can’t imagine any other reason why it isn’t the norm that a good calculus or physics or History of W. Civ. text wouldn’t have a 10 or 20 year run. Even if a well written text deals with something like neuroscience, use of supplementary handouts should enable a 5 year run.
So I really see no compelling reason to hold to anything other than a conspiracy theory. The only other candidate theory — gross incompetence — doesn’t quite satisfy me here.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:27:26 +0000

American Dream. The American Way. It’s the economy stupid! All part of the excess of americana. Gotta love a country that’ll put out newer editions just to put out newer editions. Have make a buck spend a buck save an old book pretty much useless for life or exchange for some ramon noodles. There’s a life lesson put into the text. Debt to start off your young college years debt to stay into your 30′s & 40′s. Good job Jim.

By: leficent

leficent — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:32:01 +0000

Two words: International Editions.
One of my texts this semester cost 190USD at the campus bookstore, and 185USD on amazon.
I got the Canadian version for 65USD online, and they did not even charge extra for the bright red ‘Not for sale in the United States’ warnings all over the cover.
While the international editions occasionally are printed on different paper, or sometimes have grey-scale diagrams, they are accurate to the same edition sold in the US.
I spend perhaps half of what I would spend on my texts buying the US versions.

By: Neil Schipper

Neil Schipper — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:39:49 +0000

I’ve often wondered why profs don’t get together and simply agree to commit to an edition for X number of years. They could then communicate this to the book publisher: “We have decided we will continue to use the 3rd edition for the next 5 years.”
There is some effort involved, but I don’t think it should overly tax you folks who understand digital communications and network theory…
National and international organizations exist that gather profs together to hammer out consensus on things like technical standards, curricula, etc. Reviewing and agreeing on the lifetime of a textbook edition seems like pretty small potatoes in comparison.

By: Drugmonkey

Drugmonkey — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:17:46 +0000

Rebecca, Ann-Marie and Jim:
How do you think the professional book-resellers got started?
Point being that it is a local and temporary solution. As soon as a reselling tradition that circumvents the current semi-pro version gets started on a campus, well, someone is going to start making money from it, start bogarting all the used texts and then you have to start all over again. Not that it might not be worth it for Jim to do with his own classes. But to regain the sustainable used-book exchanging sans middle-persons on an ongoing basis…

By: JimFiore

JimFiore — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 14:19:33 +0000

Rebecca and Anne-Marie have given me an idea. While I can’t purchase books from students and resell them (after all, I have to work with the folks at the bookstore and it’s not something I want to keep track of anyway), I think I can act as facilitator. It occurs to me that many freshmen don’t know any sophomores, for example. I’m thinking I could arrange for something non-formal at the end of the semester. Student A has books student B wants, and it would be easy enough to determine what the bookstore buy-back is (actually, our bookstore doesn’t buy the books, the reseller does). Add $5 and we’re set (or half the difference between the buy-back and the bookstore’s used price). They could sell whatever books they want.
I’ll have to look into this.

By: Nate Kocher

Nate Kocher — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:48:16 +0000

Every new semester means a new $120 Physics book…

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 20:42:06 +0000

On the rare occasion when a class doesn’t require a different edition from the previous time it was taught (a lot of classes that are only taught once a year require the updated version each year, but if it’s a class offered every semester sometimes you can get lucky), my strategy is to find out what the bookstore is buying the books for, then offer five bucks more to someone who wants to sell. They make more money, and I save an average of about $35.
In most cases, though, you can’t do that due to different editions, and I just try to find out what the required texts are far enough in advance to order them online, which is invariably cheaper than the bookstore, I’m a junior and I have never bought a textbook on campus, except for lab manuals printed by the university that are unavailable from an outside source.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:47:29 +0000

Idea: Why not buy the used books back from the students yourself? Offer them more than the book store is offering. Then sell the used books to the new batch of students for a couple bucks less than the book store is selling them for. The students get a better deal, you make a couple bucks on it, and everyone goes home happier. Uh…except the managers of the book store — but tough luck for them.

By: sailor

sailor — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:05:36 +0000

Jim Fiore is right when he talks about the pittance he made. I have been on both sides of this thing as publisher and author. It seems to me superficially the price for textbooks IS outrageous. True, the publisher is lucky if he gets 50% of what you pay, especially if there are wholesalers as well as retailers involved. But even $60 a book (half $120) is a huge sum. It is true the market is limited, but that has advantages that you generally know how many you are likely to sell, and distribution is pretty direct to a few places – you don’t have to supply every bookshop. I don�t think the authors make much, but I suspect the publishers do very nicely.
The cost of the book depends on a couple of things � the number of copies and how much color. If there is no color then even small print runs (1-2 thousand) are not that expensive. I strongly suspect that much of the high price is owing to a non-competitive market among a few publishers. If you have a book that is an �approved� textbook, it is a license to inflate your profits. If a publisher could really show me he could not produce a book for less, then I would say it was time to innovate. One way you could do this would be to sell targeted advertising in the book � since we know exactly the audience we have this should be simple and profitable and even interesting to the users. The other way would be to bypass the whole book publishing process and have the books available on the web. The way this would work would be that every class using the book as a standard text would have to charge each student a relatively small sum as a user. Several things have to be paid for: the organization of the web page and collection of the funds, the author, the illustrator and the layout artist. Still I think the author might come out ahead.

By: sailor

sailor — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 13:05:36 +0000