<p>I felt the pain of the expensive books for D’s first semester this fall. At first, I felt confident that I could rent her books online and spend $20 to $30 a book, but this wasn’t the case with the exception of one book and 10 books I ordered on Amazon with a couple of them costing only a few cents plus shipping. All of the other books that were required were “custom” book packages that also included required online access codes. The “custom” books can’t be found in a search with the ISBN. D emailed the professors asking if the custom package was required, or if a different version would work. The answer was “no” each time. </p>
<p>Just ordering the required access code itself would have only saved between $18 and $40 per book. We ordered one book in just hole-punched paper form where D put the pages in a binder, and that was still $150. One not very thick paperback calculus book was $199. This is definitely price gouging. We couldn’t get the books used because then D wouldn’t have had the online code. Every online code was required and used. All of the professors/instructors use the online access for quizzes and extra credit exercises. D is a Biology major so I hope it doesn’t get worse. We spent approx $800 in books last semester. Believe me, if we could have rented the books used, we would have. These custom book packages are what kills the textbook budget.I’m hoping this nonsense eases up when DD is finished with her first two years of core classes.</p>
This made me laugh. How many copies of any single book are sold? New? Not many when it comes to the cost of production. However it makes no sense to NOT use open source books for level 1 classes. Basic Calc and Basic Econ haven’t changed in a long time. Why re-write it every year?</p>
<p>That is not unique to specific colleges, but is likely more correlated with the subject being taught. English literature, rhetoric, and the like tend to have inexpensive “textbooks” because they are just mass market paperback editions of common well known works of literature that are often no longer under copyright.</p>
<p>Some other liberal arts subjects like math and physics might not necessarily be optimally taught from primary source materials like Newton’s *Principia<a href=“unless%20the%20subject%20is%20%5Bi%5Dhistory%20of%5B/i%5D%20math%20and%20physics,%20rather%20than%20math%20and%20physics,%20for%20example”>/i</a>. Of course, the plethora of open source books for introductory level courses means that instructors can use free or low cost books in their courses if they choose.</p>
<p>In some other cases (e.g. recent history), primary source materials may be still under copyright and thus not necessarily inexpensive or widely available.</p>
<p>IcuinNM, renting is only advantageous if the book is required for a single semester. If the the course is a two semester sequence, renting the required book (twice) probably exceeds the purchase price. Also, rented books must be returned in pristine condition, which is a mighty challenge for some students. Taking care of one of those binder-edition textbooks can be risky since those versions are particularly flimsy, as Lake Jr.'s has told me. Also, I see that some book return deadlines occur BEFORE the final exam date.</p>
<p>Regarding the lack of cooperation from your daughter’s professor, the college’s contract with the bookstore operator probably stipulates that the school, i.e, faculty, cannot direct their students to options other than the college bookstore. I believe this caused a controversy recently at George Washington Univ. when the faculty complained about the administration’s rebuke of a professor whom recommended cheaper textbook alternatives off-campus to his students. </p>
<p>The high cost of STEM textbooks motivated Lake Jr. to purchase several International Editions of his required books. So far, the I.E. versions have been virtually identical (and in the case of his Chemistry textbooks, COMPLETELY IDENTICAL) to the “U.S. versions,” but sold at a substantially lower price.</p>
<p>My BIL has written or co-written a few textbooks in a less commonly studied subject (though I think it is becoming more popular and the field is definitely growing). He told me has lost a good amount in royalties every year due to pirate sites that offered his book for free. He knows how many schools around the country use his book, and therefore about how many copies should sell. The numbers don’t match.</p>
<p>Now I will be the first to admit that I don’t understand why textbooks for college have to cost hundreds of dollars, but I also think it’s rotten after seeing all the hard work he put into writing the books that people would steal them. I too was once a poor college student but that’s what used books were for.</p>
<p>(I understand the frustration with the whole “new edition” thing, and unfortunately in my BIL’s field, because it is relatively new, changes are coming fast and updates are perhaps needed more often to remain current. I also experienced this access code thing for the first time last semester with my son—for 3 classes, he was lucky enough to be able to get used books, but with that last class you had to purchase new and pay for a code as well. Ouch.)</p>
I still argue that textbooks are near the prices they were in the 1980s, with a few exceptions. Most are under $100, and that was the case then.
Pretty much ANYBODY can write a textbook. Depending on the subject, it can be a tiny task up to a monumental task. I have reviewed upper level undergraduate and graduate textbooks, and have found silly errors that should not be present in a freshman text. And have found significant but somewhat esoteric (interpretative but supportable) errors in those same texts.
Most professors are asked to write textbooks regularly, few do in certain subjects.</p>
<p>One thing that gets me is moving from a $60 textbook, with few photos, but color diagrams and charts, to a $250 (list, can get it for $120 or less not at the school bookstore) with full color photos and anecdotes for each chapter (not necessary in science in my opinion). I tell students that the textbook is mandatory, but you don’t need the recommended textbook, you need <em>a</em> textbook. And getting a used textbook for $10 on ebay is no problem at all.</p>
<p>My son is taking an online course, and the textbook was $150 new, and we got it for $30 on ebay, some highlighting but otherwise good condition.</p>
<p>So, if you don’t need a new textbook, WHY get a new one? If you don’t need the exact edition and author, WHY get that exact edition and author?</p>
<p>The impression I get is that list prices are higher now, but access to discount vendors like Amazon is easier, and some books (e.g. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) are now (legally) free.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For classes you teach, do you give a list of recommended textbooks that include low cost and (legally) free textbooks?</p>
<ol>
<li>I have not seen any responsible person, student or parent, rationalize the theft of textbooks (by online or other means).</li>
<li>I have yet to see a sub-$100 new textbook among Lake Jr.'s required books for STEM.</li>
<li>Permitting students to choose any book relevant to the subject matter is ideal, but I have never heard of American professors supporting this. I understand it is commonplace at U.K. universities.</li>
<li> With the teacher’s cooperation, a prior edition book has worked out just fine for a couple of Lake Jr.'s engineering courses. Both prior editions were in “Like New” condition, but considerably cheaper than the “latest” edition.</li>
</ol>
<p>“Wouldn’t the trade in used books account for the “shortage” of new book sales?”</p>
<p>Some, but he had proof that at least some students were using pirated copies, message boards where students were posting the links to his book on these pirate sites–and then a lot of “Thanks! Now I don’t have to buy it!” responses.</p>
<p>Many professors are snobs, and if you corner them they will actually say things like, “If a student can’t afford to buy the textbook I ordered, she shouldn’t be in college.”</p>
<p>DD has a philosophy professor who is exactly the opposite. All his texts are available online as PDFs. But that only works because they are classics.</p>
<p>Some professors just don’t pay attention. Publishers encourage this by not printing MSRPs on our desk copies. And I would guess that very few professors brave the crowds at the bookstore to find out how much their students actually pay. That’s not really an excuse for looking more closely online; Amazon publishes the list price. So maybe some of it is head-in-the-sand.</p>
<p>Really? It did not seem that easy to even find the right ISBN before a class started. Why do you think students had to wait for a few classes or play “the buy at the bookstore/return when the Amazon got delivered” roulette, and longer when ordering the identical book from abroad at a fraction of the cost. </p>
<p>Suggesting that the bookstore might actually try to help finding alternative channels does not seem to espouse the reality. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bkstr.com”>http://www.bkstr.com</a> , which runs the campus bookstores at many colleges, does list ISBNs on its web site, and shows ISBNs and prices of books for the next term, even though it may not be in their own interest to do so.</p>
<p>The numbers probably match with better … expectations of how the market works or should work. According to some, and their obvious efforts, the sales of NEW books should match the arrival of new students, minus a “bit” of attrition. But, BECAUSE of the continuing price gouging, domestic sales at multiples of foreign versions, the “market” has responded with illegal copying at one extreme and sales of used book at the other (and more legal) side. </p>
<p>There is a reason why there are so many copy shops around universities, and especially abroad. When there is an imbalance between the perceived value of a text book and its price, customers will react accordingly. Fwiw, if the Mankiw book was routinely available at 25 to 40 dollars (about what it should fecth) there would hardly be a “black market” or a dynamic secondary market. Students might buy the book and keep it as a reference (well, one might dream ) but that does not happen when the cost is upwards of 200 dollars for an academic book. </p>
<p>No matter how one looks at it, this is an industry that has little to no integrity and goes through lengthy and aggressive measures to defend their questionable practices. The players do it because they can get away with it, and have plenty of resources (and hired mercenaries) to fight any potential erosion. </p>
<p>The parallels to the software or music industry are solid. Sell at a reasonable price and people will buy. For instance, with the academic discounts offered by the MS or Apple of this world, do you see a lot of pirated software on freshmen computers? Move into the world of Adobe Suites and the numbers are changing! </p>
<p>All in all, the current market for academic books (and they DO cost a lot more than a decade ago) is just as corrupt as most elements associated with education. It just comes with the territory when the final customers have little to say about what supplies they need to buy. The fact that they pay directly or indirectly has no relevance to an industry that has been built on insiders’ networks. </p>
<p>Many of you mention that content doesn’t change that much in 2-3 years in most disciplines and that’s probably true. However, I had an interesting discussion with one of my publisher reps today about access to instructor resources and the modification of end of chapter material in textbooks today. She said they make an effort to alter the homework with new editions because the instructor resource downloads for solutions manuals and test banks get out into the mainstream and students find it easier to get access now than in the “old days” when these resources were only distributed in print form. This discussion came about because I’m doing a professional development about cheating with a colleague on Friday and it’s amazing the efforts that some students will put into cheating instead of learning the course content. Now that these things are out in digital form, they are much more easily shared.</p>
<p>The development costs of test banks, solutions manuals, and other resources are another part of the fixed costs associated with textbooks that I mentioned in an earlier post that may not be immediately obvious.</p>
<p>As far as test banks go, faculty at some universities make their old tests public, so that access to the old tests as study tools is equalized. Obviously, that means that faculty cannot be under the illusion that they can reuse old tests for future semesters.</p>
<p>I knew of one professor who assigned his own textbook to his class. He said he searched and couldn’t find any other book that was as good as his own. To deal with the ethical issues, he calculated how much he made in royalties from the student purchases and used it to fund a cookout for the students at the end of the semester. </p>
<hr>
<p>A previous edition of some textbooks might work if you can borrow someone else’s copy of the current book to see what is different and copy a few of those pages.</p>
<p>Look for looseleaf versions of textbooks that you put into 3 ring binders. They often are much cheaper. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s already been mentioned above, but K-12 textbooks must closely match a multitude of (annually?) changing state learning standards, so textbook publishers cram as many standards-matched elements into a page as possible. Without those elements matched to standards, which then will be tested/assessed for learning outcomes by BOEs, and through which funds will be disbursed and teaching careers will be sanctioned, the texts will not be purchased by the districts. No match, no buy. Think Common Core. Sadly, this process has led to Frankenstein textbooks as publishers chase the sell while also, strangely, slashing staff writers, editors, and others involved with quality control. It’s ridiculous. </p>
) but that does not happen when the cost is upwards of 200 dollars for an academic book. </p>