Comments on: High Costs Of College Texbooks http://myhomeschoolnews.com/high-costs-of-college-texbooks/ Your Resource & Information Site For Home School News! Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:46:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.3 By: profdl http://myhomeschoolnews.com/high-costs-of-college-texbooks/comment-page-1/#comment-163 profdl Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:46:16 +0000 http://www.myhomeschoolnews.com//?p=462#comment-163 Textbooks made available through traditional publishers will remain expensive because production cost is high, even though there is evidence that publishers and authors make less on the sale of textbooks than even college bookstores do. The development, printing and marketing costs to bring any textbook to market is high, and there is no guarantee that a new book will sell despite the market research that precedes the release of any new textbook. Another factor is publishers who make all sorts of ancillary materials available to try to attract as many adopters as possible, thereby inflating both the cost and the size of the leading textbooks. Recent legislation at the federal level and in a handful of states will help to reduce the cost and publishers will have to adapt to providing a lower cost product as some have already begun doing through online and custom published versions of some textbooks. Another alternative is rental programs that are beginning to pop up, though some of these end up costing students as much as buying and then reselling new or used textbooks. And additional good alternatives to traditional textbooks exist now in the form of at least one open source textbook initiative in California and at least two non-traditional textbook publishers that offer either free or very low cost (e.g., starting at under $10) textbook options in a range of disciplines. Textbook Media (textbookmedia.com) and Flat World Knowledge (flatworldknowledge.com) offer these options right now. But without an army of sales reps pushing their titles, unlike the traditional publishers offering $150 textbooks, few faculty or students are aware of these new companies. As attention is focused on cost by the new legislation, this will likely change in the near term. And that is good news for students who all too often find the nearly $1,000 per year average cost of textbooks an insurmountable barrier to the attainment of both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Textbooks made available through traditional publishers will remain expensive because production cost is high, even though there is evidence that publishers and authors make less on the sale of textbooks than even college bookstores do. The development, printing and marketing costs to bring any textbook to market is high, and there is no guarantee that a new book will sell despite the market research that precedes the release of any new textbook. Another factor is publishers who make all sorts of ancillary materials available to try to attract as many adopters as possible, thereby inflating both the cost and the size of the leading textbooks.

Recent legislation at the federal level and in a handful of states will help to reduce the cost and publishers will have to adapt to providing a lower cost product as some have already begun doing through online and custom published versions of some textbooks.

Another alternative is rental programs that are beginning to pop up, though some of these end up costing students as much as buying and then reselling new or used textbooks.
And additional good alternatives to traditional textbooks exist now in the form of at least one open source textbook initiative in California and at least two non-traditional textbook publishers that offer either free or very low cost (e.g., starting at under $10) textbook options in a range of disciplines. Textbook Media (textbookmedia.com) and Flat World Knowledge (flatworldknowledge.com) offer these options right now. But without an army of sales reps pushing their titles, unlike the traditional publishers offering $150 textbooks, few faculty or students are aware of these new companies. As attention is focused on cost by the new legislation, this will likely change in the near term. And that is good news for students who all too often find the nearly $1,000 per year average cost of textbooks an insurmountable barrier to the attainment of both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

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