H 78°, L 57° | Tomorrow: 
H 67°, L 50°At the end of each semester, University of Wisconsin students flock to the bookstore in the hopes of selling back their textbooks. I remember making a grand total of $7 last year, because most of my books, I was told, now had new editions.
That $7 bought me a drink or two after finals, but it also got me thinking.
Who benefits when a used textbook is sold?
Not the publishers; they only make money when new textbooks are sold. Not the authors; they only profit when the publishers do.
When a used textbook is sold, students and bookstores benefit. That fact is totally missing from the recent textbook lobby’s (Association of American Publishers) attack on the State Public Interest Research Group’s February study, “Ripoff 101.”
According to the PIRG study, the average college student in the U.S. will spend $900 each year on textbooks. The textbook lobby says PIRG is wrong: it’s only $625. That still seems like a lot of money to me. The PIRG study also revealed: textbook prices are increasing at more than four times the rate of inflation, the most widely purchased college textbooks have new editions roughly every three years, and 43 percent of students admitted to not purchasing the required textbooks for at least one course to save money.
In an April 7 release, the president of the textbook lobby, former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, said PIRG activists were forgetting “a central factor in the textbook market: it is a free market.” Why, then, is there so little price competition?
Publishers insist that frequent new editions are necessary because in many subjects the material is constantly evolving.
The Encyclopedia Britannica issues a yearly supplement to its volumes, intended to fill in additional material. Couldn’t publishers or professors supply similar supplements in the interest of saving costs? I find it hard to imagine that a textbook would be completely useless to a course within two or three years.
What caught my attention, however, was something else: textbook publishers charge American students far more than overseas students for the exact same textbooks.
I picked one textbook, a popular organic chemistry textbook written by Vollhardt and Schore that has been translated into many foreign languages, and investigated how it was priced in the U.S. and overseas. In the U.S., the book costs $135.95 on Amazon.com. The same book sells in the U.K. for $75. According to the Swedish website Bokpris.com, the English edition is available in Sweden for $83, in France for $81 and in Germany for $76. Amusingly, the book costs less in translation: the Japanese version is a mere $64. Evidently, the translators paid for the honor of translating the book. If you want to see how you’re getting ripped off, check out your textbooks on bokpris.com!
The textbook lobby insists that texts sold overseas are cheaper because they are “priced to the individual market.” What does this mean — that students abroad are unwilling to spend as much on textbooks? Given that most European universities are free or charge only some modest fees, you’d expect students there might be willing to spend more on textbooks.
WisPIRG on the UW campus has worked to lower the cost of books.
“We simply rely on grassroots promotion of used book sales because we don’t want any outside profit made from it — just what the student saves,” said WisPIRG’s Ashley Medd, who has worked on the bookswap program. “We have cooperated with the University’s textbook taskforce and talked with the University Bookstore about the feasibility of textbook rental programs.”
While the PIRG study does a good job of raising issues, its plan of action seems weak.
PIRG wants to embarrass textbook publishers with the facts, but this industry doesn’t embarrass easily. PIRG also wants government to act in our interests. Unfortunately, the textbook lobby is well funded and well connected with a former Congresswoman at the top.
Student activists on the UW campus have pushed to make used textbooks or textbook rentals more widely available. At this point, however, too few students are aware of the cheaper textbook options and the barrage of new editions undermines current rental programs.
A student response to the book lobby needs some business smarts. Ideally, entrepreneurial business students would join the activists, enlist faculty cooperation and develop a business model that makes textbook rentals succeed. Until then, we can all enjoy the $7 pocket change that awaits us at the end of the semester.
Cynthia Martens ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in Italian and European Studies.
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Why aren’t there pirated versions of textbooks? There is a ton of money for someone willing to risk the possible copyright prosecution.
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“…enlist faculty cooperation…”
It’s the faculty that drives this - they get some money from the current situation.
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“It’s the faculty that drives this - they get some money from the current situation.”
Care to explain how?
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Faculty members write books. If they write books, they must get some sort of compensation for writing them.
It is clear that the free market competition has broken down. I smell antitrust. Who is conspiring? The only way we can find out is to follow the money. Who actually receives it?
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Do companies in any way compensate professors for using their new textbooks instead of their older ones?
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Authors only get royalties the first time a book is sold.
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“Faculty members write books. If they write books, they must get some sort of compensation for writing them.
The majority of faculty here do not use their own textbooks and do not get roaylties from using the books they do. Sorry, but this is just wrong.
It is clear that the free market competition has broken down. “
Wrong- a free market encourages collusion among those with the most money and power. If professors and publishing houses were colluding that would be an EXAMPLE of the free market.
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Whereas an “un-free” market has that collusion built in to the system from the outset. The regulated free market we have here in the US, with a few exceptions, features a highly competitive marketplace that is the envy of the world, bitch.
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FYI, a textbook selling here for $120 can be obtained in India for as little as $7. BRAND NEW. In fact, a lot of online booksellers have come up which specialize in selling cheap international editions, and pocket huge margins. If you are smart, you can figure out a way to buy it cheap. I’ve never paid more than $40 for any textbook since Fall 2003.
Go figure free market.
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Isn’t it fair that the USA pay through the nose for their textbooks, just like they do for drugs (legal and illegal)? The USA pays for R&D - the rest of the world just pays a little over maginal cost of production.
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” The regulated free market we have here in the US, with a few exceptions, features a highly competitive marketplace that is the envy of the world, bitch.”
unfree market=regulated market. There is no such thing as a “regulated free” market. That is like saying a “2 cent free sample”. Doesn’t make any sense.
It’s either regulated or its free. This is important to recognize because some (mostly naive college) conservatives think that a free market is the best thing for everyone. Common sense tells you that this is not true. A free market would be like having a society without any laws. It simply doesn’t work. We need lots and lots of regulations to keep our market going and to check the power of business and to prevent too much wealth from accumulating in too few hands.
My point was that regulation is a good thing because when markets are deregulated collusion, trusts, and monopolies happen. Since you seem to agree with me I wonder why you call me “bitch”? Well, actually I know. You are immature-and perhaps have weak reading or logic skills, but that’s okay. lol.
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No, our free market doesn’t encourage collusion. In fact, anyone who is negatively affected by collusion can bring a private suit for TRIPLE damages. If you are an aspiring antitrust attorney, see if you can certify a class. We are talking about a 9-figure return for the lawyer who brings that case.
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We don’t live in a free market so I don’t see how the above post makes any sense.
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Textbooks are scandelous. Professors write them, then require their students to buy them, only to “update” the book to a new version the following semester.
Where’s Eliot Spitzer on this one?
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I love all these “we don’t live in a free market” psychos in here. If you think free markets are corrupt take a look at your liberal/socialist economic models where politicions and cronysim reigns.
I’ll take the lesser of two evils on that one. Gimme a free market!!
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“I love all these “we don’t live in a free market” psychos in here.”
Look idiot get a fucking clue. WE DO NOT LIVE IN A FREE MARKET!!! Aren’t there regulations? Then it is not a free market! It is not a matter of absolutes: Free vs. Socialist. It is a matter of regulation and to what degree it will be regulated. This is what Dems and Reps argue over. Dems want corporations to be more regulated, Repubs want them to be less so.
“Free” market is a word conservatives use to make deregulation sound like a good thing. There has never and will never be such a thing as a “free market”. Even your republican gods want there to be regulations-they just want them all to benefit corporate profits.
God man. Get a fucking clue. Jesus Christ you ignorant fuckers irritate the shit out of me.
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Get a life dude,
Switch to international editions to cover your ass. It’s legal too : Check out what US publishers dont want you to know, buying imported textbooks is LEGAL. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=295219 You can easily half the cost without the worry of it being unethical or illegal.
My $0.02
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i need your help