Creative Common collaborative textbooks.
I don't like what's already there, especially in my french native language, but near future will necessarilly develop this field. Arnold is at it, McNeally is at it....
It’s that time of year again, when college students pay more for books than they do for tuition (at least at a lot of public schools). I just shelled out several hundred dollars for my son’s first semester in college and considered myself lucky that he wasn’t a science or engineering major. There have been a few improvements to the whole process since I was in school, but it’s still an absolute racket. Here’s why, along with a few ways to save some cash for a better meal plan this fall.
Textbook rentals
Back in the day, you’d buy your books, hopefully used, but new if you didn’t have a choice. Then, at the end of the semester, you’d return the books (unless it was a particularly useful calculus or linear algebra book, for example), take some nominal credit, and start the process anew. While that’s still the MO for a lot of students, textbook rentals at least cut out a few steps and save some money up front, even if they may not save much over 4 years.
Depending upon your school, you can rent many of your textbooks for a price that is fairly close to what would have been the difference between their used purchase price and the amount the bookstore would have given you for them at the end of the semester. Barnes and Noble rent many books through their website and the college bookstores they run; Follett also offers a more limited selection of rentals.
Rentals can happen either in the secondary market or with new books. In the latter case, though, higher rental costs mean plenty of money is still going to the publishers and both publishers and bookstores will be reaping repeated rewards for many semesters to come as they rent, rerent, and ultimately sell the books.
Not that publishers shouldn’t make money. I’m all about capitalism. However, watching students and parents standing in line the first couple days of class, swiping their credit cards to the tune of hundreds of dollars per student has me convinced that there are better ways.
One word: Amazon
Amazon sells kajillions (yes, kajillions) of books and, as a result, can hit price points even on new texts that its competitors can’t. I’m not a giant Amazon fan for a variety of reasons, but I’m not made of money. I don’t love every aspect of Walmart’s business model either, but it doesn’t stop me from shopping there.
However, Amazon’s strengths in this regard go beyond cheap new textbooks. They connect you with a variety of resellers who have just about any used book you might want. I found one particularly expensive little paperback that wasn’t available used at my son’s bookstore and was $75 new. It was $5 plus 7.95 expedited shipping from one of Amazon’s partners. Sure, it had every line highlighted (apparently someone didn’t understand the concept of highlighting), but for $12.95, it served the purpose just fine.
