Why Do Textbooks Cost So Much?

It costs a lot of money to make a textbook. Publishers estimate about a million dollars in production costs before it comes off the press. Some of the high cost can be attributed to color printing, hard covers, and high quality paper, but those aren’t the only reasons.

You can be mad at your local bookstore for the high prices, but you’d be blaming the wrong party. It’s not the bookstores that make the prices so high, it’s the publishers. Publishers are currently changing editions about every two years. They do it in order to make up income they perceive as lost due to the sale of used books.

Students love used books because they’re cheaper. Used books are cheaper because “the first sale doctrine” declares it legal to resell books without having to pay the publisher anything for the resale. Publishers don’t like it, but students do! Unfortunately, publishers are finding new ways of getting around those used textbook sales and are still managing to make a profit off of new textbooks.

For example, ancillary materials are basically instructor goodies, or extra stuff that the instructor requires you to have for their class and is only available when you purchase a new textbook. Ancillary materials include videos, CD-ROMs, PowerPoint slides or instructor manuals. Students have to pay for these materials as their costs are rolled into the production cost of the textbook itself.

Students have to pay so much for textbooks because they’re not just paying for the book. They’re also paying for sales and marketing, add-ons, and the impact of the secondary used market. However, it is interesting to note that as new textbook prices increase, so does the market for used textbooks.

So how can students avoid having to pay outrageous amounts of money for textbooks? Renting textbooks online is quickly becoming the most preferred method of acquiring textbooks. The benefits are incredible! Students can save literally hundreds of dollars every semester by renting textbooks from companies like Campus Book Rentals.

By renting textbooks online, you’ll receive books that are in better condition that the used books you would buy from your bookstore. Most rental companies only rent textbooks that are in new or like new condition. None of their books will have missing pages, worn text, handwriting, excessive highlighting or missing covers. If you receive a book in poor condition, most companies are willing to exchange it for free.

When you’re done using that textbook for the semester, you just return it to the textbook rental company you rented it from. The return method is incredibly simple. Most rental companies include a return label. All you have to do is put the textbook back into the box I came in, slap on the provided return label and drop it off at your nearest post office.

The cost of textbooks will vary depending on the course and or where you choose to get your books. If you pick up your books from your college bookstore, estimate a book budget of about $500, as some textbooks can cost as much as $200 a piece. However, if you choose to rent your college textbooks instead, you could save hundreds of dollars every semester. By renting textbooks, your book budget falls from $500 to about $150 to $200 a semester.