Molly Miller
English 103
The Real Cost of College Textbooks
I now have my official schedule for my first semester of college; now all that’s left
before I am ready for classes to start is to get my textbooks. Imagine my surprise when I place
the order for my books and the price rings up $588.89. Why is the price so high? There is no
way that it really costs $150 to print a textbook. What’s even more ridiculous is you sell back a
textbook you bought for $150 for $40 and then the bookstores turn around and sell it again
used for $120. Which begs the question, where is the money for college textbooks really going?
Is it the authors that are to blame for these overpriced books, or is it the publishers, or maybe
still the bookstores themselves? Who is really to blame for these outrageous prices?
We’ve all experienced the sting of expensive textbooks that we are required to purchase
for our classes. Unfortunately today’s cost is up higher than ever before. Journalist Lisa L.
Rollins states that “textbook prices have steadily risen over the past two decades, with no sign
of slowing.” According to a study done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this year’s freshmen
spent 32% more than freshman from four years prior (Tozzi). Another study done by California
State Auditors found that in the 2007-08 school season, 60% of a student’s education spending
was used to purchase required textbooks (Reformers Target High Cost of Print Textbooks). This
statistic is quite shocking. College is expensive enough without the added cost of textbooks.
Robert Applebaum, a lawyer and founder of ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com, says that “there is
an enormous hidden cost to obtaining a higher education…textbooks.”
There are several theories for why college textbooks cost as much as they do. One of
these beliefs is the high cost of printing and making all the graphs, charts, maps, illustrations,
and reproductions of works of art (Allen). However, Charlotte Allen makes the point that if a
trade publisher can “bring in a lengthy volume with a scholarly apparatus of notes and
bibliography for less than $40, why can’t textbook publishers, serving a market of generally
cash-strapped young people, do something similar?” (Allen). It makes absolutely no sense to
me that books of pleasure that you pick up from your local bookstore are so much cheaper than
the textbooks that you are required to buy for college classes. Another theory is the bright
colors of the textbooks. However, Henry Roediger disproves this theory when he searched the
bookstores and found that many black and white textbooks are in fact more expensive than
those that are printed in color. One other reason for the rise in textbook prices is that many
independent textbook companies are being bought out by large corporate companies
(Roediger).
Yet another excuse for the high price of textbooks is the fact that the stores can charge
that much. There is a rather small market for the books, and therefore competition is low so
the bookstores can charge whatever they want to. There is also the fact that many students
don’t care how much the book cost because their parents are the ones buying the books rather
than themselves. Although not true of everyone I feel that many students today fall into this
category. Their parents are the ones who are spending the money to buy the textbooks so why
should they care how much they cost. However, I do not fall into this category. I do not enjoy
spending that much money on school books.
The reason for high textbook costs that I find to be the most plausible is the used
textbook market. Most people blame the high costs on the authors and publishers, but the real
moneymakers are the bookstores themselves. Textbook author, Dr. Janet Belsky, says that you
“can’t make money from writing textbooks,” and that in actuality the authors make less than
minimum wage (Rollins). The authors and publishers only make money on the initial sale of the
textbook, only “a few dollars” Belsky says. Once students sell back their textbooks at the end of
the semester the book authors and publishers cease to make money. From this point on only
the bookstores continue to make money from the used book sales (Rollins). Roediger states
that bookstores that sell used books make large profits when they did nothing whatsoever to
create the book itself. In his article “Why Are Textbooks So Expensive?,” he goes on to say that
the “high price of textbook is the direct result of the used book market.” Since used books are
so much cheaper than new ones, students are more likely to buy the used books resulting in the
bookstores making so much more on a single text then the authors and publishers combined.
One of the main reasons that textbooks are revised as often as they are is to contest the used
book market. This is also why new textbooks cost so much, the publishers jack up the price in
order to make a higher profit. Since the authors and publishers do not make any profit from the
used books, they frequently release revised versions of their textbooks in order to render the
older versions obsolete, thus decreasing the bookstores income from the used books. The
bookstores make the majority of their money by buying a book back for about 40% of the list
price. After doing so, they rack the price of the book back up and resell it. In fact, the profit
margin for a used textbook is actually higher than the profit margin of the new book (Roediger).
What can we do about the rising cost of college textbooks? I have to agree with
Roediger, “not much.” One simple solution to expensive textbooks is to have the professor
select a cheaper book to use. Unfortunately most professors don’t even realize that the
textbook that they are requiring their students to purchase is so expensive. This is due to the
fact that professors typically receive free copies of the books that they assign to their classes
(Allen). There are a handful of textbooks today that are completely available online. Rather
than spending the money to buy the book, you can read the chapters by subscribing to the
textbook online for a limited time for a much lower price than purchasing the textbook itself.
This is a wonderful option; the only problem with it is students don’t always know if the book is
available online. Therefore if you want to try and go this route you need to do a little bit of
work searching for the textbook online.
There are some people that believe that the cost of textbooks should not be lowered.
The main argument against lowering the cost of textbooks is that students are willing to pay
$400 for a new iPod, so they should be willing to pay $200 for a textbook (Allen). The problem
with this is that the iPod is something that the students actively want; they could care less
about a textbook. There are lots of people who aren’t so willing to pay that $400 for the iPod,
they save up their pennies and search the sales ads for the cheapest price. Unfortunately you
cannot do the same with textbooks, they don’t go on sale. Another argument is that the high
price of the textbooks will pay out in the end, like with the high cost of college tuition. While it
is expensive now, it will all be worth it in the end after you have graduated and are making
good money with the degree that you earned by paying for those expensive textbooks and
tuition.
The cost of college textbooks is way too high mostly because of the competition
between the books publishers and the bookstores themselves. So to sum up, where is the
money for college textbooks really going? Not to the authors or publishers like so many people
think, but rather to the bookstores themselves. They are cheating the system with the used
book market. Henry Roediger made this insightful comment: “If an editor comes by to ask you
to write a textbook ‘just by writing up your notes,’ tell him or her that if you want to make real
money, you’ll open a university bookstore. That’s where the money is.”
Works Cited
Allen, Charlotte. "Why Do Textbooks Cost So Much?" Minding the Campus. Manhattan
Institute, 4 Apr. 2008. Web. 29 Oct. 2010.
Applebaum, Robert. "There Is Little Incentive to Control Textbook Costs - Room for Debate NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The
New York Times, 29 July 2010. Web. 29 Oct. 2010.
"Reformers Target High Cost of Print Textbooks." Arizona Local News - Phoenix Arizona News Phoenix Breaking News - Azcentral.com. Los Angeles Times, 20 Aug. 2008. Web. 25 Oct.
2010.
Roediger, Henry. "APS Observer - Why Are Textbooks So Expensive?" Association for
Psychological Science. APS Observer, Jan. 2005. Web. 20 Oct. 2010.
Rollins, Lisa L. "Rising Cost of College Textbooks: High Book Prices Hurt Students and Authors,
but Benefit Sellers." Suite101.com: Online Magazine and Writers' Network. Lisa L.
Rollins, 21 Sept. 2008. Web. 20 Oct. 2010.
Tozzi, John. "Online Startups Target College Book Costs." Bloomberg Businessweek
4197 (2010): 53-54. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 25 Oct. 2010.