Why are textbooks so expensive?
Our research has uncovered that textbook publishers engage in practices that needlessly drive up the cost of textbooks.

1. Publishers undermine the used book market. They release new editions every 3-4 years, which makes cheaper used copies obsolete – even in subjects like Calculus that haven’t changed in centuries! To make matters worse, publishers customize some books to make them impossible to find used. Finally, publishers sell deceptive “low cost” and e-book formats that are often more expensive than used books.
2. Publishers “bundle” textbooks with extra CDs, passcodes and workbooks. Bundled textbooks tend to be 10-50% more expensive than the textbook alone, and many of the supplements expire at the end of the semester so that students can’t sell them back. The worst part is that bundles aren’t always necessary for class – 65% of professors say that they rarely or never use the supplements.
3. Publishers keep faculty in the dark about prices. We found that 77% of professors say that publishers rarely or never volunteer the price. Sales representatives try to keep the price out of their conversations, in hopes that professors will choose a more expensive book. Fortunately, a new law passed by Congress will require publishers to disclose their prices, starting in July 2010.
Publishers get away with practices that most companies would never dream of! The reason is that they have an unfair economic advantage over students.
The textbooks market is broken. The textbooks market doesn’t work like a normal market because the actual consumers – students – have to buy textbooks regardless of how much they cost. The people who choose textbooks – professors – are not as sensitive to price because they do not have to buy them. Publishers take advantage of this by setting artificially high prices and engaging in practices designed to keep students paying top dollar for their books.

There is very little competition to keep prices in check. To make matters worse, mergers and buyouts have reduced the number of publishers down to just three that control the majority of the market. Publishers claim that the market is very competitive, but we know that their pricing is not!











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