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!

The solution isn’t simple. We can’t require publishers to lower their prices or force professors to choose less expensive books, since we do not want to infringe on the first amendment or lower the quality of education. We can only solve the problem by fundamentally changing the way that the textbooks market works.

Here is where students come in. We don’t have much economic power against the publishers, but we do have the power to challenge their practices by running a grassroots campaign!

Textbook publishers should have to price their products fairly to gain student customers, and students should have their choice of a range of competing products designed to fit different learning styles and budgetary needs. Students should decide whether to keep, or when to sell their books, and purchase only the supplemental items they need. Higher education is essential to our future, and textbooks should not make it even harder to afford.

Students have run this campaign on campuses across the country since 2003, and over the past 6 years, we’ve made some progress towards more affordable textbooks.  Here are some of the highlights: 

• Exposing the problem.  We have released 7 studies that investigate various elements of the textbook affordability problem.  Our work has been covered by the media in all 50 states, and our research has formed the foundation for many initiatives to address the problem.  

• Promoting used books.  We’ve helped tons of students save money with used books.  We organized on-campus book swaps that help students buy and sell their textbooks without middleman fees.  Also we set up www.campusbookswap.org, a bulletin board style website where students can post their books for sale.

• Establishing rental programs.  We found that students at schools with rental programs spend $130-$240 per year on textbooks, rather than $900.  We released a guide to setting up rentals, which spawned dozens of new efforts across the country.

• Passing laws.  We celebrated a huge victory over publishers in 2008, when we passed federal legislation that requires publishers to disclose their prices to professors.  Starting in 2010, publishers will also need to offer all bundled items separately, and schools will need to provide the list of required textbooks before school starts.  This federal law followed several state-level victories, which we helped secure in 2006 and 2007.

• Promoting “open textbooks.”  Open textbooks are the most promising solution to rising textbook costs.  Instead of costing $150-$200 like traditional books, open textbooks are free to read online and to download, and students can purchase them in print for a small cost.  Several schools and authors have created open textbooks, and a new publishing company is offering open textbooks by selling optional print copies and study guides.

• Organizing professors.  Since professors choose which textbooks student buy, changes in their behavior can send a powerful message to publishers.  In 2005, we organized 700 math and physics professors to sign a letter asking a major publisher to stop issuing unnecessary new editions.  A few years later, we organized over 2,000 professors to sign a statement of intent to give preference to more affordable textbooks, like free open textbooks.

Head over to our action center to learn more about how you can help make textbooks affordable.