Since the NYT first tackled the thorny subject of textbook pricing, voices on both sides of the debate have been getting hoarser. But if the chatter at recent textbook trade shows — CAMEX, College Bookstores of America (CBA), and the BN College Stores Show — is any indication, textbook prices may indeed have hit their ceiling. Despite freshman classes steadily bulging to an expected peak in 2009, unit sales of textbooks are down and returns are on the rise. Not only are some retailers taking matters into their own hands by promoting buy-backs and used-book sales, but a few states have legislation pending to force publishers to ease students’ post-tuition financial burden.
“Textbook publishers add bells and whistles that drive up the price of textbooks, but faculty do not use these materials,” gripes one such bill, California’s AB 2477. “Half of all textbooks now come ‘bundled’ or shrink-wrapped with additional materials, such as CD-ROMs and workbooks. Sixty-five percent of faculty ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ use the bundled materials in their courses. Textbook publishers put new editions on the market frequently — often without content changes — making the less-expensive used textbooks obsolete and unavailable.”
Though the bill is unsettling for publishers, it is more cautionary than legislative, in that the state “urges textbook publishers” to unbundle instructional material, giving students more choice; disclose the various products they sell and how much each costs; disclose how the newest edition is different from the previous one; and disclose to faculty members how long they intend to produce current editions. However, the pending law exhorts officials at Cal. State, the Cal. Community Colleges, and the UC regents to work with faculty to make it cheaper to acquire textbooks and promote used book availability on campuses.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s HB 1368 seems to push responsibility for change to the seller, not the publisher. It would limit the maximum price for a textbook by any bookstore owned or operated by the State of Georgia to no more than 15% over wholesale price. NY State, on the other hand, is applying a free-market approach by encouraging more competition between on-campus stores and stores surrounding the schools.
There is even a bill in the US House directing the Comptroller General to “conduct an investigation of the high price of college textbooks” (HR 3567, introduced last Nov.), stating that students spend nearly $1,000 on textbooks per year, and often find “the exact same textbook can be purchased overseas at half the cost.” With this in mind, one could say it’s up to the publishers to help themselves by decreasing students’ need to look elsewhere.
In defense of the publishers, the AAP’s Pat Schroeder led a delegation to the hill during the recent AAP Annual Meeting and made the case on behalf of her embattled member publishers. The publishers, she said, are justified in what they charge because of huge development costs, competition from course packs, and adoption uncertainties. But Congressman Dennis Miller of California opened the meeting with a salvo of his own. As one of the authors of the “No Child Left Behind” bill, he roundly declared that “cost is a barrier to higher education,” especially when states are cutting financial aid and the Feds don’t allow refinancing of long-term student loans (which have more than doubled since 1992, to $35 billion in new annual student loan commitments). On the subject of textbook pricing, he bluntly said: “If customers think they’re being abused, they’ll go around the system” — which translates to “know your customer.”
In this case, the customer is the student who doesn’t have much choice in the matter, except to go online and buy internationally or from peers on eBay (a recent search came up with 18,200 items listed under College Textbooks). Wiley’s William Pesce, in one of the meeting’s shockers, agreed with Miller, arguing that the future of textbooks lay in the distribution of information as (paid) digital delivery, concurring with Miller that publishers let their customers down and were now paying the price. And even some US booksellers are sympathizing with students. The BN College team has unveiled a compelling promo campaign for used-book buy-backs, which shows an image of students demonstrating against the price of textbooks and a paucity of used copies.
