In contrast to the WSJ story about college textbook companies that sell students lightly customized books and pay colleges royalties to help keep the students locked in to over-priced books, USA Today reports on an alternative approach. Open textbooks “are free textbooks available online that are licensed to allow users to download, customize and print any part of the text. Professors can change content to fit their teaching styles. Some authors offer a print-on-demand service that produces professionally bound copies for $10 to $20.” Eric Frank, who used to work for Pearson Education, launched Flat World Knowledge with a partner […]
Textbook prices
Latest Textbook Trick: Slightly Customized Books Defy Used Sales
No wonder students rebel against textbook publishers. The latest twist, described in today’s WSJ, is for publishing companies to produce slightly customized books–like a special edition of “A Writer’s Reference” that puts the University of Alabama’s name on the cover and includes a 32-page section describing the school’s writing program (taken right from the school’s web site.) There’s no value added for the student, but the university gets a $3 a book royalty (from over 4,000 copies) from publisher Bedford/St. Martin’s, and the publisher inhibits resale into the open used book market. (If it makes you feel any better, Professor […]