| Just as many parents figure out how to pay the high | | | | textbooks after the course has ended. Most people |
| costs for college tuition they are then shocked to | | | | believe they can find the information they might |
| see the exorbitant prices they have to pay for | | | | need in the future online so there's no reason to hold |
| college textbooks and wonder why are college | | | | onto large, bulky texts. Hence, the birth of the |
| textbooks so expensive? In some cases, just one | | | | college used textbook stores. |
| textbook can run upwards of $500. | | | | This system is nearly risk-free for the bookstores, |
| There's really no easy, straightforward answer to this | | | | but costs publishers (and therefore consumers) |
| question. Publishers claim this is partially due to the | | | | hundreds of dollars and results in increased book |
| fact that the textbooks go out of date within just a | | | | prices. When a bookstore orders the textbooks |
| couple years of publication so the high cost of the | | | | brand new from the publisher, they automatically |
| books is to help cover the expenses of producing so | | | | increase the price. |
| many textbooks every year. | | | | If they purchase the book for $73.50 and increase |
| Another factor which has to be taken into | | | | the price by $26.25 to $99.75, that's already a 35.7% |
| consideration is that textbooks rarely have single | | | | price increase which the student has to pay. The |
| authors like other fiction books. In fact, the average | | | | author might receive $11 from that book, or that $11 |
| college textbook usually has a panel of authors and | | | | might be shared among the panel of authors and |
| editors. This means in addition to trying to recoup the | | | | editors. |
| publishing costs, these textbooks also have to be | | | | When the student sells the book back to the |
| priced to provide some sort of payment to the | | | | bookstore, the store will only pay 25-50% of the |
| authors and editors who actually do the research and | | | | original price- maybe $39.90. The bookstore will then |
| compile the information in the books. | | | | re-sell that book for maybe $75. All of that money |
| There may also be another, somewhat insidious, | | | | goes into the bookstore's pockets. None of the |
| reason for why are college textbooks so expensive. | | | | re-sell monies go to the publisher or the authors. |
| That answer is they're so expensive thanks in large | | | | Even worse is most publishing companies will provide |
| part to used bookstores. | | | | a few complimentary copies to professors to |
| Used bookstores really came into the forefront of | | | | consider when selecting texts for their course. Many |
| college life in the mid 70's and early 80's. Prior to this | | | | of these books also end up in the used bookstore, |
| time period college textbooks cost about the same | | | | making money only for the bookstore. |
| as a "regular" hardback fiction book. This was | | | | When taking all of these factors into consideration, |
| because most people actually held onto their college | | | | it's easy to answer the question why are college |
| textbooks and used them to start their professional | | | | textbooks so expensive. Maybe it's time to consider |
| libraries. | | | | hanging onto those books and starting your own |
| These days very few students actually keep the | | | | used bookstore! |