8 ms·

College Students Can Now Rent Textbooks Electronically From Amazon

118 points by tathagatadg 15y ago

kennethologist 15y ago
I think this is brilliant! I wonder how many textbooks are available. Something like this can really displace chegg.com, bookrenter et. al.
jamesshamenski 15y ago
This is a really strong back-to-school campaign. I can see this really improving the sale of Kindles and igniting Amazon's Q3 results. Under ideal scenarios, this could save a college student hundreds of dollars each semester.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- angstrom 15y ago
  I think B&N College bookstores have had this for close to a year now. Both physical and electronic renting. Would be nice if more publishers would adopt digital though.
desigooner 15y ago
This is a good sign of Amazon gearing up the Kindle store before the release of their rumored tablet lineup.
sorbus 15y ago
As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up, and are invariably more difficult than close-book tests). I would have to rent a textbook during the test, or arrange to borrow one from another student taking the same class at a different time. 3) Physical textbooks are really, really good at random-access. This has often been very useful when looking for constants without losing track of the pages equations are on. While electronic textbooks do let you skip randomly between pages, it would end up being a mixture of memorizing page numbers and looking at the table of contents. EDIT: removed issue four, because I completely missed that this is an addition to the current kindle system. (Text was "4) Renting. There doesn't seem to be an option to buy the electronic copy and have it forever. I might be unusual in that I'm keeping several of my textbooks that are either directly related to my major or very good, but still.") On the other hand, there are some classes where I've hardly used the required textbooks, or where I know I'm not going to need to review them, so electronic textbooks could be useful for those. The problem is knowing in advance which classes are which. (I just checked how much my textbooks for the next semester will cost. Around $700, used. Ouch.)
- stuartjmoore 15y ago
  Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts. Need to know the value of a constant in an equation? Just click on it. The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet.
  - sorbus 15y ago
    > Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts. Emphasis added. Until they do, it's still an issue. > The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet. And let's hope that the people developing software to make this revolution possible don't drag their feet either.
  - cbs 15y ago
    >The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet. Awesome! But in the meantime I'm not going to deal with shitty UI because it might get better. I don't buy anything for my kindle other than things I expect to read cover to cover because it simply is terrible to navigate.
- mostly_harmless 15y ago
  I believe the 3rd problem is partially a software problem. I think with proper software to either emulate the advancement through a book, or with a recall function of recently viewed or saved pages; This problem could disappear.
- farnsworth 15y ago
  4) Buying Kindle books and owning it forever is old news- but now you can rent them too. But as another student who has tried the Kindle-textbook solution in the past, I agree with the other points more or less. I will add that being able to search the entire text of the book instantly is a huge plus for me. I really really want to like e-textbooks, but I wouldn't try experiment again without the large-format Kindle, and I just can't justify the massively increased price over the smaller Kindle.
alexmr 15y ago
This seems like a great program. One friction point for e-textbooks seemed to be the inability to sell them back at the end of the semester like normal books. The reduced cost of a rental should help assuage that.
tnip 15y ago
I think it's a great idea, but at the same time, I'm wary to start jumping on eTextbook renting simply because of my tech ADD - and because it's easier to use a regular textbook. Sure, your textbook might be heavy, but you don't need to be connected to a power source/be dependent upon an electronic device for your materials.
- farnsworth 15y ago
  I had to charge my Kindle one night every couple weeks with heavy usage. It was never a problem at all.
joe_bleau 15y ago
As a leach, I don't like it. This could be the beginning of the end of cheap obsolete used textbooks. For years I've enjoyed going through bookstores, especially in college towns, just to pick up interesting looking textbooks dirt cheap.
- neovive 15y ago
  One has to wonder how much longer the typical bookstore (in it's current form factor) will be around. The large book retailers are already retrenching, but hopefully a market still exists for the small, independent, bookstores that add so much character to Main Street.
candre717 15y ago
Chegg, for many students, is still a better option. Great customer service. Simple Process. Wide-spread adoption and availability of titles. Granted, I'm a chegg user, but Amazon surely has a run for its money.
0wnr 15y ago
I expect we will also be seeing more cloud-based ebooks in the future, such as those the bottom of the article indicates McGraw Hill has introduced. The same way that gaming companies increasingly push a subscription-based service over a singular single-player experience, a continual subscription to a cloud-based ebook service would help avoid the inevitable mass piracy of the materials.
maguay 15y ago
If they can undercut CourseSmart's prices, this would be huge. I just paid CourseSmart over $100 for a semester virtual rental of a textbook, and that's way too expensive for an eBook. I don't mind paying for quality content, and purchase apps and eBooks. But $100, and I don't even own the book, when the paper copy costs only 20% more and you could keep it forever or resell it? That doesn't make sense.
acabal 15y ago
Nice idea, but the problem for me would be the screen. I used to spend hours staring at my textbook back in the day. Hours spent staring at a backlit screen like a laptop would give me a headache (and does today, when I spend hours programming). But the e-ink offerings aren't there yet in terms of usability for textbooks. They're great for novels, where progress is linear, and bookmarks are search are rarely needed. But for a textbook, where I'm often flipping to the index, back and forth between subsequent pages rapidly, need color diagrams or big tables and diagrams (600x800 is often not enough room for a large table or diagram), or flipping to one of the hundreds of bookmarks that I've color-coded, e-ink and specifically the Kindle UI just can't do it. Tablet-type hardware might have a better chance, but at the cost of the backlight. So if I was back in college, even though today I do all of my pleasure reading on a Nook Simple Touch, I would still buy paper textbooks.
- Ronkdar 15y ago
  My problem is that I can't write on my reader. All my textbooks are filled with highlighted sentences, penned in notes, and black marker through every distracting fluff sentence. I will continue to buy paper books until I can achieve this functionality easily in digital form.
- kellishaver 15y ago
  My problem is the exact opposite. I can't see to read unless I'm looking at a back-lit screen. For this reason, all of my books for the past year and a half have been ebooks, read on an iPad. I'm not sure what I would have done in college had I had the problems reading then that I do now. At the time, my only option would have been a book on tape, which is an absolute nightmare for random access and complex subjects, or braille, which I don't know (though, admittedly, should probably learn). Not that any of that is to discount what you're saying at all. I guess more than anything i just wanted to share my experience. I can certainly see the appeal of having a physical book over a digital copy, and that may well be the preferred choice for the average person, but for a certain demographic, just having the option of a digital version can be an almost life-changing experience. I remember the first night I got my iPad, after a year of not being able to read a book unless I was tied to my computer/desk. I sat comfortably on the couch and read a novel. I cried, I was so happy.
shriphani 15y ago
Thank you so much. Now, if only people begin releasing .mobi versions of their books along with .pdfs
Apocryphon 15y ago
Would this work on Kindle 3, or is Kindle DX the best for viewing such textbooks?
keiferski 15y ago
Speaking as a student, I'm still confused as to why we need the textbook industry at all for certain subjects. Is it really necessary to make an annual book for subjects that don't change significantly from year to year? I've personally seen new editions feature nothing but shuffling of the contents. They've even started selling "loose-leaf" editions, meaning that it's just a collection of binder-punched pages. Why? No new textbooks = no used textbooks = no competition from third party vendors selling used textbooks. No one wants to buy a bunch of pages in a binder. Seems to me that an open-source textbook should be written once and updated incrementally as needed. Up-to-date information could be available online for those with slightly dated textbooks. Of course, the universities, McGraw Hill, Chegg, Amazon, and numberless other interests wouldn't gain much from this situation.
- reemrevnivek 15y ago
  Speaking as a student, I'm confused as to why you think your predecessors will give you their textbooks in good condition, or even at all! Some students mark up their textbooks. Others (like me) have a lot of books that will be valuable long after I graduate. The problem isn't that we don't need new textbooks every year, it's that we don't need new editions every 3 years with updated numbers for the homework problems and a new picture on the front. That system invalidates used books that are in perfectly good shape, and should be abolished by professors who will stand up to the bookstore and let them know that they don't want the new edition.
  - burgerbrain 15y ago
    As a former student, I don't think I've ever acquired a single textbook that wasn't used. The vast majority of them were in flawless condition, the others just had some highlighting that I found actually quite nice.
- ZackOfAllTrades 15y ago
  I am a student and I worked with publishers last semester for a while to get interactive electronic textbooks published. I got to view things on the inside and what I've concluded is that the publishers don't actually care about students. They are marketing to the schools and universities first and foremost because they are the ones who actually make the buying decisions. All the publishers try to do is make something that looks better their competitors and lets colleges cram more students into the classrooms. I don't ever remember them saying "students need this" but rather "universities want to see this". It is a broken system that relies on lazy/overworked teachers and massive hulking collegiate bureaucracies. Good electronic textbooks won't come from companies that made shitty paper textbooks.
greenyoda 15y ago
An even better idea that's starting to gather momentum is free, open source textbooks: http://creativecommons.org/tag/open-source-textbook http://creativecommons.org/tag/open-source-textbook The textbook industry definitely deserves to be put out of business for their sleazy practices, like publishing new editions of basic textbooks every couple of years so that students can't resell the old ones. (Are there really new developments in basic calculus every couple of years?)
derrida 15y ago
STARTUP GODS: Deliver a solution that will smash the evil exploitative textbook industry, whilst rewarding the authors and teachers.
derrida 15y ago
Protip: Buy from India. It's illegal, but you get a paper copy of a textbook at about 10% of the price.
scrrr 15y ago
I'm not very sympathetic towards the rental of DRM-locked text books. It just seems wrong. Yes, I understand it takes money and effort to write and compile a book, but since currently the prices of ebooks are way too high (after all print, shipping and retail are mostly left out) I feel that the publishing industry is moving towards what the music industry is today. Everyone that has specialized knowledge, enthusiasts, professionals, professors etc. should write their own books and articles and sell them cheaply or give them out for free. Cut out the middle-man that is a publishing company. They are no, longer, needed. They just aren't.
Evgeny 15y ago
I don't own a Kindle yet. But this may be the last straw that will drive me to buy one.

118 points by tathagatadg 15y ago

I think this is brilliant! I wonder how many textbooks are available. Something like this can really displace chegg.com, bookrenter et. al.

jamesshamenski 15y ago

This is a really strong back-to-school campaign. I can see this really improving the sale of Kindles and igniting Amazon's Q3 results. Under ideal scenarios, this could save a college student hundreds of dollars each semester.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
angstrom 15y ago
I think B&N College bookstores have had this for close to a year now. Both physical and electronic renting. Would be nice if more publishers would adopt digital though.

desigooner 15y ago

This is a good sign of Amazon gearing up the Kindle store before the release of their rumored tablet lineup.

sorbus 15y ago

As a college student, I see a few problems with switching purely to electronic textbooks. 1) I would have to verify in every class that it's okay to be using a laptop or tablet - that's been the case in most of the classes I've had, so it's unlikely to be a huge problem, but still. 2) It is extremely unlikely that a laptop or tablet would be permitted in open-book tests (which, while uncommon, do occasionally show up, and are invariably more difficult than close-book tests). I would have to rent a textbook during the test, or arrange to borrow one from another student taking the same class at a different time. 3) Physical textbooks are really, really good at random-access. This has often been very useful when looking for constants without losing track of the pages equations are on. While electronic textbooks do let you skip randomly between pages, it would end up being a mixture of memorizing page numbers and looking at the table of contents. EDIT: removed issue four, because I completely missed that this is an addition to the current kindle system. (Text was "4) Renting. There doesn't seem to be an option to buy the electronic copy and have it forever. I might be unusual in that I'm keeping several of my textbooks that are either directly related to my major or very good, but still.") On the other hand, there are some classes where I've hardly used the required textbooks, or where I know I'm not going to need to review them, so electronic textbooks could be useful for those. The problem is knowing in advance which classes are which. (I just checked how much my textbooks for the next semester will cost. Around $700, used. Ouch.)

stuartjmoore 15y ago
Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts. Need to know the value of a constant in an equation? Just click on it. The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet.
- sorbus 15y ago
  > Point #3 is purely a UI consideration, one where electronic textbooks could easily outdo their paper counterparts. Emphasis added. Until they do, it's still an issue. > The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet. And let's hope that the people developing software to make this revolution possible don't drag their feet either.
- cbs 15y ago
  >The Internet and electronics will turn learning upside down. Let's hope we don't drag our feet. Awesome! But in the meantime I'm not going to deal with shitty UI because it might get better. I don't buy anything for my kindle other than things I expect to read cover to cover because it simply is terrible to navigate.
mostly_harmless 15y ago
I believe the 3rd problem is partially a software problem. I think with proper software to either emulate the advancement through a book, or with a recall function of recently viewed or saved pages; This problem could disappear.
farnsworth 15y ago
4) Buying Kindle books and owning it forever is old news- but now you can rent them too. But as another student who has tried the Kindle-textbook solution in the past, I agree with the other points more or less. I will add that being able to search the entire text of the book instantly is a huge plus for me. I really really want to like e-textbooks, but I wouldn't try experiment again without the large-format Kindle, and I just can't justify the massively increased price over the smaller Kindle.

alexmr 15y ago

This seems like a great program. One friction point for e-textbooks seemed to be the inability to sell them back at the end of the semester like normal books. The reduced cost of a rental should help assuage that.

tnip 15y ago

I think it's a great idea, but at the same time, I'm wary to start jumping on eTextbook renting simply because of my tech ADD - and because it's easier to use a regular textbook. Sure, your textbook might be heavy, but you don't need to be connected to a power source/be dependent upon an electronic device for your materials.

farnsworth 15y ago
I had to charge my Kindle one night every couple weeks with heavy usage. It was never a problem at all.

joe_bleau 15y ago

As a leach, I don't like it. This could be the beginning of the end of cheap obsolete used textbooks. For years I've enjoyed going through bookstores, especially in college towns, just to pick up interesting looking textbooks dirt cheap.

neovive 15y ago
One has to wonder how much longer the typical bookstore (in it's current form factor) will be around. The large book retailers are already retrenching, but hopefully a market still exists for the small, independent, bookstores that add so much character to Main Street.

candre717 15y ago

Chegg, for many students, is still a better option. Great customer service. Simple Process. Wide-spread adoption and availability of titles. Granted, I'm a chegg user, but Amazon surely has a run for its money.

0wnr 15y ago

I expect we will also be seeing more cloud-based ebooks in the future, such as those the bottom of the article indicates McGraw Hill has introduced. The same way that gaming companies increasingly push a subscription-based service over a singular single-player experience, a continual subscription to a cloud-based ebook service would help avoid the inevitable mass piracy of the materials.

maguay 15y ago

If they can undercut CourseSmart's prices, this would be huge. I just paid CourseSmart over $100 for a semester virtual rental of a textbook, and that's way too expensive for an eBook. I don't mind paying for quality content, and purchase apps and eBooks. But $100, and I don't even own the book, when the paper copy costs only 20% more and you could keep it forever or resell it? That doesn't make sense.

acabal 15y ago

Nice idea, but the problem for me would be the screen. I used to spend hours staring at my textbook back in the day. Hours spent staring at a backlit screen like a laptop would give me a headache (and does today, when I spend hours programming). But the e-ink offerings aren't there yet in terms of usability for textbooks. They're great for novels, where progress is linear, and bookmarks are search are rarely needed. But for a textbook, where I'm often flipping to the index, back and forth between subsequent pages rapidly, need color diagrams or big tables and diagrams (600x800 is often not enough room for a large table or diagram), or flipping to one of the hundreds of bookmarks that I've color-coded, e-ink and specifically the Kindle UI just can't do it. Tablet-type hardware might have a better chance, but at the cost of the backlight. So if I was back in college, even though today I do all of my pleasure reading on a Nook Simple Touch, I would still buy paper textbooks.

Ronkdar 15y ago
My problem is that I can't write on my reader. All my textbooks are filled with highlighted sentences, penned in notes, and black marker through every distracting fluff sentence. I will continue to buy paper books until I can achieve this functionality easily in digital form.
kellishaver 15y ago
My problem is the exact opposite. I can't see to read unless I'm looking at a back-lit screen. For this reason, all of my books for the past year and a half have been ebooks, read on an iPad. I'm not sure what I would have done in college had I had the problems reading then that I do now. At the time, my only option would have been a book on tape, which is an absolute nightmare for random access and complex subjects, or braille, which I don't know (though, admittedly, should probably learn). Not that any of that is to discount what you're saying at all. I guess more than anything i just wanted to share my experience. I can certainly see the appeal of having a physical book over a digital copy, and that may well be the preferred choice for the average person, but for a certain demographic, just having the option of a digital version can be an almost life-changing experience. I remember the first night I got my iPad, after a year of not being able to read a book unless I was tied to my computer/desk. I sat comfortably on the couch and read a novel. I cried, I was so happy.

shriphani 15y ago

Thank you so much. Now, if only people begin releasing .mobi versions of their books along with .pdfs

Apocryphon 15y ago

Would this work on Kindle 3, or is Kindle DX the best for viewing such textbooks?

keiferski 15y ago

Speaking as a student, I'm still confused as to why we need the textbook industry at all for certain subjects. Is it really necessary to make an annual book for subjects that don't change significantly from year to year? I've personally seen new editions feature nothing but shuffling of the contents. They've even started selling "loose-leaf" editions, meaning that it's just a collection of binder-punched pages. Why? No new textbooks = no used textbooks = no competition from third party vendors selling used textbooks. No one wants to buy a bunch of pages in a binder. Seems to me that an open-source textbook should be written once and updated incrementally as needed. Up-to-date information could be available online for those with slightly dated textbooks. Of course, the universities, McGraw Hill, Chegg, Amazon, and numberless other interests wouldn't gain much from this situation.

reemrevnivek 15y ago
Speaking as a student, I'm confused as to why you think your predecessors will give you their textbooks in good condition, or even at all! Some students mark up their textbooks. Others (like me) have a lot of books that will be valuable long after I graduate. The problem isn't that we don't need new textbooks every year, it's that we don't need new editions every 3 years with updated numbers for the homework problems and a new picture on the front. That system invalidates used books that are in perfectly good shape, and should be abolished by professors who will stand up to the bookstore and let them know that they don't want the new edition.
- burgerbrain 15y ago
  As a former student, I don't think I've ever acquired a single textbook that wasn't used. The vast majority of them were in flawless condition, the others just had some highlighting that I found actually quite nice.
ZackOfAllTrades 15y ago
I am a student and I worked with publishers last semester for a while to get interactive electronic textbooks published. I got to view things on the inside and what I've concluded is that the publishers don't actually care about students. They are marketing to the schools and universities first and foremost because they are the ones who actually make the buying decisions. All the publishers try to do is make something that looks better their competitors and lets colleges cram more students into the classrooms. I don't ever remember them saying "students need this" but rather "universities want to see this". It is a broken system that relies on lazy/overworked teachers and massive hulking collegiate bureaucracies. Good electronic textbooks won't come from companies that made shitty paper textbooks.

greenyoda 15y ago

An even better idea that's starting to gather momentum is free, open source textbooks: http://creativecommons.org/tag/open-source-textbook http://creativecommons.org/tag/open-source-textbook The textbook industry definitely deserves to be put out of business for their sleazy practices, like publishing new editions of basic textbooks every couple of years so that students can't resell the old ones. (Are there really new developments in basic calculus every couple of years?)

derrida 15y ago

STARTUP GODS: Deliver a solution that will smash the evil exploitative textbook industry, whilst rewarding the authors and teachers.

derrida 15y ago

Protip: Buy from India. It's illegal, but you get a paper copy of a textbook at about 10% of the price.

scrrr 15y ago

I'm not very sympathetic towards the rental of DRM-locked text books. It just seems wrong. Yes, I understand it takes money and effort to write and compile a book, but since currently the prices of ebooks are way too high (after all print, shipping and retail are mostly left out) I feel that the publishing industry is moving towards what the music industry is today. Everyone that has specialized knowledge, enthusiasts, professionals, professors etc. should write their own books and articles and sell them cheaply or give them out for free. Cut out the middle-man that is a publishing company. They are no, longer, needed. They just aren't.

Evgeny 15y ago

I don't own a Kindle yet. But this may be the last straw that will drive me to buy one.