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"The textbook business was wildly inefficient" My understanding is that the textbook business is designed to be inefficient (from a student's perspective - and

by apowell 17y ago

"The textbook business was wildly inefficient" My understanding is that the textbook business is designed to be inefficient (from a student's perspective - and very profitable from a publisher's perspective). The short lifespan and planned obsolescence of textbooks would make textbook rental a very difficult business without participation from publishers and colleges. Nevertheless, this could be a tremendously useful service for college students so I wish them the best.

ubernostrum 17y ago
"My understanding is that the textbook business is designed to be inefficient (from a student's perspective - and very profitable from a publisher's perspective)." I think this varies quite a bit according to the field of study and the level of coverage of the topic. To take one example: introductory calculus (which most undergraduates are required to take) textbooks can get away with this because students have little choice. They have to take the course, and so they have to get the book, and so the publisher essentially has a free hand, abetted by the academic bookstores which do quite well off the churn of new books. But this isn't universally applicable. My degree's in philosophy, for example; I still have all the books, and nearly all of them are still in print in the same edition. Most of those have been in their current editions at least as long as I've been alive (fun data point: the teaching guide for one course -- not the text, the teaching guide -- has been in the same edition since the 1970s). The only things which change frequently are topical anthologies, which do need to be updated more often to track recent developments. And anecdotally, I suspect that's a bit more common once you move out of the math/science area of most schools; the number of standard texts which simply aren't amenable to constant churn seems to decrease rapidly as you move over into the liberal arts.

by apowell 17y ago

ubernostrum 17y ago

"My understanding is that the textbook business is designed to be inefficient (from a student's perspective - and very profitable from a publisher's perspective)." I think this varies quite a bit according to the field of study and the level of coverage of the topic. To take one example: introductory calculus (which most undergraduates are required to take) textbooks can get away with this because students have little choice. They have to take the course, and so they have to get the book, and so the publisher essentially has a free hand, abetted by the academic bookstores which do quite well off the churn of new books. But this isn't universally applicable. My degree's in philosophy, for example; I still have all the books, and nearly all of them are still in print in the same edition. Most of those have been in their current editions at least as long as I've been alive (fun data point: the teaching guide for one course -- not the text, the teaching guide -- has been in the same edition since the 1970s). The only things which change frequently are topical anthologies, which do need to be updated more often to track recent developments. And anecdotally, I suspect that's a bit more common once you move out of the math/science area of most schools; the number of standard texts which simply aren't amenable to constant churn seems to decrease rapidly as you move over into the liberal arts.