Newswise — Sticker shock is nothing new for college students and parents alike when it comes to tallying textbook purchases. Recently, though, the federal government has taken an interest in finding out why textbook prices have soared over the past 20 years.
According to a May 2007 study released by The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, a federal committee chartered by Congress, the "first-time, full-time students spent a total of $898 at four-year public colleges and $886 at two-year public colleges on books and supplies in 2003-04."
Couple this information with estimates that college textbooks have increased twice as much as the rate of inflation during the past two decades—as well as the fact that, when budgeting and paying college costs, it is the textbook bill that comes last—and it's not hard to understand how such last-minute but necessary expenditures catch college students and their parents off guard.
Rometrius "Romy" North, a junior advertising major at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), is among the many who feel the financial pinch come textbook-purchase time.
"Textbook prices are unreasonably high for students trying to get by and get an education," says North, a first-generation college student. "I also think it's ridiculous when some professors insist that you must have a textbook, but then it's never cracked open during the semester.
"For me, that experience was a waste of the money I already don't have," continues the 20-year-old. "I guess "¦ I would not mind the (book) prices so much, if I felt like I got quality use from them, but that doesn't always happen."
For years, textbook authors have been pinned with a considerable share of the blame for ever-increasing textbook prices, observes Dr. Janet Belsky, a professor of psychology at MTSU and textbook author several times over. But such couldn't be further from the truth, she asserts.
"You can't make money from writing textbooks," says Belsky, whose latest title, the 550-page "Experiencing the Lifespan," was released in Dec. 26, 2006, by Bedford, Freeman & Worth. "Hour by hour, (writing a text pays the author) less than minimum wage, even for a potentially blockbuster, huge-market book."
Specifically, she adds, regarding her latest title, which garnered a five-star reviewer rating on Amazon.com for its depth, insight and clarity, writing a text is a labor of love, not one undertaken for money, and it's a process that takes years.
New copies of the book currently list for $80.95, and from this price tag, the book's author "basically makes about 15 percent of the wholesale price for the book when it's sold new," reports Belsky, who estimates she will garner "a few dollars" from the sale of each brand-new book.
As for used copies of the "Lifespan" title that are sold back to bookstores, there is no income to be made for textbook authors.
"When students sell their new book back at the end of the semester or quarter, from then on the author and publisher get nothing, nada, zip," Belsky notes. "Basically, with a book like mine costing $80 new, the used book dealer is going to pocket about $40, $50 or $60—or more—depending on how often the book is sold back and bought again for no investment of time or money, except sitting at that buy-back table.
"And worse yet," she laments, " the professors' free books, the complimentary texts they are sent, can even be sold as 'new books,' if the professors choose to sell them, which gives textbook authors nothing and undercuts the publishers because the book is being sold as 'new' at a lower cost."
Although many don't see the hours upon hours that turn into years upon years that textbook authors, publishers and review committees composed of subject experts devote to making academic texts concise and valuable to would-be learners in a given field, the motivation to undertake writing a textbook is usually rooted in a desire to make a difference, Belsky confirms.
"I have been teaching developmental psychology to undergraduates for more than two decades—first at Lehman College, and for past 11 years, here at MTSU," Belsky explains. "(And) I have been writing books in developmental psychology almost continuously all this time "¦ and in my case, I do it because I have a desire to make a difference.
"My life's passion is to make students think more deeply, to look at the world in a new way, to influence minds and captivate hearts," she explains. "But also, I'm a knowledge pack rat; I love to learn all I can about a field "¦ and I'm trying to make a real contribution to my field (of lifespan development)."
Moreover, she adds, for the most, textbook authors and publishers—along with a cast of editors, reference checkers, artists, reviewers and designers, among many other project contributors—join forces, oftentimes for years on the same book project, to create what they hope will "look like a lovely work of art" while providing faculty and students with accompanying study guides, Web sites and other related materials to complement the book and its contents.
For Belsky, the suggestion from some that texts be "farmed out to writing committees to get rid of those so-called greedy publishers and authors" is unfathomable, as is the idea that a professor would instruct his or her students to merely "look this stuff up on the Internet, don't bother buying the book."
Such suggestions make sense, Belsky reasons, "only if we want to lose the essence of what education is all about—enticing students to love to learn!"
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