The publishing industry is facing a number of challenges in this highly technical society. Reports of decline in sales of textbooks have become regular news for most university presses. And the issues surrounding the decline just make the situation get a little darker.
The proliferation of web sites that offer pirated versions of textbooks has been pointed out as one of the main culprits of the decrease in textbook sales. Contrary to what many believed, that the books published in university presses were too specialized to even attract attention from pirates, electronic files of university-press books have already been spotted on those pirate websites.
The overpricing of textbooks might be the reason why pirate sites even exist. It can be noted that several lawsuits have already been filed over overpriced textbooks. The expense and the fact that a ‘free’ alternative is available might encourage one helpless student who cannot find cheap textbooks for his highly demanding subjects to turn to these pirate sites for refuge.
There is also the issue of electronic reserves and the use of course management software such as Blackboard. In instances where professors make chapters of a book available as electronic reserves or disseminate the materials through Blackboard, buying a textbook may not be necessary anymore. Furthermore, professors may get out of having to pay a permission fee to the publisher.
The situation calls for university presses to start making it easy for people to ask for permissions. Aside from this, open textbooks already exist to assist students in their scholarly concerns. These methods will hopefully eliminate the problem of piracy while helping students get the best learning experience possible without the additional costs.
However, the decline of textbooks sales will continue to be the challenge faced by university presses at present, considering the online alternatives. Not a good sign for the traditional textbooks industry indeed, but this is something that they need to deal with.
Popularity: 91% [?]
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I am not a fan of piracy…I buy my music, software, etc. I don’t like it, but I understand it. Business needs to learn that wide spread piracy grows out of frustration and anger.
But, that’s what happens when you soak the consumer. If an industry charges as much as they can (more that what is reasonable), just because the consumer has no alternative…An alternative will present itself.
There needs to be a shift in companies strategies away from monopolies trying to corner the market. Let’s try some capitalism…competition yielding the lowest price and highest quality. You always hear “we don’t want a price war,” but so many industries are really just a few big players who control the market and just set the price as high as they can. Of course companies don’t want competion, but our system is supposed to be based on it. I’m sorry, but we live in a capitalist system people.
Piracy is a symptom of the problem of over-priced goods, not just lawlessness. Business should deal with the big issues as well as trying to shut down the law breakers.
As a graphic design firm, we have to deal with over-seas designers, bid-based design websites, templates, low-ballers, and all kinds of economic competition. We respond by offering our years of expertise, working more efficiently, and keeping our prices reasonable.
If a text book isn’t worth $100 than the publisher shouldn’t be getting way with charging $100.
April 18th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
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May 15th, 2010 at 5:02 am
Thanks so much for the mention! It is interesting how many
people don’t think of simply being kind as acting in our own
best interests - most of the time, we feel that acting with kindness is
giving others the upper hand, especially at work. But when I look back on
the most important relationships I have in my career, they’re often based on
mutual respect and kindness.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Why do textbooks have to be so expensive? Sorry I don’t get it.
June 15th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
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August 5th, 2010 at 5:05 am
Text book piracy is increasing day by day.
Can anyone tell me how publishers tackle with text book piracy?
Thanks
Regards
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October 7th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
It is very important to search out the lowest price possible for your books. College tuition has sky-rocketed, and the price of textbooks is far exceeding inflation in the United States. The best way to save money on textbooks is to buy used. The best way to do this is to use Textbook Marketplaces. You can find many good deals on textbooks by buying from other students who are listings their books for sale once they are done using them.so why not try this site
http://www.sccbooks.com/ for cheapest textbooks
November 7th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
When buying textbooks, it is very important to search out the lowest price possible for your books.
College tuition has sky-rocketed, and the price of textbooks is far exceeding inflation in the United States.
The best way to save money on textbooks is to buy used. The best way to do this is to use Textbook Marketplaces.
You can find many good deals on textbooks by buying from other students who are listings their books for sale once they
are done using them. Even better yet, mot textbook marketplaces allow sellers to list International Editions.
International Editions feature the same content as the US editions, but are in softcover format, have a different cover,
and sometimes have a warning stating that the books are not to be sold in the United States.
However, there are no actual laws governing the sell of International Editions among US students.
This is just something the publishers have tried to outlaw. While textbook marketplaces offer a discount on textbooks,
not all are created equal. Most sites have very high fees, usually 15% of the total sale.
This amounts to a 15% higher price to the buyer! At http://www.sccbooks.com, we offer a low flat
fee of \.00 per textbook sold, unless the price is less than \.00.
Then we take 10%. We are also willing to lower our fees for high volume sellers.
This helps keep the cost of our books lower than all of the other textbook marketplaces.
At SCC Books, we strive to have the cheapest textbooks available, and a wide selection of International Edition Textbooks.
it is very important to search out the lowest price possible for your books.
College tuition has sky-rocketed, and the price of textbooks is far exceeding inflation in the United States.
The best way to save money on textbooks is to buy used. The best way to do this is to use Textbook Marketplaces.
You can find many good deals on textbooks by buying from other students who are listings their books for sale once
they are done using them.so why not try this site http://www.sccbooks.com/ for cheapest textbooks
February 26th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
I hate the prices of textbooks. It makes it almost as bad as the tuition rates at schools these days. But I have found that renting my textbooks from http://www.collegebookrenter.com helps me save. I can rent a textbooks for $30 compared to the $180 they want for it used. Should check them out if you need textbooks for class.
March 6th, 2013 at 5:55 pm
This is for sure a problem. You would think that people would not do so much cheating, but I guess the stakes are pretty high.
March 27th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Due to piracy all fields are in huge loss.it might be music,movies or books related.
April 18th, 2013 at 5:10 am
Very good post, and I like your points. However I do think that lists still have some merit, but the poster should try to make the list original and explain every point on the list in detail.
May 6th, 2013 at 2:52 am
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June 7th, 2013 at 10:04 pm
You would think that people would not do so much cheating, but I guess the stakes are pretty high.