by J Thomas Walden

Created on: May 19, 2008

Of course, selling used textbooks can hurt authors and publishers. It places a burden on both parties to create new material and forces each to reexamine their contributions much more often than is convenient. But is this necessarily bad? Of course, it will take more effort to make the same amount of money, but I would like to argue that it is more harmful, from the perspective of society, to view any industry from the sole perspective of the producer.

One of the most interesting and important issues regarding the capitalist system of late involves the rights of the firm beyond the point of sale. The entertainment industries, for example, has hemmed and hawed at the new pseudo-industry rising around internet, and its facilitation of person-to-person trade. Falling profits after a decades-long period of prosperity have angered music, television and movie executives to varying degrees, and solicited a number of responses.

The music industry first drove up prices, hoping to capture affluent markets who would not be caught dead trading in stolen goods. When this failed, they slashed prices, but profits continue to fall. Why? Because the industry still, more or less, refuses to alter a business model that served it so well in the physical retail era.

Television and film have been slightly more successful in adaptation. First of all, they reexamined their product in its new environment, and separated into two basic categories. The first cuts production cost in order to increase margins (e.g., reality television), while the second focuses on creating a quality program that viewers will truly enjoy (e.g., Lost, Heroes, etc.).

In the first case, costs are so low that any viewership, and thus any advertising money, will eventually pay dividends. In the second, viewers will go out of their way to either watch the show live, or go to the broadcaster's website and watch there. By providing, free to the consumer, that which was once stolen, the networks eliminate the illegal industry's competitive advantage.

So: how does this apply to the textbook industry? The emerging norm of second-hand buying, now being fueled by such giants as Amazon and eBay, will inevitably cause decreased margins. Opportunities for economies of scale will go out the window, as the shelf-life of every textbook drops with every development in the resale industry. Publishers and authors will be harmed, there is no way around this, but if they learn to adapt, losses can be reduced to a minimum.

First of all,

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