by Patricia Rockwell

Created on: January 14, 2009

As a college instructor of over forty years, I answer a resounding "yes" to this question. In my many years of teaching I have seen the money that students spend on textbooks increase faster than the cost of tuition at virtually every institution where I have taught. Students may think that faculty members are not concerned about the high cost of textbooks or that we don't do our part to decrease the cost of textbooks. I want to assure college students everywhere that teachers are well aware of the textbook cost problem and many are working to alleviate it.

Let's discuss just why textbooks cost so much. After all, textbooks are books and the cost of books seems to be going down if you look at online sites such as Amazon.com. Even at Barnes and Noble or Books a Million, you can get a fairly thick paperback novel for under $20. Why is it that a paperback textbook, then, costs $100 or more?

There are several reasons that textbooks cost so much: 1) supply and demand, 2) market size, and 3) captive audience. Let's examine each of these concepts.

First, you have heard of supply and demand. This economic principle truly comes into play in the textbook industry. It's not a terribly large industry, actually. Where your particular class in concerned, the publisher is a seller of one. That is, only one publisher manufactures and sells the textbook selected by your professor for your particular class. Look at it this way, if you professor required you to bring a calculator to class, you would have your choice of a whole host of calculators and thus could choose either an expensive one or a cheap one. With the textbook your teacher selects, there is only one choice. You can't decide you'd rather study from a different textbook that might be cheaper (well, you could but you probably wouldn't too very well on the exams). When you professor selects the textbook for your particular course, there is all of a sudden a strong demand and a fairly small supply. Thus, the publisher can set the price for the textbook at whatever they like.

Also, keep in mind that textbooks are not books that people typically are anxious to purchase. That is, there is not a great demand for these books in the general public. Therefore, if professors do not require the book for a course, the book will not be purchased and demand will plummet. The publisher will lose money. The publisher often must recoup their losses from all the potential sales that aren't made when professors do not choose this textbook.

Second,

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