Free Money For Textbooks
Sometimes it’s hard to change your ways so as to avoid evilness. I love books (have I mentioned that before?) and am probably the last human on Earth who would buy a damn Kindle thingy and start reading my “books” on a screen. However (here comes the part where I clear my throat and mumble about how sometimes change is good and it’s possible I was wrong), in light of the unavoidable fact that textbook publishers are vile bastards with severely bankrupt karma, digital textbooks may be the way to go. Cheaper, lighter, easier on the back, healthier for the trees, etc.
Digital textbook company, iChapters, is currently running a series of campaigns highlighting how the lives of students have been changed by technology (good changes, one hopes). Part of their campaign strategy involves a $1,000-for-textbooks sweepstakes, which is good for you if you’re an under-funded college student and would just pee your pants if someone gave you that much money for books.
I read all the fine print. You have to be 18 and live in the U.S. Five students will win, and apparently all you have to do is sign up here. According to the rules, you don’t have to buy anything to win, just sign up by filling out the little entry form. Also, you can sign up once every day during the promotion period (July 15th 2009 through August 29th 2009) and it will count as a valid entry. Good luck, people.
Posted by Alexa Harrington
Offering 5 out of 17 million students $1,000 for textbook purchases; wow, what an impact that will have. It’s like the tobacco companies having to put warning labels on cigarette packs; neither address the real problem. Both the publishers and tobacco companies continue to make record profits and the consumers continue to suffer.
Solve the high cost of textbooks problem at the source. Let students swap out their used textbooks with other students. This won’t solve the problem of professors requiring updating for edition changes or switching to other new textbooks, but it does minimize the cost of buying used textbooks. This needs to be a grass roots movement at the student body level to have any impact. The more books available for trade the more money students will save.
One thing is for sure, we can no longer wait for large companies or the Government to solve these types of problems. Take action now.
On the subject of saving money on textbooks I wanted to suggest you take a look at
http://www.dontbuytextbooks.net. It seems to be a very good place to rent and download textbooks and save money.
While Marty’s comment might be right, I could still use money for textbooks. Thanks for the tip. I went and signed up for the drawing.
So far, I’ve only had one textbook worth reading. Most have been a huge waste of money. But, it’s one of the prices we have to pay for attending college.
Marty, actually the Used Book market is the reason why textbook costs have risen so much. If you look at the last 20 years, take a close look at how many Used Book companies have popped up. Now count how many new textbook publishers there are in the same time period. Clearly, the Used Book companies are making more money than the publishers are, at the expense of students. A publisher sells their book once and makes a profit. A used book company turns around and sells that same book 5, 6, 7, 8 times or more and makes profit every single time. Also, colleges who have given up their control of the textbook market to the big used-book players like Barnes & Noble and Follett are a cause of the problem. They give over control of their college bookstores for a cut of the profits to these large used book companies — who also have to show a profit by marking up textbook costs — and then wonder why the textbooks are priced so high. If the used book market didn’t exist, publishers could keep their prices lower. Look at trade books… your average hardcover novel sells for $25.00. Why? Because there’s a limited “used” market for the book, and because development costs for a trade book are much lower than for a textbook. If the used book market didn’t exist, textbooks would be half the cost they are now.