I have one short comment about examination copies. During the past three years, I have probably received nearly 50 “free” examination copies of texts that I did not request. Publisher representatives should exercise more control over what texts they ship to faculty members. It’s like playing the lottery with book selection–they send it to a faculty member and hope that faculty member selects the book.

As for textbooks…this semester, I worked very closely with the book publisher to keep textbook costs low. We selected a package that I thought was affordable (roughly $50 for two books). I was stunned when I looked at the prices at the bookstore–the package had been marked up to nearly $80.

I spoke to our bookstore assistant and he said the standard mark-up for textbooks was 33%. I’m not sure what the bookstore mark-up has been in past years, but it seems as though prices are getting more and more expensive.

A major issue is the lack of competition–not between publishers (which already exists)–but for local campus bookstores. There’s no reason that college bookstores shouldn’t mark-up their texts as much as they want–because in most cases, they don’t have any competition. It’s like paying $6.25 for a drink at the movie theater–what other options are available?

Students should spend time researching the required books for each class and look for discount retailers online. I told my students this semester to look for previous versions of our writing manual and pointed them in the direction of reputable booksellers to purchase their reader for the semester at a lower price.

I’m not sure where the textbook pricing issue will go in the future, but if things are not rectified in the next few years, it is conceivable that students may not be able to afford their textbooks after tuition and living costs eat up their checkbooks and credit cards.