How to Rent a Textbook

In my morning mail was an interesting letter from my publisher, Cengage, in which they described a new innovation–CengageBrain.com. Using this site, students will be able to purchase or rent over 1300 of the titles published by Cengage, with even more to be added later. The letter went on to say that my book, Discovering Biological Psychology, would be available on this site in December, in time for our new terms in January.

A Rental Copy Will Soon Be Available

Now for those of us old enough to view our college textbooks as the beginning of our adult libraries, the concept of “renting” a textbook seems a bit astonishing. But I am VERY excited to be part of this innovation! Hopefully, publisher-based textbook rentals will finally address the dilemmas posed by the used textbook markets. How does the rental work? Once you sign up for the rental, you get immediate access to Chapter 1 in eBook form, so there is no delay in getting started with your coursework. The hard copy will be shipped to the student, with a choice of shipping options. At the end of the term, you can either print out a label and ship the book back to Cengage, or if you decide to keep it, you just pay for it at that time.

I have posted on this issue before, but it warrants repeating, as the concept appears to be completely misunderstood by most people. What makes a new textbook expensive is the fact that ALL of the publisher’s costs must be recovered when the book is sold new. Once a book hits the used book market, it makes tons of money for the used book sellers, who buy at a pittance then recycle for nearly new prices, and NONE of that money goes to publisher or author. So the poor student buying the new textbook is subsidizing cheaper used books for the next student, the college bookstores make all the money, and the authors and publishers get nothing. If the costs of the book are spread across all users, the cost of a book to any one user is vastly reduced (think Harry Potter for $20–nobody resells Harry), and the rightful producers of the book (author and publisher) receive fair payment for their efforts.

The rental option is brilliant (unless you are a college bookstore). The student gets a cheaper book and the publisher and author get fair compensation. At a state school like Cal Poly, we are not supposed to be in the business of competing with the private sector, so cutting the bookstore out of their ill-gotten gains is no tragedy.

I have been told by publishing insiders for years that the publishers would have done something like this years ago, but were worried about “backlashes” from the big retailers. I am very proud that Cengage is taking a leadership role to bring students affordable materials, and I am delighted to be a member of this team.  The “Napster” era of used book sales may finally be ending.