Here is a
link to the PDF of an almost 10 years old report by the California Student Public Interest Research Group. Sadly, nothing has changed (if not for the worse). The report determined that textbook publishers drive up the cost of textbooks by such practices as "bundling" text with materials that are seldom if ever used, and forcing cheaper used books off the market by publishing revist editions with little enhanced content (sometimes they simply alter the book format and page numbers). Some interesting quotes:
- “Publishers release new editions of successful textbooks every few years — not to improve content, although that may be a byproduct — but to discourage the sales of used books by making them seem obsolete.” - Erwin V. Cohen, former publishing industry executive for the Academic Press
- “Textbooks have become ridiculously expensive because the people who choose the books (faculty) are not the ones who pay for them (students). Publishers spend a lot of money trying to get me to choose their book. They sponsor wine and cheese parties at conferences, they mail me free sample books and they send representatives from Portland (to Eugene) to sell to me…. This is a problem that needs addressing.” - Lane Community College Math Professor
- “In my opinion, they produce a new edition when the number of second hand copies of an old edition seriously dents their sales figures.” - UCSD Math Professor
- “New editions are driven by profit potential of publishers. There isn’t that much new information in a field to change in an intro text.” - University of Oregon Business Professor
- “Probably you will not be surprised to find out that most of the mathematics faculty are as much frustrated by constant production of “new editions” of calculus textbooks as are the students. The subject of calculus did not change much in the last 100 years! And there are no reasons why the textbooks have to be updated every five years or even more frequently. New illustrations are sometimes added, exercises are shuffled and so on, but these do not substantially affect teaching/learning. Textbook publishers produce new editions solely as a means to sell more books and make more profit.” - UCLA Calculus Professor
- “Faculty do not often know the cost of textbooks they require students to buy. It may help to reduce costs if there was a way to get this information routinely to the faculty – if the options are not simply book A versus book B, but book Q at $130 versus book B at $90.” - UCSC Math Professor
Source: Rip-off 101: How the Current Practices of the Publishing Industry Drive up the Cost of College Textbooks