direct marketing of e-textbooks

sdive · 09-15-2013, 09:49 AM

what are the reasons why publishers are not selling e-textbooks direct to students via amazon etc (very few titles available). is it because traditionally purchase of textooks was driven by lecturer recommendations?

Dr. Drib · 09-15-2013, 10:59 AM

This is not considered News.

Rather, it belongs in the General Discussion Forum, where it will now be moved.

Please take the time to become familiar with our site.

Don
(Moderator)

stickybuns · 09-15-2013, 11:29 AM

Textbooks are marketed to instructors, not students. When an ebook version is available, I let my students know.

And of course the sales are driven by the lecturer recommendation. My students would have a tough time passing the class if they just arrived on day one with a bunch of random books!

The publishers put a ton of DRM restrictions on e-textbooks. Technically, they are book rentals and (at least for the one's that I've seen) require the use of the Bluefire.

sdive · 09-15-2013, 01:56 PM

1. my apologies for posting in the wrong section.
2. clearly it must be academics who decide what texts to be used. I wasn't arguing with that. rather than direct marketing, I should have said direct selling. more simply - why are the vast majority of recommended textbooks NOT available on amazon etc?

stickybuns · 09-15-2013, 04:27 PM

The dead tree books usually are available, but the publishers seem to prefer Adobe DRM on the ebooks. Again, the ones I have looked into treat ebooks as rentals.

Julius Caesar · 09-15-2013, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdive

what are the reasons why publishers are not selling e-textbooks direct to students via amazon etc (very few titles available). is it because traditionally purchase of textooks was driven by lecturer recommendations?

Because most students don't have the extra dollars to buy an e-reader.

Because e-readers are not designed to read text books, not even a 13" tablet would fit the need. Many times, one would need to have 2 pages side by side when reading a text book - reading one page while referring to a diagram at another page. One couldn't do that conveniently with an e-reader.

E-reader is a very poor choice for books with lots of diagrams and pictures especially the one with Math notations. Kindle doesn't even have native support for alpha, beta and gamma and most books I have seen with Math notations simply convert the formula to jpeg which has very poor scaling.

Until text books are written from scratch with e-reader in mind, most students prefer to read printed books.

sdive · 09-16-2013, 11:15 PM

thanks to all for your contribution.

09-15-2013, 09:49 AM	#1
sdive Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2013 Device: iPad 2	direct marketing of e-textbooks what are the reasons why publishers are not selling e-textbooks direct to students via amazon etc (very few titles available). is it because traditionally purchase of textooks was driven by lecturer recommendations?

09-15-2013, 11:29 AM	#3
stickybuns Evangelist Posts: 405 Karma: 479729 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle 3, Kindle Paperwhite 2	Textbooks are marketed to instructors, not students. When an ebook version is available, I let my students know. And of course the sales are driven by the lecturer recommendation. My students would have a tough time passing the class if they just arrived on day one with a bunch of random books! The publishers put a ton of DRM restrictions on e-textbooks. Technically, they are book rentals and (at least for the one's that I've seen) require the use of the Bluefire. Last edited by stickybuns; 09-15-2013 at 11:42 AM.

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09-15-2013, 10:59 AM	#2
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,333 Karma: 59447733 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	This is not considered News. Rather, it belongs in the General Discussion Forum, where it will now be moved. Please take the time to become familiar with our site. Don (Moderator)

09-15-2013, 01:56 PM	#4
sdive Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2013 Device: iPad 2	1. my apologies for posting in the wrong section. 2. clearly it must be academics who decide what texts to be used. I wasn't arguing with that. rather than direct marketing, I should have said direct selling. more simply - why are the vast majority of recommended textbooks NOT available on amazon etc?

09-15-2013, 04:27 PM	#5
stickybuns Evangelist Posts: 405 Karma: 479729 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Kindle 3, Kindle Paperwhite 2	The dead tree books usually are available, but the publishers seem to prefer Adobe DRM on the ebooks. Again, the ones I have looked into treat ebooks as rentals.

09-16-2013, 11:15 PM	#7
sdive Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2013 Device: iPad 2	thanks to all for your contribution.

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