When considering higher education, most people don’t factor in the cost of textbooks. If you want to know how to save on college textbooks, you should read this article.
Where to Start
Most colleges or technical schools have a bookstore, but these stores are probably the most expensive places to purchase textbooks. Sometimes they have used textbooks that they sell at a discount, so don’t overlook them completely. Also, bulletin boards near these stores sometimes have used books posted from students.
In the past decade or so, independent bookstores have chosen to locate near college campuses. The deals at these stores are generally much better than at the school stores.
Even better deals can often be found online. Some publishers are offering EBooks that are even less expensive than the price of a used book.
Publishing houses and middlemen, easily located online, are renting books to students for a fraction of the cost of a new or used book.
If All Else Fails
If you enter the field late and cannot seem to find your textbook at a price you can afford, instructors sometimes have extra copies that are given to them by the publishing house. If you ask, instructors often will loan you the extra copy.
Since publishers often just tweak a textbook from one year to the next with a few extras in order to present a new volume, instructors are not averse to allowing a student to purchase an older version of the required text. These books sell for much less than the latest version.
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There are many reasons why textbook are so expensive. The expense of some textbooks is justified but for most textbooks where only the edition is updated price increase are not always justified.
Some Reasons why textbooks are expensive.
1. Technical books ie. Engineering are written by experts who are normally payed big dollars on daily basis therefore expect to pay more for books based on your major. Also technical books usually contain more illustrations and data which bring up the cost of production.
2. Publishers often release new editions of books for several reasons.
-Provide important scientific and industry updates which take place over time.
-To help thin out the market for used books and continue to make money.
3. College bookstore tend to have higher prices due to the financial aid monopoly along with the fact that most in house bookstores give a large cut back to the college.
If you are a College Student there are still ways to get around the high cost of textbooks. you can:
1. Buy your book online through price comparison websites.
2. There are also websites called textbook exchanges where College Students can buy and sell textbooks locally.
3. Book Rental websites, drawbacks can be the cost and if you will need to keep your books for reference in the future.
4. I also recommend to try and buy some of your books one edition behind as you can usually save around 80% of the cost and usually only about 10% of the information actually changes.