How much is your textbook really worth?

TAMPA, Fla. — After tuition, housing and other fees have been paid for, students head down to the bookstore for one last expense.

And at the University of South Florida, students can feel the weight of the books both physically and financially.



Textbook prices can range anywhere from $5 to $200 and a semester’s worth of books can be upwards of $1,000.

“When I saw over $1,200 come up on the cash register I couldn’t believe it,” said Lauren Galbraith, a former nursing major. “The cashier asked me if I needed any smelling salt. I was literally speechless.”

A deeper look into the textbook industry can reveal some answers behind why prices are so high.

Dr. Larry Leslie, professor emeritus at USF, has written two textbooks that he uses in both of the courses he teaches at the university. A professor can choose to write a textbook rather than select one to help eliminate any unnecessary information that could increase the price of the book.

Leslie was approached by a publisher in which he entered a contract with.

Leslie's textbook, Mass Communication Ethics, can be purchased new at different prices depending on where a student purchases the textbook.

His book, Mass Communication Ethics, sells for $93.60 new at the USF Bookstore and $91.50 at Gray’s Bookstore, an off-campus option, but is only $60 through the publisher directly. However, if the book were to be sold through the publisher directly, the bookstores wouldn’t make any profit.

Grace McQueen, USF Bookstore manager, said that the bookstore enters a contract with the publisher and makes commission based on the sales of the book when sold as new.

Once the book is sold back to the USF Bookstore, the author of the book is no longer entitled to any of the royalties set aside in the original contract. This is where a majority of the bookstores makes their profit.

Take Leslie’s book for example. After buying the textbook back for a fraction of the original price, the bookstore relists the textbook for more than what it was purchased back for and collects the difference as profit.

For the fall semester, the USF Bookstore listed the used copy of Leslie’s textbook for $70.20. A local competitor bought the textbook back at just $26.58 making the possible difference nearly $45.

Another factor in textbook pricing is when the professor of a respective course opts to select a new book for his teachings. In Leslie’s case, he was pursuing to publish a third edition of his course’s textbook that would allow him to implement more up-to-date case studies but the publishing company feels like pursuing a new edition wouldn’t generate enough profit to be worthwhile.

“The publisher wasn’t interested in a new edition,” Leslie said. “They already had two other books that covered the same information and didn’t feel it would be profitable to add another.”

In order for Leslie to search for a new publisher, he would have to ask his original publisher to reassign the copyright of his textbook back to him. When asked, the publishing company responded “not at the present time.”

High textbook prices have generated a number of new methods to purchase textbooks. Online retailers can offer students a cheaper price and there are also bookstores that allow students to rent their textbooks for the duration of the semester.

“They are extremely expensive,” said Bryan Hamer, a finance major at USF. “It’s ridiculous. I would much rather rent them for a quarter of the price rather than blow all that money on a book I am going to use for four months.”

However, renting textbooks eliminate the opportunity for students to resell the textbooks back to the bookstores.

Amazon.com allows students to search for prospective textbooks at lower prices without the hassle of waiting in line.

“Amazon is so much easier than going to a bookstore,” said senior and history major Jared Brantley. “During the first week of school, the bookstores are packed. Amazon lets me get the books for less money and less stress.”

Purchasing textbooks online comes with its flaws as well.

The additional shipping costs can increase the price and the delivery times can cause students to be without a textbook for two to three weeks at the start of the semester. Also, students risk purchasing the wrong book or having to deal with the possibility of interacting with an unverified seller.

No matter what method a student pursues to purchase textbooks, the system poses profit over people.

“We need a new system not subject to abuse,” said Leslie. “People are profiting off my work. That’s just the way the system works.”

Story by Joshua Litton

Photos by Cody Wilson

Edited by Amanda Stone