“The $300 textbook is dead,” says the CEO of textbook maker Pearson | Hacker News Reader

“The $300 textbook is dead,” says the CEO of textbook maker Pearson

vox.com

20 pointsrespinal10 comments

Granted it's a rental, but at least a hardbound book could be resold. The rent-seekers at Pearson cut their supply chain to almost nothing and still make a handsome profit from their captive audience.

Not sure that's better, when I was a college student living in poverty I was expected to buy $100-$300 books and at the end of the semester I would sell them back for $5-$20. Used pricing was never different than new, and the "17th edition" scam meant you often couldn't sell books back at all.

I just started stealing textbooks shamelessly, and have zero regrets about it because I would not have finished college without those small crimes.

Did that mean that other people didn’t get to finish? Or did it mean that they simply had no choice to pay for the book you stole and then again for one of their own?

Is this that different from picking a victim and demanding that he or she hand over the money you lack for a textbook?

It is probably more along the lines of downloading/pirating a pdf version, or scanning and printing an entire textbook.

Gotta have a new math textbook every year. Wouldn't wanna miss out on all the new math.

“If you have an old version you’re good on all of the content, except the questions at the end will be different. So you’ll need a new book to do the homework.”

Or go to the library and photocopy the questions. I had a math instructor literally tell us to buy the old edition and photocopy the questions from the library.

The usual trick is your math teacher was commissioned to write/update one chapter of said book, incentivizing him to push new versions every semester.

Seems like an interesting model and platform. I mean, the digital version is really accompanying the student throughout his/her journey. and if the publisher can not only tap into it, but be part of the ritual of studying. the student will then go back to it. the publisher can easily upsell extra services (correction, tutoring, exam prep, you name it).

Yes, plus apps so that students can participate in different activities. I personally like the electronic version of books. It is portable and convenient. Specially in the STEM fields. Those books are massive, so carrying them around isn’t an easy task. Also, you can search thing faster with an electronic version. This is good for the new students. Unfortunately, I had to buy the expensive books back when I was studying.

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