The Academic Textbook Industry = $$$

NP: Steady as She Goes -- The Raconteurs

As a fledgling instructor in the liberal arts, there is a wide variety of textbooks available for adoption in my various classes. Generally, an established professor or group of professors will write a general textbook, sell it to a publisher and cash in on mad royalties that often eclipse their monographs. This, and writing a general history of a college that will sell to the alumni of a give institution, are two popular ways to earn money late in your careers to retire on and not be dependent on the state pension program. As a result, the textbook market is crowded with a lot of good, highly readable textbooks for history surveys.

The publishers, well aware that they are in a crowded, extremely competitive field, will often trip over each other to get professors to adopt their books. Previously, I posted about textbook reps, most of whom are under 25, under a size 10, and over-endowed, coming to campus and bringing us a catered meal from Panera or Chipotle as an excuse to get us to read through the various books she shills. While this still happens routinely, an increasing number of companies are moving away from the eye-candy approach and are just sending us free copies of their books. Apparently, it is more cost-effective to send a box of 5 or 6 books to every prospective professor on a school's website than to pay the travel and meal costs of one of these sales people. This semseter, it was not uncommon on any given day to have a package waiting on me in the graduate office with anywhere between 1 and 8 free textbooks.

As you, the fair readers of SGM know, I am a very dedicated professional. However, I only have so many hours in the semester to read textbooks. This semester, that amount of time totalled 0 hours. So, blessed with a stack of freebooks in a vibrant college town, I went to two of the off-campus bookstores in the greater Gainesville area, and sold half (exactly half) of the free books for a net profit of $132 dollars. I have morals and, if I had asked for any of these books, I would have kept them. However, since the textbook companies apparently feel led to send me a seemingly inexhaustable supply of books I neither want nor need, I have no problems turning those resources into usable capital. After all, I would much rather have money to buy groceries than a third copy of "America: A Concise History."

So, when you wonder why textbook companies charge 50 bucks for a US Since 1877 book, just remember that for every book you buy, 5 professors are receiving the same book at no charge.