Page 6C/The Battalion/Monday, August 29, 1988
Football, Friends t>cFlowers
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BBQ Chicken, Baked Potato, salad
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Students wait in long lines at the Texas A&M
Bookstore during the first days of classes of the
Spring 1988. Thousands usually wait until the
first days of classes to buy and sell textbooks.
spots.
Wh
Buying books tends to be
expensive for everyone
By Kelly S. Brown
Reporter
BUY HIGH and sell low —sounds
like the reverse of a stock market tip
— but when dealing with textbooks,
it’s the price paid.
Textbook prices are generally the
same at College Station’s 1 1
bookstores.
A student who just spent $40 on a
biology book knows that he will get
— at most — $20 if and when he re
turns it. He wants to scream, ‘I’ve
been robbed,’ and he wants someone
to blame it on — be it the publisher,
the wholesale dealer, the bookstore
or the author — but there is no sin
gle culprit.
A&M Marketing professor and
textbook writer Dr. O C Ferrell said
the villain is the actual system itself.
The system works something like
this.
PUBLISHERS ASK specialists,
usually professors, in a subject to
write a textbook. After it’s written,
sales representitives find buyers.
Buyers, after looking at many books
from many companies, decide which
textbook they want to use. Once de
cided, a deal is made and an order is
sent to the bookstores. The
bookstores request books from the
book companies. Seems simple, well
— not quite.
Lynne Williams, director of Sales,
Marketing and Finance for St. Mar
tins’ Press in New York City, said
publishers are not making the enor
mous clear-cut profit that people
think they are.
Publishers sell books to stores at
either a net price or a 20 percent dis
count. Bookstores lobbied against
the 20 percent discount six years ago
because they didn’t feel 20 percent
was enough. Most bookstores still
buy at the discount price. Williams
said the jury is still out over which
system is better.
“We don’t just make up prices in
our mind,” she said. “The price is
decided by how much it costs to
make the book, and what people
don’t realize is that publishers make
a very small profit.”
“So much money goes into the
publishing of a textbook, often a mil
lion or more dollars, and we are try
ing to satisfy several parts of an
equation — buyers, professors and
consumers — and that’s not easy be
cause the three parts are in conflict.
We try to make our prices as fair as
possible for everyone,” Williams
said.
Kim Oles, a senior management
major, knows in business things are
not always fair.
“I used to feel ripped off and
thought it was a scam whenever I
sold back a book for half what I paid
and bookstores turn around and sell
it for more. I know where the money
is going and understand that profit
is not a bad word, but I still think
textbooks cost far too much,” she
said. “The students are paying for
the injustice in the system.”
Williams said, “Costs include the
physical book itself, which calls for
an enormous amount of money.
Some obvious costs include paper
and ink, while different colors or
special figures in a book raise the
price. Research and development —
as well as salaries — siphon a bulk of
the money. Royalities have to be
paid to the authors. However, by no
means are writers becoming rich
from book profits.”
Apparently, neither are the
bookstores.
Howard DeHart, manager of the
Memorial Student Center bookstore,
said gifts and supplies are what
money is spent oi
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“We don’t just make up
prices in our mind. The
price is decided by how
much it costs to make the
book, and what people
don’t realize is that pub
lishers make a very small
profit. ”
Lynne Williams,
St. Martins’ Press
P r
books. The books are what lure the
students in.
“If I were to go into business for
myself it wouldn’t be in the book in
dustry,” DeHart said. “Books are
solely for the student, not for
bookstores to make huge profits. Be
sides, books are the best and cheap
est thing a student buys while in col
lege.”
COLLEGE STATION bookstore
managers agree that a student
spends an average of $200 to $300
each semester on books.
One parent told the Battalion that
he has spent $23,591.53 on his sons
total four year education — 7 per
cent of which was for books.
Michael Kiely, a former bookstore
manager, said bookstores don’t
make more than 1 or 2 percent
profit from new books.
“Used books are where some of
the profit is made. Most bookstores
sell used books for 75 percent of the
new selling price,” he said.
Bookstores have different buy
back policies, but most will give in
cash 50 percent of the list price and
as Kiely said, sell it back at one and a
half of what the student paid for it.
For example, if a student buys a
book for $20 and sells it back for
$10, the bookstore will re-sell it for
$15.
Bookstores, DeHart said, would
rather sell used books and students
would rather pay for used books, but
there are never enough to go
around.
“Many students at A&M, espe
cially engineering and business ma
jors, don’t sell their books, and I
think they should be commended
for that,” he said. “However,
bookstores lose money, because to
compensate for the loss of supply on
used books, they have to send for
See Books, page 7
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the pr
new books and
freight charges.
WHILE STUDENTS swaj
keep some and sell others tostrotf
stores, the order to the publishe
drops and the publishers getangr
he said.
“Used books,” Williams said, “cn
into our market and cause our nei
book prices to increase in price,i 0 feth
much time and energy goes ini
buying used books that, in theta
run, it’s not worth it for
bookstores to buy used books.”
Not so said Kiely, whonowwoil
for College Book Store, a wholesi
company in Arkansas.The
lishers are losing money but noli
compared to the money they coii
be saving if they really concentras
on the internal control of theircot
pany, he said.
The internal control Kiely is®
ering to is in the promotion C
publicity department.
“They spend an enornw
amount of money trying to f
schools to buy the books. IthastoJ
done, but the high cost is whatsit
batable,” Kiely said
“Publishing companies have®;
resentatives who go to schools or - -'
schools have representatives comt :
them for exhibits, and deals 2
made. Sure, the potential
to see a book before he buys it,it
publishing companies give theta
ers complimentary books torevie
They keep the book regardlesi
whet her t hey buy it or not. Monet
lost when the professor sells ac®
plimentary book to a bools
re...that’s not fair. The consumed
sentially ends up paying for it.”
PUBLISHING COMPANY
also offer a lot of expensive i
lives to the potential buyers,
slides, films, computers, test bat
and money for the department
name several, Kiely said. “Thii
also what is jacking up the priced
the consumer and hurting him/ 1
is where the internal control
to start in order for the price of® 5
books to go down.”
Williams said marketing a
book is part of the whole process?
they have to offer incentives,
says it makes them angry whenf®
fessors sell a complimentary bool 1
a bookstore. It costs the compa' 5
money and hurts the consumer,
said.
“I don’t know if the profes*
just don’t realize what they aredof
or if they do realize it butdon’tc? 1
Many bookstores refuse to buy
plimentary books. They can tel
book is complimentary beo-
there’s often a stamp, sticker
something on the book sayingso
Ferrell considers it highly unt?
cal for a professor to sell his coup
mentary book to a bookstore
“The best correlation is phar® 15
doctors who receive sample dip
free, sell the drugs to patients
keep the money,” he said.
PROFESSORS COULD give
textbooks to libraries or stride 11
but to sell them for profit is abre?