hvaldez1 / SXC

Students can hold down the cost of buying textbooks by shopping for them online.

As July melted into August, college towns around the country began to swell with incoming freshmen, returning students and faculty, and campus bookstores began to stock their shelves with textbooks. Expensive textbooks. Textbooks that cost each student an average of $1,168 a year, according to the College Board. Luckily for students already on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in tuition, brick-and-mortar stores no longer have a monopoly in this market. Just this week Amazon, which already has a Kindle textbook rental service, joined the ranks of Web sites renting out regular textbooks at steep discounts. Skip the long lines and save some money by renting or buying required texts online.

Below are Cheapism’s top Web sites for buying or renting affordable textbooks.

• BookRenter.com specializes in textbook rentals but also peddles new and used books sold by third parties. The site woos students with free shipping both ways on rentals and promises those looking to sell their books at the end of the semester a 12 percent bonus if they accept BookRenter.com credit instead of cash. (Where to buy)
• Textbooks.com offers new and used books, textbook rentals, a limited selection of ebooks and book buyback (for at least half the original price, plus 10 percent extra if the book came from Textbooks.com). Students posting reviews online call the site dependable and appreciate the wide selection. Orders over $25 ship free. (Where to buy)
• Chegg.com emphasizes its rental service but also offers new and used books and recently launched an etextbook reader for computers and iPads. Students posting reviews generally praise the prices and report that the site promptly delivers books in good condition. (Where to buy)
• TextbooksRus.com manages to offer new textbooks more cheaply than other online vendors by selling less expensive international editions, which students say sometimes differ from the U.S. editions in content and pagination. The site also rents and buys textbooks. Shipping is free for rental, buyback, and orders over $25. (Where to buy)

No textbook Web site escapes sharp criticism from reviewers, especially those dealing with third-party sellers, but all the sites on the list above claim plenty of satisfied customers. They promise to save students 40 percent to 90 percent off campus bookstore prices. Students who hope to sell a book back after a class ends should be sure to take it easy on the highlighting and not make too many notes in the margins. Wear and tear can also disqualify a book from buyback.

Of course, the surest way to minimize the amount of money you lose on textbooks is to avoid buying them altogether. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that seven out of 10 students have opted not to buy a textbook because it was too expensive, according to a 2011 survey by the nonprofit U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Many students still manage to keep up by taking advantage of textbooks their university libraries hold in reserve for students to use for a few hours at a time. That strategy certainly doesn’t suit every course and works best if you stay ahead of schedule on the required reading. If you wait until the last minute, you may find that a book is in use when you need it. And good luck getting your hands on a copy during finals week.

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Jerome A Pollos / AP

E-books haven't solved the woes of high-priced college textbooks.

For a plugged-in generation, college kids have old-school tastes in textbooks. Even as more publishers offer the choice of buying e-books for classes, students would rather lug around printed textbooks.

“We have found that digital textbooks are still not as popular with students,” said Charles Schmidt, spokesman for the National Association of College Stores.

While the price of e-books can be 60 percent to 70 percent of the paper version, a NACS poll found that 74 percent of students still want print.

That’s because most e-books are simply PDF files of the print book, and renting the paper version is still cheaper, said Schmidt.

“People don’t want to just see a PDF on a screen. They’re asking: ‘Where’s my interactive video? Where are my widgets?’” said Vineet Madan, senior VP of new ventures at McGraw-Hill Education.

Students are used to handling content online, and a plain screen isn’t worth the money, experts said.

“If it’s more interactive they’re going to see that added value and say: ‘Yeah, we will pay more for that,’” Schmidt said. 

Also professors’ likes and dislikes are a big factor and they hold a lot of sway, said Schmidt. “The average professor is not comfortable” with e-books, he said. “The kids are very sensitive to that.”

Not all professors are down on e-books. Albert Greco, professor of marketing at Fordham University in New York, said that large tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft Corp. joining the market will impact the number of e-textbooks and their price.

In January, Apple launched iBooks2, an iPad-based e-reader for K-12 school texts, and observers said it’s a matter of time before it expands to college textbooks. And Greco pointed out Microsoft’s joint venture with Barnes & Noble, built around expanding e-book sales, also includes the chain’s college bookstores.

“Publishers realized they had to do something because they knew the price of textbooks kept going up,” he said, noting that they’ve tried a number of money-saving options including limited-time e-book licenses and selling single chapters online.

The top 10 textbooks in 10 popular subjects average $175 each, and price hikes have been beating inflation for years, said Nicole Allen, affordable textbook advocate of Student PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), a consumer organization.

E-books, while helpful, are not saving students enough, she said. “They are only bringing costs down so much. They’re not solving the problem; they’re making it less bad.”

Printing a book is only a small part of the price, and e-textbooks come with their own costs, explained Madan.

“You have to spend money on engineers to build the widgets and features to build these next-generation textbooks,” he said. “Yes, the paper and binding go away, but there is a new set of costs. Paper books don’t need tech support.”

McGraw-Hill supports alternatives to make e-books more affordable, Madan said. It was among the few publishers to supply textbooks for the iPad app from Inkling, which sells books by the chapter, and also provides its books through CourseSmart, which sells limited-time licenses for e-textbooks. Greco noted his marketing textbook is available on CourseSmart for about a third of the cost of a new book and chapters on Inkling are a fraction of the full book’s price.

Student PIRG is promoting another kind of e-book: open-source textbooks. Foundations and other institutions fund content, with publishers such as Irvington, N.Y.-based Flat World Knowledge delivering it to colleges and professors who can use it to create texts for their courses. Flat World, which is partly funded by publisher Random House, provides course materials for institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University and the University of Michigan.

“The change is not going to happen overnight, but we are in the path towards change in the texbooks industry,” said Allen of Student PIRG.

But change won’t be as simple as trading a book for a tablet, warned Madan of McGraw-Hill : “It’s new value that’s created … and those things require investing.”

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AP

The first rule for finding cheap textbooks: Don't go to the bookstore.

By Kara Reinhardt
Cheapism.com

For college students, back-to-school often means an expensive trip to the campus bookstore. The average cost of books and supplies at a four-year public university last year was $1,137, according to the College Board. Savvy students can save money by shopping online at specialized college textbook sites, which claim to offer savings of up to 90 percent. These sites also offer e-textbook downloads for Kindles, iPads, and other e-readers. Students can either rent or buy the books they need. While renting tends to be cheaper, buying is better for those who want to be able to refer back to a book after a course is over or add yellow highlights with abandon. Like bricks-and-mortar bookstores, textbook websites will often buy back books at the end of the term, provided they are still in good condition — typically for far less than the purchase price, of course.

When you shop for anything online, shipping costs can cut into the savings. Some textbook sites offer free shipping if you spend over a certain amount. Return shipping factors in as well if you’re renting or planning to sell books back to a site. Be sure to order ASAP so you’ll have your books in time to start classes.

Most sites offer both new and used books; the better the condition, the higher the price. If you opt for the cheapest books, be prepared for bent corners and doodles in the margins. Many sites also note that they can’t guarantee a used textbook will come with all the original supplemental materials, such as CDs.

A broad selection can allow you to order books for all your classes in one place. A large inventory also makes it easier to find enough books to hit the minimum amount required for free shipping. However, many sites use third-party sellers — aka other students — to widen their selection, which can make them somewhat less reliable.

Here are Cheapism’s top picks for college textbooks sites.

• Textbook rental site Chegg.com offers 2.4 million titles and gives students the option to send books back for free or buy them at the end of the term. Students can also buy and sell books. The site holds renters accountable for the books’ condition upon return, so it may not be the best choice for copious highlighters, but it earns positive reviews for providing books that look like new. Users also praise the site’s customer service. (Where to buy)
• Textbooks.com boasts a selection of 7 million books to buy or rent and offers free shipping on orders of $25 or more. User reviews often cite Textbooks.com as the cheapest option, and the site itself promises up to 90 percent off. Customers also applaud a redesign that makes it easy to find the best deal. (Where to buy)
• ECampus.com offers not just textbooks but regular books, DVDs, Blue-ray discs, and college apparel. The site’s textbook inventory comes from a network of third-party sellers, making it susceptible to complaints about delinquent deliveries. Shipping is free for rental returns and orders over $59. (Where to buy)

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