By JOHN CONNORS
Forum Editor
 

If you're reading this, then you've felt the pain, just like I have, of being ravaged by the book pricing god, one semester or another.

Ever paid two hundred dollars for a single book? Everybody in Paleontology this semester has. The only bright side to their happy position is that their two hundred dollar book is the only book they must buy.

But if you've ever blamed the bookstore for your financial devastation, you may be directing anger at the wrong place. The truth is they're just as concerned with the high costs as we are. In fact, they try very hard to get us used copies of texts and to offer the lowest margins for those seventy dollar biology books, forty five dollar French workbooks, and those (grrrr) ninety dollar math texts.

So who can we growl at about these prices?The costs associated with our texts don't really come from the bookstore so much as they come from some curiously difficult obstacles put in the way of the bookstore's attempts to getting students cheaper, used, books. Those obstacles, plus the original net costs from publishers, are basically what cause these pricing problems.

One way to understand how the bookstore comes up with their pricing is to talk about their 'margins.' A margin in this case refers to the lowest total cost the bookstore can charge after it takes care of expenses such as shipping costs, the costs to hold books in inventory all semester, shipping on any book returns, and overhead such as staff salaries.

"What we're proud of here at the bookstore is that we use one of the lowest (if not the lowest) margins in the industry," said Sarah Potter Director of the bookstore. "We operate on a break even basis. The college has never said to us; 'We need you guys to make a profit.' Instead, our mission has always been to get textbooks into the hands of students at the lowest possible price." The Bates College Bookstore therefore operates with a text margin of 23%, while most of their peer institutions operate at 25% or higher.

After figuring for all that, the bookstore adds their lowest margin to the 'net' cost charged to them by the publisher. So how does the publisher's net costs get figured? The costs break down roughly like this; 43% goes towards the publisher's productions costs (editing, printing, overhead), another 19% goes towards the publishers marketing costs, 16% goes towards the author's income,12% goes to the publisher's general and administrative costs (offices, staff), and10% goes to the publisher's income. That's a lot of expenses to pay for.

I know which industry I might look for a job in after graduating. I want to believe that these publishers aren't taking advantage of dependance on textbooks, that their costs for publishing to such a relatively small market of consumers (like college students) are justified, but I wonder.

I'm beginning to think that publishers aren't evil, but they might be a just a little too capitalistically 'ingenious.' Take for instance the dubious use of new "editions." Imagine a text that everybody from your Junior Advisor to your mom has a copy of, but is just slightly different this year. Usually it's not different in any significant way, but just enough so that the page numbers in your syllabus are all off and your professor is convinced that the fate of the world rests on your getting the exact edition they have. Hence you're perfectly good, but older, edition must be replaced with the costly new one.

Another questionable selling method publishers sometimes employ is the use of 'packages.' Packages are most easily described as books with additional components sold with them (study guides for example). In an interview with LK Gagnon, Textbook Manager at the bookstore, I found out that this is just one of the obstacles to her getting students significantly cheaper used books (used books are always 25% less than new).

LK told me; "...when publisher representatives convince professors to adopt "packages" (books shrink wrapped with supplementary materials), I can't get used packages... I can occasionally get used editions of all components of a package, but not very often. An example of this is the Music 102 text this semester. The text comes alone, or packaged with a set of 4 CDs. The CDs are NOT sold separately. This forces the students to pay for a new book in order to get the CDs."

Publishers aren't the only obstacle, though. One practice we can grumble to professors about is timing. Next time you hand in a paper late ask a professor if they've ever handed in requests to the bookstore late. Lateness doesn't just impact grades, as it turns out it can hurt the wallet too. LK Gagnon told me; "The third obstacle with ordering used books is that when I receive late book requests from professors, it is frequently too late to order used books. For example, one professor this semester got his order to me in late August (the deadline was May first). When I called the used book dealers to order texts for their classes, every single book was out of stock. Other colleges had simply beaten me to the punch."

I don't blame the professors too much though. It's their job to teach using these texts. These are the only tools they ask us to use. LK told me she's happy in that most Professors respect the cost issue for students and textbooks. Besides, buying a lousy cheap book that's totally useless is a lot worse than a expensive good book that you got some use from.

On the other hand though, I'm sure we've all run into at least one Professor where a good book pricing reality check might do them some good. My girlfriend couldn't use her copy of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield this semester because the professor demanded that she get the edition with illustrations.

Huh?

So the lesson from all of this is that next time you find yourself in line at the store, grumbling and throwing mean looks at the people at the register, consider they may not be the ones you should lynch. Maybe you should save all that ire for the people who determine those interestingly 'vague' net prices they give the bookstore.