The Student Public Interest Research Group….

out with a report just looking at E-Textbooks and the prices for these kind of college textbooks. It also includes some survey questions.

From the Survey Questions:

33% of people surveyed say that they are at the least comfortable with viewing a book on a computer.

60% would buy a printed version of the book costing 30-40 bucks even if a online version was free.

If cost was not a factor, 75% would prefer a paper book over the online version.

The report then gets into some E-textbooks and showcases why they fail.

First one is Chemistry, 4th edition, by McGraw-Hill. The E-textbook cost which you can’t get any money back on is 88.17 says the report. The net cost of the book is 71.57 which means this book fails on price alone.

The second book they look at is Biology, 8th edition, by Pearson. This book they say fails on printing costs. The E-Book price is 86.50 while the new book price is 173 bucks. E-Textbook and full print job is over 211 bucks, that is more than the cost of a new book. Although I highly doubt someone is going to print out the full book, that is just too pricey as well.

The next book they look at is Calculus, 6th Edition, by Cengage Learning. E-Textbook price is 103.99. New Price is 207.95. They look at this book as a 2-semester deal which means you have to spend 103.99 twice for the E-book. That is a complete and total ripoff.

They say that 75% of the books they looked at only had 180 day subscriptions which I think is a complete no-no for the price the companies selling E-textbooks want.

They do look at some open-textbooks which are free online for use. They meet the PIRG standards and I love them. We need to come up with some quality free college textbooks.

I say for any E-Textbook that can be used for more than one semester must get at least a 360 day subscription and a discount for the last 180 days, but it would be best if a student could pay one price and get unlimited access to that book. The E-Textbooks also have to be cheaper than net cost(the purchase price minus the amount the student can expect to receive for selling it back to the bookstore) by 10-20%.

I like the idea of E-textbooks, but this report certainly showcases the problems that these books have with college students.