Textbook Publishers conning New Faculty

[Aster]

One of our new professors was told today by one of the major textbook publishing representatives that she had to adopt the newest edition textbook for her course's customization project.

It seems that "the previous edition was no longer in print."

Now I don't know about you, but almost every time that a new edition of a college textbook is released, the publishing representatives try to sell me this line of BS that we must adopt the newest book or else. But of course this is ridiculous. If that were the case, that would mean that textbook review committees would have to conform to new textbook releases each and every time. Customized textbooks would always have to be updated to the most current edition of the base version book.

How often do you get told that "you must adopt the new book that just came out, the previous one is no longer in print?" How do you and your departments respond?

Me, I just state that we like the edition that we're currently using, and that we'll look at the new edition the next time that our review process is in session. And usually this is the end of it.

But I'm wondering if new faculty are more vulnerable to being conned by the publishers, or if the publishing representatives are becoming more aggressive in selling their products?

[Aster]

oops double post

[Ruralguy]

I'm sick of it. I'm going Open Source. Should have done it ages ago.

[Aster]

We have found that if anything, Open Source is even more difficult. Or at least, the "professional" Open Source outfits like Bluedoor Publishing.

These places will try and lock you into annual purchase contracts, that you need to reapply for each and every year. That certainly was not in the advertising brochures!

So now our folks that tried out Open Source, are now coming back to the big publishers. The big publishing reps not only give us far less hassle, but they consistently and regularly update and improve their academic resources.

Except for this "must buy the new edition NOW!" hustle the mainstream publishers keep pulling. I would like to know exactly how professors at other universities deal with this particular issue.

[dismalist]

We stick to recent editions, which students can buy used. Missing material is covered in instructors' notes. Some new editions just put end of chapter exercises into a different order! That has an easy fix: Put the exercises you want into a handout.

[clean]

How often do you get told that "you must adopt the new book that just came out, the previous one is no longer in print?" How do you and your departments respond?

Response: "Well, the other publisher has been trying to get me to change to their book and I guess that it is just as much a pain in the ass to change to your new edition as use their book.  Seems like the same amount of work on my end!  Good Luck on your new edition! "

[Hegemony]

Yeah, I just tell my students to buy the textbooks used; old editions are fine.

[eigen]

We have found that if anything, Open Source is even more difficult. Or at least, the "professional" Open Source outfits like Bluedoor Publishing.

These places will try and lock you into annual purchase contracts, that you need to reapply for each and every year. That certainly was not in the advertising brochures!

So now our folks that tried out Open Source, are now coming back to the big publishers. The big publishing reps not only give us far less hassle, but they consistently and regularly update and improve their academic resources.

Except for this "must buy the new edition NOW!" hustle the mainstream publishers keep pulling. I would like to know exactly how professors at other universities deal with this particular issue.

I'm confused about open source and contracts... All the open source books in my area are completely free, available as digital copies?

I've happily moved one of my classes to open source, and working on the others.

[Aster]

I'm confused about open source and contracts... All the open source books in my area are completely free, available as digital copies?

I've happily moved one of my classes to open source, and working on the others.

Oh, that's online stuff.

For professional printing of Open Source-derived stuff, many universities no longer operate their own print shops, nor may there be local print shops in town. And that's where the professional Open-Source publisher companies step in. In many ways, they operate similarly to regular textbook publishers.

[phi-rabbit]

I have a course I have used the same (anthology) textbook for, for years.  I have grudgingly adopted the new textbook every time they put out a new edition, despite the new edition frequently cutting articles I use.  But the most recent shift was the final straw.  They cut too many of my favorite articles to assign.  So I just adopted the previous edition, ignoring the new edition.  Or, well, I tried to.  The university bookstore said that they had tried but could not find enough copies of the just-supplanted edition.  I don't know how this could possibly be, when the new one had only been out for a month or so and there should be plenty of used copies floating around from my students from the previous semester (and years prior).  But, on pressure from the bookstore, I relented and adopted the new edition.  Grrr.

[clean]

Ask you Book Rep about a 'custom print'. They CAN create a book with just the articles that you want... all of the articles you want. They will even customize the cover with your course name.
It will be cheaply bound, but who cares?

[eigen]

I'm confused about open source and contracts... All the open source books in my area are completely free, available as digital copies?

I've happily moved one of my classes to open source, and working on the others.

Oh, that's online stuff.

For professional printing of Open Source-derived stuff, many universities no longer operate their own print shops, nor may there be local print shops in town. And that's where the professional Open-Source publisher companies step in. In many ways, they operate similarly to regular textbook publishers.

For the printed copies we get, they're cheap and haven't budged in price over the last 4 years. Printing costs of ~$30 for a 1100 page hardcover. Also no contract, order as many of them as we want each semester, return the unused stock. Students can even buy them directly off Amazon.

[Aster]

Ask you Book Rep about a 'custom print'. They CAN create a book with just the articles that you want... all of the articles you want. They will even customize the cover with your course name.
It will be cheaply bound, but who cares?

Yes. Custom prints are supposed to work this way. And this is how custom prints have worked for us for many years.

But now we have one of our most reliable publisher reps telling us that no, they won't keep printing an existing custom order from us. We have to make a "new" custom project, and that new project can only use the most recent edition of the textbook.