Bellarmine bookstore makes small profit from new textbook sales
Fadhia Muhamod
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
|
In 2007, total new and used textbooks will exceed $9 billion. In addition to the hit on our pockets, it's also hitting our environment. One million copies of a 250 page book would take 12,000 trees.
Carrie Kiryakakis, Bellarmine book store manager, said most teachers are happy with old book editions but are hard pressed to find any because of publisher's continuous changes.
Bookstores make only 6% profit off textbook sales. For a $100 textbook, the school and the publisher takes 80%, and the bookstore is left with 20%, minus shipping, labor, and other charges that come with textbooks. So the bookstore only gets 6% of the profit.
Kiryakakis says that the bookstore makes more profit from buybacks than it does selling textbooks because the profit goes to the bookstore instead of the publisher. She would rather sell used books because of all the charges and expenses associated with new books.
The school also takes a portion of textbook sales. Last year, Bellarmine University received $136,000 to help pay for scholarships and other expenses.
Professors who write their own books and print it through Bellarmine don't make a lot of money off the books. Instead, the money goes into a fund that helps that department and the school. If the professor is published with a publishing company like McGraw Hill, they get about 11.7 cents of every book sold.
Kiryakakis says that buying from the bookstore or buying online costs students about the same when you add shipping charges. She says to be careful about buying books online because it may not be the right edition of the book or it may be missing pages, and you can't be guaranteed a refund.
Students can also rent their books thru Chegg, an online textbook rental company. It was inspired by the founders' frustration with policies of bookstores. A student can rent a $148.44 Quality Management book for $59.38 at Cheggs.com.
Kiryakakis suggests buying textbooks on medicine, government, and business in the bookstore because those books change all the time and online stores might not necessarily have the new edition. English and philosophy books could be bought online because those rarely change in context.
She also advised against buying international copies of a book because they never match up with the editions in the U.S. and could break international trade laws.
Be the first to comment on this story