• Ask former students in the course whether they really needed the assigned text, or whether any standard text in the field will do. It if will, look for one at Textbook Revolution.
• Tell your teachers about Textbook Revolution, and ask them to consider adopting a free, online text from among the texts available there.
• Ask fellow students to sell you their unwanted texts directly instead of selling them to book buyers or back to the bookstore.
• Buy directly from other students at Campus Book Swap.
• Search by author or ISBN (book ID number) for best prices from many sellers at CampusBook4Less. To find ISBNs for older editions, use Amazon (next).
• Of course, there's always Amazon. After finding your text, click "used and new" to find cheaper copies from other sellers. Click on an author name to find older editions and their ISBNs to use in searches at sites listed above.
• At all locations, look for earlier editions. One or two editions earlier (e.g. 3rd or 4th instead of a new 5th) will probably be almost identical to the new edition. Older editions of $150 texts can cost less than $10 (at least until more people are using these suggestions).
• Look for international editions. They are sometimes in soft cover or made of cheaper materials, and can be very cheap. But make sure they are in English!
• Remember: You often need to keep texts for review and reference in succeeding courses! For example, don't sell your organic text if you plan to take biochemistry next year! But it is hard to resist selling a book whose value is $100 or more. If you buy an older, cheaper edition now, then you can afford to keep it and have the reference books you need for future courses.
• Already bought the current edition? At the end of the course, sell your valuable current edition (directly to another student) and then buy a cheap older edition for your reference shelf.

Suggestions For Teachers

Students: If you agree with these suggestions, ask your teachers to consider them.

To Help Your Students Save Money on Textbooks

• Consider adopting free, online texts. To see what's available, see Textbook Revolution.
• Allow students to use older editions of texts, or any recent standard text in the field.
• Select texts that your students can read. If they invest time and effort in using the text, they are likely to recognize its usefulness as a reference in succeeding courses.
• Do not let ancillaries influence your selection of texts, unless you are convinced that the ancillaries make important contributions to learning. The cost of developing ancillaries drives up the cost of texts, and many purchasers never benefit from them.
• Do not require online or disk learning tools. This forces students to buy new texts. Require such tools only if you are convinced that they make important contributions to learning. Mentioning them as optional learning tools leaves open the choice of using an older edition.
• Design assignments so they are not edition-specific. For example, if you make a recommended-problems list, make it more general (work the first three odd-numbered problems in each section), instead of specific (work problems 3, 7, 23).
• And finally—now don't take offense—if students do not need a text to succeed in your course, do not require them to buy one. I hope this does not apply to you, but I have heard many a student say that they could have done fine in a course without the text (no guess about what they mean by fine). If it's true in your course, at least admit it, rather than requiring needless spending.

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Disclaimer

Statements at this site represent the views of Gale Rhodes, not those of the University of Southern Maine or its Chemistry Department. Links to other pages do not constitute endorsement of products or services. The author receives no compensation for links on this site. Take precautions with any online seller to protect your personal and financial information. And if you are going out in the cold, wear your jacket.