Handling the rising cost of textbooks
January 10, 2010 by Geneva ReidPosted in: Academics, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
With the rising cost of attending college, how can students cope with pricey textbooks? These schools may have the answer. Students at 22 colleges nationwide now are able to lease books at their school’s bookstore.
Here’s how it works:
- It costs $42.50 to rent a new $100 text.
- Students have to be 18 or older.
- Books are leased via the student’s credit card.
- Although students can write in the books, they have to be in good condition when returned.
For students who aren’t able to take advantage of leasing books at their own school, there are plenty of online sites promising savings of up to 85% compared to purchased texts:
- CollegeBookRenter.com
- BookRentalCenter.com
- Chegg.com
Chegg even sweetens the deal by promising to plant a tree for every book that’s rented, bought or sold.
Are students able to lease books at your school? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Tags: BookRentalCenter.com, Chegg.com, CollegeBookRenter.com
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January 12th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Renting is one of the most cost-effective options out there for students. Chegg.com, one of the key players in the category, is giving 100 customers their textbook order for FREE on Jan 12 from 8 am- 6pm PDT. For details go to http://www.facebook.com/chegg. They are also offering free shipping.
January 12th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
My school doesn’t offer a lease program as yet. However I have rented my books online through Skoobit.com for the past couple semesters and this semester will be no different. They have been around since 2008 I believe. They are pretty convenient and very reliable. You can check them out here http://www.skoobit.com. They are way cheaper than the other rental companies for most of my books and the shipping is free both ways.
January 13th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Any school that rents or leases copyrighted materials when the materials were purchased for the purpose of a one-time sale, should take care. Although the school (or any purchaser) may resell a text usually a school or insitution receives a favored price from the publisher to help it out with costs. The idea is to resell the book to the students at a price they can afford.
If schools choose to “rent” or “lease” copyright materials multiple times they should check the legalities first. Technically, by doing this, the publisher only receives the purchase price once, and the author only receives contracted royalties once on the initial purchase. However, authors own the copyrights to the books. Therefore, they are legally entitled to receive royalties each time their copyright materials are used. That means that each time a school “rents” or “leases” an author’s work, it is receiving a new payment and, therefore, the author is entitled to a royalty with each rental or lease.