Glossy, colorful brochures advertising maps and graphs in textbooks often leave professors digging for what many are concerned about - prices.
Frederick Suppe, Ball State University associate professor of history, said he tries to find the cheapest textbooks for his students, but it is often difficult because publishers do not include prices in the advertisements.
"Every semester I get expensive, glossy advertisements from publishers of textbooks," Suppe said, "and they'll feature all kinds of information about maps and extra features, but they rarely mention price."
Suppe said the brochures he receives contain enough material about the textbooks and their new features, but he can seldom find a price.
"I've got a copy of the brochure in front of me," he said. "It's a glossy brochure. It's on snazzy paper and everything. It's 12 pages long. The cover looks like the cover of the book inside and it lists all the ways that this book is available. It has all kinds of information and absolutely nothing about the price. That's typical. I can't remember the last time I got one of these with a price."
Bruce Hildebrand, executive director of higher education for the Association of American Publishers, said advertisements do not have prices because the companies know wholesale prices, not retail prices which are what consumers pay. The retail prices are determined by the bookstores, not the publishers, Hildebrand said.
"[Publishers] don't offer the entire range [of prices] because some of them would require an entire catalogue," he said.
The type of shrink-wrapped book bundles professors' request also affect the wholesale price, which is why the publishers do not provide them, Hildebrand said. Sometimes publishers include one text book in about 50 different bundles, he said.
"Last fall a publisher told me they had more than 125 different bundle configurations adopted and bundled by faculty [for one book]," he said. "Once you decide this is what I want, then the publisher can provide you with the wholesale price. The bookstores sell the retail price."
Hildebrand said anybody can find text book prices on the Internet by typing in the International Standard Book Number into a search box.
"Two-tenths of a second - that's what it takes to pull up the information," Hildebrand said. "I think that's quick enough."
Suppe said he searches online for textbook prices before he assigns them to his students.
"I can type in the author's name on a site like Amazon.com, and you can pull up complete information and it lists the price of the book as $115.95," he said, "but it's making a professor go that extra step, so it's something publishers could do that would make life a lot easier for professors who are concerned about price."
Suppe said sales representatives from the publishing companies visit him frequently as well.
"Typically they bring brochures and want to shmooze and want to talk with the professors," he said. "I ask them for information, and they give it to me or try to get it to me. Sometimes they know the prices. Sometimes they don't."
Tom Stanton, director of communications for McGraw-Hill Education, said the company's sales representatives try to provide any information about textbooks that professors request.
"The discussion is typically dictated by the professor's needs for a particular course," Stanton said. "If the textbook needs to be offered at a particular price for a course, then that is part of the discussion."
Ron Sorrell, manager of the Ball State Bookstore, said his store also helps faculty find prices for textbooks.
"When they contact me, I help," he said. "I call the publishers. Then, I tell them what is going to be on my shelf. For me, it's easy [to find the price] because I have different access."
Suppe said he has approached publishing companies about providing prices in their advertisements.
"I keep asking [publishers] to put [prices] in their brochures," he said. "Although it doesn't matter to me in terms of my own budget, but it does concern my students. It could cause them to not buy the textbooks."
Hildebrand said it is common for college professors to contact publishers about providing prices in advertisements.
"I hear this all the time, that faculty can't find out the price," he said. "Look, these are the best-educated people in the world. The publishers jump through hoops to make sure the faculty get what they want. Now, if students can quickly find out prices and purchase textbooks, do you really think the faculty can't find out? The whole business of publishing is predicated on as much transparency as possible."
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