This is what I think of every time I see some breathless journalist trying to claim that when we all use iPads to read our books that textbook prices will come down.
They don't charge what they charge to cover costs. They do it because that is what the market will bear. And they use every trick they can to make sure that the market will bear as high a price as possible.
The trick that I will never forget was a textbook that changed the title. Absolutely nothing else changed in the book. Right down to which exercises on which pages it was the same. But because of the different title, people wouldn't buy the old book.
Dictionary.com definition of capitalism: "An economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership of the means of production."
From what I understand, the textbook market in no way represents a free market or capitalism. Publishers and schools have a lock on the market.
Also from my (admittedly possibly out of date) understanding: the authors themselves make little or no money. College-level textbooks get written for the love of it, respect, and simply to be published.
Something like AbeBooks, combined with an e-mail to the professor asking if an older edition is okay (provided they didn't help write the newest edition of the book (-:) will usually suffice. First semester, I spent ~$600 on a book order at the campus bookstore that was essentially worthless. Second semester, I spent <$100 and got all my school books plus 5 or 6 extra computer and science books, and I finished this semester fine. If the system is screwing you, outsmart it. The only problem I've come across with this method is a) specific readings and exercises out of specific editions and b) activation crap that is required to do online homework (a bullshit tactic deserving of its own separate rant, but whatever). For a), make friends with people in your program. For b), you can often buy a separate activation code for whatever vendor they're using without buying the textbook, but they like to make you think otherwise.
If you really know what you're doing, you can just not buy the book at all, or substitute it for a better, cheaper book. Example - I substituted the crap-tastic Rosen book on "Discrete Mathematics" for a better, $12 Dover Press book and was perfectly fine.
That being said, stuff like this just keeps reminding me of the uncomfortable truth that our so-called "ivory towers" of academia are just as corrupt and run-down as the world around them. They are a business, no more, no less. Yeah, yeah, it's a big "no shit, Sherlock", but it still makes me feel queasy when I think about it.
If you really know what you're doing, you can just not buy the book at all, or substitute it for a better, cheaper book.
Somewhere around multivariable calculus, the math/CS building at my college was being remodeled, and professors were dumping books they no longer wanted into a pile in the hall. I was having a challenging time with some of the calculus material, so I rooted around the free books until I found one that I could understand better. The exercises were all the same basic sorts of things, so ultimately it really didn't matter which book I used, just so long as I got through the material.
The professor asked me later why I wasn't writing down the exercise numbers he was assigning as homework any more, and I explained I was using a different book. He didn't seem surprised.
Input professor's email + personal message. Asks them to input ISBN numbers of book (maybe attach syllabus for added value). Gives links to cheapest price for the book. Take affiliate cuts.
They don't charge what they charge to cover costs. They do it because that is what the market will bear. And they use every trick they can to make sure that the market will bear as high a price as possible.
The trick that I will never forget was a textbook that changed the title. Absolutely nothing else changed in the book. Right down to which exercises on which pages it was the same. But because of the different title, people wouldn't buy the old book.