Book rentals - A step closer to e-books
This post was written by Sameer Shariff
I’ve been thinking about last month’s New York Times story, Textbook Publisher to Rent to College Students, and the subsequent NYTimes blog post, A Cheaper Way to Get Textbooks: Rent and I’m a bit confused.
I’m not surprised that companies like Cengage, Chegg or Follett need to take these steps in the hopes of preserving the dwindling revenues that the entire book business is seeing. But I’m surprised that the Times saw fit to stand behind these efforts so blindly in light of the facts.
The basis of this story is that companies are adopting textbook rentals to counter the online sales of used textbooks to outfits like Amazon.com. They believe this approach will increase profitability because they won’t have to go for additional print runs.
Even if this were a solid deal for students - which most of the blog comments seem to indicate otherwise – the economics just don’t add up. The companies still have to manage lending centers; replace damaged, lost or destroyed books, and they are still limited to a certain geographical area or be subject to large shipping fees.
If we accept that e-books will be the norm sooner or later, this new business can hardly be seen as anything more than a last gasp for the physical textbook business. (For those doubters still among you, I am reminded of the music industry execs that couldn’t be convinced that digital music would ever replace CDs).
When e-books become the norm:
- Books become available to all just with an Internet connection.
- They can sell it at a much lesser price compared to their print versions.
- They can rent it for a period of time.
- They can sell content in chunks.
- They can rent content in chunks.
- Publishers do not have to worry about the used book market.
I don’t know…maybe I’m over thinking this one.
Tags: digital textbooks, ebook rentals, electronic text books, online sales, text books
September 10th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I agree that time-based ebooks will be cheaper to manage than printed books. Shipping costs alone would be huge.
Greg
http://www.DashBook.com
September 10th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I think you are thinking correctly.
In the not too distant future we should have some price adjustments in the e-book sphere, and as competition increases among the amazons and B&N’s of the publishing world. It is likely that rentals will become a norm, and not unlike the methods used by Netflicks and others. The question that is raised is the extent to which rental will cannibalize new book sales.
There is another factor that may trump virtually all discussions on e-book rentals and sales. I am not telling just yet, but such may cause the doom of e-books.
Ibrahim Moss
ibrahim.moss@gmail.com
September 11th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Dredging up an old time distribution method like “book rentals” just won’t solve the problems textbook publishers are facing today. The industry has been fiddling with online delivery of content since the early 1980’s…lazerdiscs, videodiscs, conent on floppy’s etc etc … Now twenty years later, we are just starting to see widespread acceptance of it. e-books are merely the very crude beginning of what will be a transformation in how educational materials will be delivered in the future. very curious to know what Ibrahim has in mind.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I have to agree with all but the second point - from a publishing perspective putting ink onto paper is only a minor cost in the whole process of putting a book in front of a student. The real work and cost is in creating the content and putting it into a format that supports student learning.
October 13th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Well, lets see what plastic logic puts out, and see how the market responds.
I wonder whether anyone is tracking Apple’s rumored tablet.
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