There are a lot of reasons that people work with a textbook publisher:
- Quality content.
- Convenience.
- Supporting materials.
- Exceptional service.
None of these factors should be underestimated. But there’s a real cost to each of these items, and make no mistake—your students pay for them. Directly.
Quality content. It’s hard work to create find the right author, and create quality content. You need a development process, and publishing professionals to guide the process. The legacy publishers will tell you that it costs $1M+ to produce a book. It doesn’t. They suffer from inefficiencies throughout the process. More on that later. But let’s not underestimate that it involves real work by the “right” people.
Convenience. If your introductory level course is not your top priority this semester, that’s fine. I get that. It’s way more interesting to teach the senior seminar than to trudge through foundational material. Be honest with yourself though—is your textbook a way to keep first-year students out of your office hours? To carry a lot of the teaching load? Nothing wrong with that, but it helps to know what role it plays in your course.
Supporting materials. Do you use publisher-provided supplements? Generally, they are bad, right? With a few notable exceptions (e.g. Pearson’s MyMathLab, Mastering Physics), it’s a well-worn topic. The editorial process behind these is flawed, and the general philosophy of a me-too arms race of “just barely good enough” is sure to result in fairly mediocre quality. The top 50 most competitive markets average 25 supplements for each textbook. Your student pays for ALL of them, even if you don’t use them. Ouch.
Exceptional service. What does your sales rep really do for you? Think hard about this. Your students pay for her company car, home office, and expense account. Customer lunches, conventions, and other events. Trips to Hawaii as sales incentives. I don’t mind having students pay for quality content, but having them pay for a company’s competitive advantage? That seems wrong, doesn’t it?
One of these things might be really important to you. Maybe more than one. Fine.
Tell me if you believe more in these things instead:
- Affordability matters. Ridiculous textbook prices get in the way of my mission as a teacher.
- Ethics matter. I don’t want to feel like an unwilling participant in a corporate textbook cartel.
- Personalization matters. I think students deserve better than an automated classroom experience.
- Fairness matters. I want to compensate people who contribute quality content to my classroom.
If you do, you are probably a Real Teacher then. Students who can’t afford their core materials are at a significant disadvantage. And you need quality authors to create quality content.
I believe that a publisher can do both. Quality, convenient content with support and service—but with a sense of ethics too.
If your textbook publisher is not your partner, and they don’t support YOU on these points, kick them to the curb. Hold their feet to the fire. There are alternatives now.