Recently, two of the top three college textbook publishers announced plans to get into the textbook rental business. On its face this seems like a good deal for college students, but the real question is whether this heralds a beginning of cheaper textbook prices or is just another pricing stunt from an industry famous for stunting.

For years, the college textbook publisher business model has been consistent. Most of the revenues the publisher gets for a new edition comes in the first semester. Over the remaining life of that edition, competition and used books chew up an increasing amount of the market share and reduce the publisher revenues to a trickle. This is why publishers charge high prices for the books so they can be sure to recoup their expenses. From a student’s perspective, the average cost of that textbook is similar — almost all copies that first semester cost full retail price, with cheaper used books making up more of the volume in subsequent semesters. Used book dealers make their money after the first semester assuming they bet correctly on the books still being in demand. (Meaning, they buy back books they think will be in need again, and decline to buy back books that won't be used and longer.)

(See how the money gets divided in the secret behind textbook costs.)

In a textbook rental scenario, things change for everyone:

• Publishers get less money that first semester (reflecting the 40-70% of retail price floated by Cengage), but continue to get similar revenue levels in subsequent semesters because there are few if any used books. Their revenue curve, which before was extremely front-loaded, is now more level. In fact, the ongoing revenue potential could in some cases extend the hyper-accelerated revision cycle leaving the same edition in play for longer (further raising the profitability of that edition.) Sounds like a win for the publisher.
• Students get to spend less that first semester for their textbook, but in subsequent semesters can end up paying more since there are no more cheap used books. (This is especially true in cases where the student wants to keep the textbook, since in the absence of used books they are forced to purchase at full price.) Sounds like a loss for the student unless they’re in that first semester.
• Used book dealers really get screwed on this one, since their supply and market both dry up entirely. A resounding LOSS for them.

For years the used book market has been kicking the publishers' asses, revenue-wise. For a while they had some success with bundling the textbook with workbooks or CDs/DVDs, knowing that bookstores wouldn’t buy those back and forcing them to replenish their stocks from the publisher (at full price). Now, with rentals, it appears that they’ve hit on another tactic that could solve their problem.

How about the college student’s problem of higher textbook costs, though? It doesn’t seem like their expenses are getting a reduction… #FAIL

 

If you aren't into college yet and have time to plan ahead, here is some good information on the whole FAFSA process and how to minimize your EFC.

Thanks to your votes for nominations and first round of voting, College-Cram is a finalist for this year's awards in the "How To" category. Mashable recognizes social networking websites in various categories in its annual awards competition. College-Cram is nominated as "How-To" since Mashable doesn't feature a "social learning" category (yet). In fact, College-Cram.com is the only social learning site in the Open Web Awards competition this year, and it will take the help of students on campuses around the world to put them over the top in the final round of voting.

Social learning is a mashup of social networking and educational resources. Many websites offer tools or frameworks that help students organize themselves, but a true social learning site also has actual academic help for students trying to pass their courses. College-Cram is a true social learning site. Rudy Lopes, (VP of Operations) said “Maybe if we win, next year they will add a social learning category. That would be a good thing.”

You can vote once per day for each email address you have. When you submit your vote you receive an emailed confirmation link to complete the vote. College-Cram.com made it easy to vote by pre-filling the form to the left - just add your email address and click submit.

If you are concerned about giving out your email addresses (and you should be), we voted last year and heard nary a peep back all year. This is administered by PollDaddy – the same folks who run polls for us from time to time. We trust them or we wouldn’t be asking you to participate.”

As they say, “Vote early and vote often!” Voting runs through December 14, 2008.

Auto Industry: Help! We need 25 Billion dollars right away, or we are going out of business.

Congress: Hold on here folks. You don't even have a plan. Think this through and get back to us.

Auto Industry: You were right. We need 34 Billion dollars right away, or we are going out of business.

Congress: That's more like it. Now, don't spend it all in one place. See you later.

The presidential election is over, but the Mashable 2nd Annual Open Web Awards voting is just starting. This is your chance to tell the world how you feel about College-Cram.com.

College-Cram.com has been nominated for Mashable’s Open Web awards. Our nomination is in the "How To" category. You can vote once per day for each email address you have – and I have several. They send you a confirmation link to complete the vote.

We made it easy to vote by pre-filling the form for you - just add your email address and submit the form below.

(Note: Voting is closed for this award.)

Mashable recognizes social websites in various categories each year. College-Cram is a social learning site - mashup of social networking and educational resources. (We nominated ourselves as "How-To" since they don't feature a "social learning" category.)

If you are concerned about giving out your email addresses (and you should be), I voted last year and heard nary a peep back all year. This is administered by PollDaddy – the same folks who run polls for us from time to time. We trust them or we wouldn’t be asking you to participate.

Thanks for your help. Vote early and vote often! Voting runs until December 15, 2008.

Mashable.com is hosting the 2nd annual Open Web Awards, and we'd like to see College-Cram.com nominated for the Niche Social Networking category. Go ahead and vote here to help us make the cut!

(BTW, there is also the How-To category we could qualify for, so please vote for that one too!)

Mashable Open Web Awards

Increasingly, students are turning to distance learning to supplement or replace their "real world" college education. Lower commuting costs and living expenses can influence this, but often it's just a better fit with busy schedules. Besides, the perception of a degree from an online institution is less of a problem than it used to be.

With so much of a distance learning experience being web-based, it's only natural for distance learners to supplement the "official" textbook with other online learning resources. That's why many distance learning students have turned to College-Cram.com to help them prepare for tests. With hundreds of resources available for Accounting, Algebra, and Chemistry a student can usually find the help they need.

Social learning also makes College-Cram helpful for online study. Each learning community boasts a blog,with individual Cramlets covering key concepts in each chapter. Don't quite understand a topic? Post a comment and get help from others, or pitch in yourself to help out another student. This educational collective makes distance learning easier for all.

With ready access to learning resources, students can't help but find it easier to get better grades in less time.

The land of the free and the home of the brave… unless a housing bubble bursts and credit markets tighten up. For all our attempts to spread democracy with individual freedom, property rights, and opportunities afforded by capitalism, we don't seem to listen to our own advice. All the (overpriced) textbooks will tell you that government intervention prolonged the depression of the 1930's in this country. We claimed to have learned our lesson for over 70 years and vowed that no such downturn and financial upheaval could ever happen again. We prospered.

Then we decided that everyone is entitled to live the American dream of home ownership. It is as if we changed the ending of the Pledge of Allegiance to say "with affordable housing for all." We repeated the mantra that "everyone knows that real estate values only go up." Barney Frank promised us that there is no risk. We legislatively required banks and mortgage companies to make loans to previously unqualified (until we changed the qualifications) buyers (Community Reinvestment Act – 1977). We gave them increasing quotas to meet (HUD). To allow them to meet these aggressive quotas, we created a quasi-governmental body to buy back the questionable loans (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) so the financial institutions wouldn't have to keep the loans they made, and therefore would be free to make more. The market was incentivized to participate through commissions at every transaction - with no risk of their own. Lenders and brokers were willing to make loans with increasing competition for borrowers. Loans with terms that require no down payment and reduced first-year payments – anything to sign a borrower.We built a house of cards.

Now the house of cards has fallen. Hard. And now the government tries to rescue the market that it sabotaged. Congressional Democrats blame Bush for not regulating, when Congress pushed the mandates, and Clinton's HUD created the escalating quotas. The government intervention in the free market created this mess and more government intervention is not the solution. The government needs to undo the Community Reinvestment Act and the HUD quotas.

Today is October 14, 2008 and we have already seen weeks of financial institutions failing and market turmoil from this and TODAY I heard a mortgage broker on the radio advertising for HUD loans with no requirements for credit ratings and pushing the tax credits for first-time home buyers. This is insane. Stop it already!

I am calling for the replacement of everybody in Congress that supported the "bail-out" bill. All of them and from any party. Let it be known that we will not stand for any more of this. Maybe it is time to listen to the folks at the Constitution Party.

A new semester has started, but the same old story continues. Textbooks still cost too much, and most cost even more than last year. The number of major textbook publishers has gotten lower, meaning an increasingly smaller hegemony of publishers is dictating what we'll use and how much we'll pay.

On the bright side, many classes across the country are looking to more open-sourced solutions. Professor notes, collections of readings, and online resources (like those we feature here at www.College-Cram.com) are taking the place of traditional textbooks in more and more classrooms. Keep up the good work, everyone!

P.S. Here's a shout out to the latest websites that are finding our resources valuable to their visitors, such as SkyLine High, and those incorporating us into their WebCT/Blackboard courses (like the accounting classes at University of Houston and Chippewa Valley Technical College).

I saw the new Pixar movie Wall-E this past weekend, and it was a visual marvel. I've long since stopped really noticing that these animated movies are animated, because the techniques and tools have progressed so far. (Did you even notice the appearance of actual live non-computer-generated footage?)

From a straight movie perspective, it was ok -- certainly not my favorite Pixar movie. But what it lacked in strong actor presence it made up for with educational value. Here are the top seven things I learned about life from watching Wall-E.

** Warning: Potential Spoiler Alert **

1. Capitalism is bad --  The movie takes place some 700 years after an exodus of humanity from a trashed and poisoned Earth. Presumably, this is the result of the "benign" rule of the BnL corporation. So, the big bad corporation is the cause of the downfall of Earth. (I'm guessing that between the technological requirement of Wall-E and the political requirement of a corporation taking over a united Earth, I'm pegging the exodus at a hundred years or so from now.)
2. Apple is good -- Talk about product placement, way to go Steve Jobs! From the still functioning 800 year old iPod to the Macintosh startup sound when Wall-E reboots, it's nice to see that the rumors of Apple's imminent demise have been (greatly) exagerated.
3. People are sheep -- We let the corporation take over the world, we let (helped?) them trash and poison it, and then we let them talk us into running away from the problem. Then, given the "Shangri-La" environment of the Axiom, we devolved into overweight, glowing screen addicted blobs. (Oh wait, that last part isn't really evolution, now that I think about it...)
4. People are adaptable -- After a seeming lifetime of relative ignorance, the Captain stays up into the night querying the ship's computer (Sigourney Weaver in her finest ship performance since Futurama) about Earth. John and Mary instinctively seize on their new-found freedom once made aware of the "real world" by Wall-E, and sacrificed their own safety to protect a sliding mass of children on the Ledo deck. Seemingly nobody on-ship objects to returning to Earth and starting anew. Yes, people seem to have an inherent attraction to what's fundamentally right and a curiousity about what's around them.
5. Computers are evil -- The autopilot deviously tried squashing concrete fact in order to maintain its hold on power. (Where have I heard that before?) The repair bots tried to "fix" EVA in a move reminiscent of Nicholson in "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest". Hell, EVA tried blowing Wall-E away on several occasions. They just can't be trusted. (Except, of course, for the computer I'm typing this on... heh heh...)
   
6. Robots are good -- EVA and Wall-E were just doing their jobs, but realized that there was a new directive worth striving for. The "broken" bots also pitched in to help them achieve that goal, as did the writhing mass of humanity. Ultimately, the bots tried to do what's best for us.
7. Stuff lasts forever -- Come on, a Rubix Cube, iPod, and Atari 2600 that are still in one piece 800 or more years later? I have a cube that didn't last 5 years in my closet, and who knows where my 2600 is. Still, the idea that our trash is still around hundreds of years later rings true. After all, I've been to New Jersey.

Some of these may seem contradictory, but that's the nature of the future. And of cartoons. So deal with it.