Cengage Learning, one of the largest publishers of college textbooks, has decided to start renting textbooks to college students at 40-70% of the new price. College students typically aren’t happy about shelling out the 100-bucks-plus for the typical textbook, so they frequently buy used books at the college bookstore.
Cengage Learning says that textbook authors will still be paid royalties on the book rentals. We textbook supplement and ancillary authors typically sign work-for-hire contracts, so we won’t be directly affected. It’s possible that college textbook publishers will eventually rent out some textbook ancillaries and supplements, so we could be helped.
Here’s what the New York Times article says about Cengage Learning’s textbook rental plan:
Students who choose Cengage’s rental option will get immediate access to the first chapter of the book electronically, in e-book format, and will have a choice of shipping options for the printed book. When the rental term — 60, 90 or 130 days — is over, students can either return the textbook or buy it.
With the growing competition from online used-book sales, digital texts and new Internet textbook-rental businesses like Chegg and BookRenter, other publishers and college bookstores are also edging toward rentals.
“Our authors will get royalties on second and third rentals, just as they would on a first sale,” said Ronald G. Dunn, president and chief executive of Cengage, formerly Thomson Learning. “There’s a tremendous amount of activity around rentals now, but we’re the first higher-education publisher to move in this direction.”
Cengage’s rental business will begin with several hundred titles this year, and then expand, Mr. Dunn said.
In addition, McGraw-Hill is starting a small partnering program with Chegg to rent 25 of their college textbook titles.
(To see the hundred or so college textbook supplements I’ve written for Wadsworth Publishing and Cengage Learning, have a look at my curriculum vitae.)
What are your thoughts on Cengage’s plan to rent textbooks? Who will it help? Any downside?
