Several sessions at the NACS meeting in Orlando, Fla., last month
focused on rental textbook programs, covering both established ones,
some of which have been in existence for more than a century, as well
as a possible new business model that would involve publishers renting
textbooks to college bookstores, which would in turn rent them to
students. Schools, stores and students are interested in
rentals as a way of lowering textbook costs for students.
At one brainstorming session,
several publishers canvassed booksellers in attendance about the
concept of renting textbooks to college stores, which as Tom Hoffa of
Pearson Education said, is "merely at the idea stage."
Publishers are considering textbook rentals, participants
said, because "the biggest hurdle to a traditional rental program is
startup costs," Hoffa said. Research done in connection with a decision
by the University of North Carolina board of governors to mandate
either a buyback guarantee or text rental for large introductory
courses estimated that start up costs for a full-scale rental operation
would be $8 million. Another estimate figured that establishment of a
text rental program costs $1 million per 1,000 students. Among those
costs, of course, are the textbooks themselves as well as storage space.
David Serbun of Houghton
Mifflin emphasized that publishers are interested in renting textbooks
because it would be better to "sell more units on a lower price even on
a recurring basis. It's a different kind of business model that
flattens things out for us."
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Mike Coston, director of the university bookstore at Appalachian State
in North Carolina, outlined the store's textbook rental program, which
began in the 1930s and is a university policy.
Under the fee-based program, which costs a full-time undergraduate $82
per semester, last year the store rented out more than 800 titles
(including some old editions) and estimated it saved about $5 million
for students. The store sells texts, too. The value of the store's
rental inventory is about $3 million compared to a little more than $2 million
three years ago.
Coston said that space has been an issue and emphasized that the
store's model of selling and renting textbooks in the same place made
it "the most difficult model of renting to get into." Other stores with
rental programs have separate sales and renting facilities.
"Rush" is not as dramatic as one would think, Coston said, observing
that "it's amazing how many students don't come in to pick up a rental
book until just before final exams."
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Chuck Kissel, director of the Titan Shops at Cal State Fullerton, which
has 36,000 students, described the school's two-year-old textbook rental
program. "We believe we are the first university of our size to roll
out a text rental program," he said.
The program has a prominent position in the store and is title-based,
meaning that the student pays when he or she selects the book. For
books offered, students are given four options: they can rent the book,
buy a new copy, buy a used copy or buy the e-text. On most titles, the store saves
65% for students and on some titles the savings are 75%. The store
offers the rentals unbundled but does sell bundled material separately.
It aims to rent out only new editions.
In the fall of 2006, Cal State Fullerton offered 17 rental textbooks;
3,592 were rented and brought $117,138 in rental income and resulted in
$227,542 in savings to students.
For books that are part of the program, the store has gotten
commitments from the faculty to use the text for at least two years. As
is usually the case with rental programs, the greatest demand is for
texts for introductory and major core
classes.
Kissel said his store was interested in the possibility of renting
textbooks from publishers "because coming up with capital [for a
traditional rental program] is challenging." He added that he liked it
that the model "involves bookstores. This is key to both stores and
publishers as we move forward."
The rental program has had several major benefits for the Cal State
Fullerton bookstore, Kissel continued. For one, "For the first time in a long time, the
campus and students see us as doing something about the price of
textbooks."
In addition, in contrast to general trends, overall textbook unit sales
are increasing at the store, which Kissel attributed to the rental
program. "Many students visit us online and build textbook purchases
around the rentals."--John Mutter
