When Akash Chokshi began his first semester of electrical engineering at the University of Toronto, he did what most of his peers did: After each new class, he went to the campus bookstore and parted ways with hundreds of dollars.
“When you’re new to university, you want the book on the first day,” he says. “You don’t think about saving money.”
But after realizing each semester would cost $500 to $600, Mr. Chokshi, now 25, knew he needed to shop around.
According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the average postsecondary student in Canada spends about $500 to $1,000 for textbooks and course materials each semester – with students in engineering and applied sciences usually hit the hardest – even in this day of the e-reader. (Canadian publishers have been trying to convince instructors to assign eBooks, but many still list the traditional versions on course outlines and direct students to on- and off-campus bookstores for purchase.)
While used bookstores have long been the go-to alternative to campus shops, the demand for cheap substitutes for brand-new texts has inspired innovative solutions among buyers and sellers alike.
Some students rent and some look online for deals, while others sell directly to their peers (whom they sometimes stalk outside lecture halls). Others turn to legally questionable means, which has prompted some publishers and retailers to adjust prices accordingly.
By his last year of school, Mr. Chokshi was paying a fraction of what he had in his first year for all his course materials.
His signature trick? Instead of getting a hardcover copy of one textbook at the university’s book store for $150, he bought the soft-cover international version online from a depot in India for just $20.
Indeed, some of his classmates travelled to India in the summer and brought back suitcases full of these texts – often purchased for $5 a pop – and resold them to others. But the deal-seekers have to put up with the “Not for sale in North America” stamp on the cover.
While buying overseas editions saves students a bundle, the practice of importing those titles is technically illegal. According to the Copyright Act, publishers of non-Canadian books can designate an exclusive distributor for their books and prohibit all others from distributing the same title.
Distributors can also tack on an extra 10 to 15 per cent import tax to the cost of the book, which explains the difference between Canadian and U.S. prices.
There are other get-books-cheaper gambits.
Chris Tabor, general manager of Queen’s University’s bookstore in Kingston, says he embraces competition and even recommends used bookstores and online resources to students. What he’s not a fan of, though, is the growing problem of producing and purchasing photocopied texts.
In January, the RCMP seized 2,700 counterfeit textbooks and arrested 13 people at various copy stores in Montreal. They estimated the illegally reproduced books were worth $545,000.
In reaction to the illegal trade of course materials, publishers are changing their ways. This year, the price point of most offerings from Pearson – a major textbook publisher – will be at par with U.S. prices.
But what students really want are downloads for tablets and e-readers, which, beyond being more portable than heavy textbooks, are much cheaper.
Sayeeda Hussain, a spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill Ryerson Canada, one of the country’s biggest textbook publishers, says about 90 per cent of the company’s books are available in digital format for the iPad, Kindle or Sony Reader. The price differences are steep: A traditional textbook that costs $125.95 would sell for $60 to $80 in digital format. While printed textbooks are still preferred by students in most disciplines, eBooks outsell their physical equivalents in the fields of accounting, management and hard sciences, Ms. Hussain says.
While Canadian publishers have been making the switch, Mr. Tabor says, they haven’t all moved as quickly as their U.S. counterparts. The stumbling point is at the retail level, Ms. Hussain says.
Amazon.com has a Kindle textbook rental program for its U.S. customers, but has yet to roll out the service here.
And students still prefer the tactile experience of using a physical textbook, Mr. Tabor says. “[They] tell us they will read from the physical book and study with the electronic book.”
