our university doesn't allow any textbook older than five years from the time that we're teaching it (i.e. it's 2009 so the oldest textbook I should use is 2005) unless it's a "classic" - I actually have my students make their own textbooks in pbworks.com - like itethic.pbworks.com - and eventually I can make courseware from these Creative Commons licensed material
textbooks are great for subjects in which the subject matter doesn't change rapidly... like maths, history, geography, law, or accounting.However topics such as management, marketing, and for that matter most business topics outside of those mentioned above textbooks are horrible pieces of work that destroy the ability of a student to create intelligent, original thought. Some lecturers are amazing and manage to generate real thought under these constraints... others lecture to classes full of zombies who would probably get equal benefit from getting more sleep and placing a text book or their laptop open on Wikipedia under their pillow.the worst thing about textbooks are how they are treated by many university staff as a method for additional earnings. Disgusting practice. Why do i need a textbook from my own lecturer... just to get the lecturer refer to the book in class. I am an ex-student who has worked in and around universities for 6years up until a few years ago when I started my own company.
If you haven't read Tamim Ansary's piece on this subject it's well worth doing a google on - A Textbook Example of What's Wrong with EducationA former schoolbook editor parses the politics of educational publishing.by Tamim Ansary
The one thing you didn't suggest, Seth, was to follow the Godin model. In other words, marketing professors1. Write a short new book (or two) every year,2. Make them relevant to non-students as well,3. Make them required reading in your classes,4. Market & promote the heck out of each new book,5. Take on sacred cows of the marketing industry,6. Become a marketing rock star outside of his/her specific university (blogging & other forms of social media/networking are good ways of achieving this),6. Give speeches around the world for $20K to $100K per presentation, and7. Repeat as necessary until you can retire to a life of leisure (and consulting).The only thing that would make these concepts work any better would be to create a network of subject matter expert professors around the country who agreed in advance to cross-sell & market each other's books in their respective classes. Hence, 5 professors marketing books at $20 apiece = $100 in brand new, highly relevant content vs. $200 in old and outdated books. (That's also 5X more books sold per professor versus what she/he can sell alone at their university/college.) And the books would still have a long-tail value and could be bought/sold for many years to come (like "Purple Cow," right?).Anyway . . . my own rant on your rant, Seth. Have a good day.Dave Politisc/o Politis Communications"Maximizing corporate valuethru strategic communications"www.politis.com: Websitewww.TheBettyFactor.com: Blog@dpolitis: Twitter Account
We're using Seth Godins book Permission Marketing as our textbook in my summer school class. Are you saying we can reprint this book for free or is it just chapters? Can you please post authorization for students to do this. Thanks this is great news to be able to now get your books for free.
"This industry deserves to die." Generalize much? Oh wait---of course you do; you're Seth Godin!Check out these counterexamples on Amazon, and see what "users" have to say about them there:1.) Campbell & Reece, BIOLOGY2.) Myers, PSYCHOLOGY3.) Grout, Burkholder, Palisca, A HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC4.) Mankiw, PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS5.) Marieb, HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY6.) Aronson, THE SOCIAL ANIMAL7.) Janson, et al, JANSON'S HISTORY OF ART8.) Marshak, EARTH: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET9.) Brown, Lemay, et al, CHEMISTRY: THE CENTRAL SCIENCE10.) Graff & Birkenstein, THEY SAY / I SAY: THE MOVES THAT MATTER IN ACADEMIC WRITINGAnd on and on. In nearly every discipline, there is a market-leading textbook that is trusted, learned from, and even treasured by the people who know and use it---i.e., students and teachers. If an academic discipline completely lacks a market-leader that is as useful and highly-regarded as the titles above are in their respective disciplines, then the fault may lie with the discipline itself rather than with the industry that attempts to provide textbooks for that discipline. Maybe the notion of "marketing" as an actual subject worth teaching in college is the real problem. In which case this "rant" might simply be akin to the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the mirror.
Seth, you have it half right,, but there are a few things I would like you to consider. Where you are right on: Marketing textbooks, like many business textbooks, are boring and full of useless definitions. You are also right that textbooks are outrageously priced, especially for students who are financially struggling. And I agree, if a teacher does no more than reiterate what is in a textbook, they aren't really doing their job as an inspiring and educating teacher.What you forget (or do not see), is that textbooks offer four or five positive traits. 1. They offer consistency so that no matter what school you earned 3 credits at (or earned your degree at), society knows that the content was primarily the same. This, in a sense, gives a college degree value because it tells people that standards were met (most likely). 2. It includes many visuals and simple examples that can help the students learn when they are not in lecture. When I was a student, I learned much more when I could sit down in a quiet room and go through my textbook teaching myself than I ever did sitting in a lecture. Sure a professor can make their own examples (which we usually do anyway), but textbooks allow teachers to not have to constantly re-create the wheel. 3. Textbooks provide teachers with an outline. I teach some classes with a textbook and some without. I find the classes I teach with a book go much more smoothly. Not because I rely on them, but because it takes the content and puts it in an organized matter that is easy to outline and present so that it makes sense. For marketing, this concept is not really relevant, but I teach science (nutrition and health) and it makes a difference.4. As previously mentioned, textbooks, now a days, come with much more than just a book. For my classes, my students get an online food journal program, an online database where I can post documents, place grades, and it includes all kinds of visual animations, practice quizzes, study guides, you name it! The students find these extras to be valuable. The textbooks also come with testbanks, which are invaluable, as they offer consistency in grading. 5. As also mentioned, I can tell you that even using textbooks, I work about 30 hours a week teaching 10 credits per semester. And I earn only $16000 per year for this. Most of my time is not spent in classroom, but in preparing lectures, coming up with creative assignments, grading those assignments, grading papers, exams, answering student emails, meeting with students who are having trouble, the list goes on. And of course, when you work 30 hours a week at one job, there aren’t too many other jobs you have time for and most lucrative professions won’t hire anyone for only 10 hours a week. And if I didn’t mention that $16k a year I earn is before taxes, mandatory union fees, and other state fees they make me pay. If I had to write my very own textbook every single year, create all my exams from scratch, search YouTube for crappy animations, I may as well not even work.What I do, is search for textbooks that are the least expensive, but still good. I try not get away with smaller books, if I can. I also keep some on reserve in the library for those who can't afford the book. And many students know they can browse numerous used textbook websites, if they need to. They are overpriced, but they do offer us much, overall. Maybe rather than get rid of textbooks, we just advocate that they become a little more affordable.
We use Chegg to rent textbooks all the time which saves a lot of money every semester. I have a promotional code that readers can use for a discount on your total order. Just put the code in when ordering and hit the "apply" button. The code will also give you an extra $5 back if you want to sell Chegg your used texts (and they pay more than the bookstore!). The code does NOT have an expiration date so it can be used at anytime. Code: CC123047 Please pass the code to all your friends to save money!
National Textbook RentalsSave 75% on Your Textbooks! * Biggest Savings * Fastest Shipping * Largest SelectionFree Shipping!Premium shipping is FREE! Two Day is $3.99 + $3.99/book.Rent Textbooks:Search by ISBN, Title, or AuthorSearch 1. Rent 3 million textbooks 96% guaranteed in stock 2. Receive Fastest shipping — even next-day! 3. Return Free UPS returns Need more info?100% Satisfaction - Guaranteed.If for any reason you aren’t happy with your order, just let us know and we’ll do everything we can to make it right. * We only carry high-quality U.S. editions. If you don’t like any book, we’ll send you another for free. * Minimal highlighting and writing in the book is allowed. * There are 5 base rental periods, you can extend your rental or buy your book at anytime, and all rental fees can be applied to a book’s purchase price.Shipping Information 1. To You: Priority shipping is FREE, next-day and two-day shipping available for almost all books, delivery dates are guaranteed, and everything is trackable online 2. Back To Us: Returns are FREE and easy – just log in, print the packing label, put it on a box with your books, and drop it off at any UPS store or box.Have more questions? See our FAQ or contact our live California-based service reps, who will be happy to help you.Textbook Rentals Save You MoneyBuying your textbooks is expensive, and who has time to find high-quality, cheap used textbooks? Be smarter — at National , you can rent textbooks for a fraction of the cost, and have them delivered right to your door as fast as the next day. National makes education more affordable one cheap textbook rental at a time.
pagemanJun 14, 2009
our university doesn't allow any textbook older than five years from the time that we're teaching it (i.e. it's 2009 so the oldest textbook I should use is 2005) unless it's a "classic" - I actually have my students make their own textbooks in pbworks.com - like itethic.pbworks.com - and eventually I can make courseware from these Creative Commons licensed material
paulfdowdJun 15, 2009
textbooks are great for subjects in which the subject matter doesn't change rapidly... like maths, history, geography, law, or accounting.However topics such as management, marketing, and for that matter most business topics outside of those mentioned above textbooks are horrible pieces of work that destroy the ability of a student to create intelligent, original thought. Some lecturers are amazing and manage to generate real thought under these constraints... others lecture to classes full of zombies who would probably get equal benefit from getting more sleep and placing a text book or their laptop open on Wikipedia under their pillow.the worst thing about textbooks are how they are treated by many university staff as a method for additional earnings. Disgusting practice. Why do i need a textbook from my own lecturer... just to get the lecturer refer to the book in class. I am an ex-student who has worked in and around universities for 6years up until a few years ago when I started my own company.
danmcguirJun 15, 2009
If you haven't read Tamim Ansary's piece on this subject it's well worth doing a google on - A Textbook Example of What's Wrong with EducationA former schoolbook editor parses the politics of educational publishing.by Tamim Ansary
dpolitisJun 15, 2009
The one thing you didn't suggest, Seth, was to follow the Godin model. In other words, marketing professors1. Write a short new book (or two) every year,2. Make them relevant to non-students as well,3. Make them required reading in your classes,4. Market & promote the heck out of each new book,5. Take on sacred cows of the marketing industry,6. Become a marketing rock star outside of his/her specific university (blogging & other forms of social media/networking are good ways of achieving this),6. Give speeches around the world for $20K to $100K per presentation, and7. Repeat as necessary until you can retire to a life of leisure (and consulting).The only thing that would make these concepts work any better would be to create a network of subject matter expert professors around the country who agreed in advance to cross-sell & market each other's books in their respective classes. Hence, 5 professors marketing books at $20 apiece = $100 in brand new, highly relevant content vs. $200 in old and outdated books. (That's also 5X more books sold per professor versus what she/he can sell alone at their university/college.) And the books would still have a long-tail value and could be bought/sold for many years to come (like "Purple Cow," right?).Anyway . . . my own rant on your rant, Seth. Have a good day.Dave Politisc/o Politis Communications"Maximizing corporate valuethru strategic communications"www.politis.com: Websitewww.TheBettyFactor.com: Blog@dpolitis: Twitter Account
brian726Jun 15, 2009
We're using Seth Godins book Permission Marketing as our textbook in my summer school class. Are you saying we can reprint this book for free or is it just chapters? Can you please post authorization for students to do this. Thanks this is great news to be able to now get your books for free.
hyinynwwJun 16, 2009
"This industry deserves to die." Generalize much? Oh wait---of course you do; you're Seth Godin!Check out these counterexamples on Amazon, and see what "users" have to say about them there:1.) Campbell & Reece, BIOLOGY2.) Myers, PSYCHOLOGY3.) Grout, Burkholder, Palisca, A HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC4.) Mankiw, PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS5.) Marieb, HUMAN ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY6.) Aronson, THE SOCIAL ANIMAL7.) Janson, et al, JANSON'S HISTORY OF ART8.) Marshak, EARTH: PORTRAIT OF A PLANET9.) Brown, Lemay, et al, CHEMISTRY: THE CENTRAL SCIENCE10.) Graff & Birkenstein, THEY SAY / I SAY: THE MOVES THAT MATTER IN ACADEMIC WRITINGAnd on and on. In nearly every discipline, there is a market-leading textbook that is trusted, learned from, and even treasured by the people who know and use it---i.e., students and teachers. If an academic discipline completely lacks a market-leader that is as useful and highly-regarded as the titles above are in their respective disciplines, then the fault may lie with the discipline itself rather than with the industry that attempts to provide textbooks for that discipline. Maybe the notion of "marketing" as an actual subject worth teaching in college is the real problem. In which case this "rant" might simply be akin to the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the mirror.
kimberlyfitnessJun 24, 2009
Seth, you have it half right,, but there are a few things I would like you to consider. Where you are right on: Marketing textbooks, like many business textbooks, are boring and full of useless definitions. You are also right that textbooks are outrageously priced, especially for students who are financially struggling. And I agree, if a teacher does no more than reiterate what is in a textbook, they aren't really doing their job as an inspiring and educating teacher.What you forget (or do not see), is that textbooks offer four or five positive traits. 1. They offer consistency so that no matter what school you earned 3 credits at (or earned your degree at), society knows that the content was primarily the same. This, in a sense, gives a college degree value because it tells people that standards were met (most likely). 2. It includes many visuals and simple examples that can help the students learn when they are not in lecture. When I was a student, I learned much more when I could sit down in a quiet room and go through my textbook teaching myself than I ever did sitting in a lecture. Sure a professor can make their own examples (which we usually do anyway), but textbooks allow teachers to not have to constantly re-create the wheel. 3. Textbooks provide teachers with an outline. I teach some classes with a textbook and some without. I find the classes I teach with a book go much more smoothly. Not because I rely on them, but because it takes the content and puts it in an organized matter that is easy to outline and present so that it makes sense. For marketing, this concept is not really relevant, but I teach science (nutrition and health) and it makes a difference.4. As previously mentioned, textbooks, now a days, come with much more than just a book. For my classes, my students get an online food journal program, an online database where I can post documents, place grades, and it includes all kinds of visual animations, practice quizzes, study guides, you name it! The students find these extras to be valuable. The textbooks also come with testbanks, which are invaluable, as they offer consistency in grading. 5. As also mentioned, I can tell you that even using textbooks, I work about 30 hours a week teaching 10 credits per semester. And I earn only $16000 per year for this. Most of my time is not spent in classroom, but in preparing lectures, coming up with creative assignments, grading those assignments, grading papers, exams, answering student emails, meeting with students who are having trouble, the list goes on. And of course, when you work 30 hours a week at one job, there aren’t too many other jobs you have time for and most lucrative professions won’t hire anyone for only 10 hours a week. And if I didn’t mention that $16k a year I earn is before taxes, mandatory union fees, and other state fees they make me pay. If I had to write my very own textbook every single year, create all my exams from scratch, search YouTube for crappy animations, I may as well not even work.What I do, is search for textbooks that are the least expensive, but still good. I try not get away with smaller books, if I can. I also keep some on reserve in the library for those who can't afford the book. And many students know they can browse numerous used textbook websites, if they need to. They are overpriced, but they do offer us much, overall. Maybe rather than get rid of textbooks, we just advocate that they become a little more affordable.
kimberlyfitnessJun 24, 2009
I try TO get away with smaller textbooks...correcting a typo :)
savingdoughFeb 14, 2010
We use Chegg to rent textbooks all the time which saves a lot of money every semester. I have a promotional code that readers can use for a discount on your total order. Just put the code in when ordering and hit the "apply" button. The code will also give you an extra $5 back if you want to sell Chegg your used texts (and they pay more than the bookstore!). The code does NOT have an expiration date so it can be used at anytime. Code: CC123047 Please pass the code to all your friends to save money!
johnlkilbyApr 26, 2010
National Textbook RentalsSave 75% on Your Textbooks! * Biggest Savings * Fastest Shipping * Largest SelectionFree Shipping!Premium shipping is FREE! Two Day is $3.99 + $3.99/book.Rent Textbooks:Search by ISBN, Title, or AuthorSearch 1. Rent 3 million textbooks 96% guaranteed in stock 2. Receive Fastest shipping — even next-day! 3. Return Free UPS returns Need more info?100% Satisfaction - Guaranteed.If for any reason you aren’t happy with your order, just let us know and we’ll do everything we can to make it right. * We only carry high-quality U.S. editions. If you don’t like any book, we’ll send you another for free. * Minimal highlighting and writing in the book is allowed. * There are 5 base rental periods, you can extend your rental or buy your book at anytime, and all rental fees can be applied to a book’s purchase price.Shipping Information 1. To You: Priority shipping is FREE, next-day and two-day shipping available for almost all books, delivery dates are guaranteed, and everything is trackable online 2. Back To Us: Returns are FREE and easy – just log in, print the packing label, put it on a box with your books, and drop it off at any UPS store or box.Have more questions? See our FAQ or contact our live California-based service reps, who will be happy to help you.Textbook Rentals Save You MoneyBuying your textbooks is expensive, and who has time to find high-quality, cheap used textbooks? Be smarter — at National , you can rent textbooks for a fraction of the cost, and have them delivered right to your door as fast as the next day. National makes education more affordable one cheap textbook rental at a time.