From a long article in Knowledge@Wharton, drawing upon comments from a number of Wharton professors. Here’s a bit.
Educators and book publishers are also predicting that eTextbooks will change the way teachers teach, students learn and textbook publishers sell their content — often in unexpected ways. Yet while students eagerly anticipate lower costs and lighter backpacks, teachers remain wary and some publishers still question the model. Wharton management professor Daniel Raff, who has studied the book business, suggests that publishers will maintain their grip on the school market. “One expects textbooks to have a certain authority. To the extent they are brands, they would retain [that] authority.” He notes that textbook publishers also have long lasting copyrights along with skills in managing licensed materials. Moreover, it isn’t clear that students are ready to study from an eTextbook. As Stephen Kobrin, editor of Wharton School Publishing (WSP), notes, “we publish all our course packs [collections of customized course readings] digitally. When I ask students how they read them, they say they print them out.” Kobrin estimates that currently 4% to 5% of WSP’s business is digital
(via Resource Shelf)
The title is rather misleading, since, as the article itself points out, e-textbooks are far from bestsellers right now. It’s also clear why this is: e-textbooks are priced too high.
I just realized I should probably clarify my comment above. I’m not saying that e-textbook feel to me or anyone else as if they’re too high; I’m saying that they’re too expensive when compared to the other option: buying the paper textbook. I give the economic analysis in the post to which I linked.
I agree with curt here, eTextbooks are priced too high, but publishers still want to make some money. Unfortunately that may be a few year before they begin to drop the cost, but it will happen. eBooks are still cheaper than normal books and allow for keyword searching with is a huge benefit if your trying to memorize key term. eCampus.com has eBooks fairly cheap.
I was actually able to find a coupon code to get 5% off
Its: GOLDFISH