HNT - Sue Dough Nym

CHCH news recently did a "back to school" piece on ebooks and came to the bookstore at McMaster to look into whether or not more students were buying etextbooks.

I talked about the fact that etextbooks were not like the "general trade" ebooks that you might normally buy from a place like Kobo, for example. (A great example to use since our bookstore sells Kobo readers along with iPads and other tablet devices that are popular because you can run various ebook apps on them).

Etextbooks are typically "time bombed" or set to expire at the end of the term, so, though the student pays slightly less for their etextbook they don't have anything at the end (ie, a book to keep or perhaps sell back into the used market and get some cash for, which typically helps them buy the next textbooks they need on their educational journey) - thus, the initial cost might be a little lower, but the residual value is typically much less in the long run.

Most of the students who have been weighing their options end up finding it a better value to purchase the textbook package which includes access to the etextbook. It is typically not that much more expensive than buying the ebook alone (several times, the ebook is included for free with the new textbook purchase), and they get the flexibility of using both depending on their location/situation. (For example, with a couple of the 1st year books we have for Chemistry and Kinesiology, the textbooks are extremely heavy. The bundled textbook/ebook allows the student to leave the textook in their dorm-room rather than lug it across campus, and if the prof refers to or reads from the book in class, the student can easily follow along accessing the ebook on their laptop, tablet or ereader device.)

Here's a snapshot from the interview done with me in our store.

I think it's cute that they got my name wrong. (They transposed the B and V - a popular mistake in a name where the B and R are silent and thrown in seemingly just to confuse people) and the second e is more of an "a" sound - ie, Lefave.......) It makes me want to collect a scrap-book of all the times I have appeared in the media over the years and my name has been mis-spelled. It might be fun to look back at.

But really, is it any wonder why I write under the pseudonym Mark Leslie?

Noodling More On Evolution Of Publishing

Yesterday's blog post in which I tried to figure out how all the value propositions in the existing supply chain for publishing and books might evolve and adapt into new ones inspired some great comments.  No, the comments don't appear below the original source for this blog, but rather in the comments of the feed for this blog being imported into a note on Facebook.

Yes, the beauty of the complex nature of this original source material I publish to the web and which gets fed through various RSS type feeds into different locations and consumed by different people can lead to dynamically different discussions and conversation chains in each of the comment areas.

Image from booksontheradio.ca

Which is part of what Sean Cranbury from Books on the Radio was getting at in his insightful commentary and further to discussions I've listened to Hugh McGuire have on the Media Hacks podcast (which I get as part of the subscription to the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast from Mitch Joel) about the nature of what a book is and can be when it moves to the web.

In his comments, Sean beautifully calls to mind the concept of collaboration where the original linear logic of the supply chain is blended and sifted through -- where certain pieces that are valued are kept and others that have no value (particularly in specific regions or to certain customers), are tossed away.

Image from Bookriff.com

He mentions customized mixups and mashups of content that might very-well vary from the original work but are still based on the same. And we're already beginning to see that in places such as BookRiff or SymText and many other places where content creators/publishers can place their work online and consumers can pop in, customize the content to suit their needs and select the way in which they want to consume it.

I've long admired the Flatworld Knowledge textbook model -- the content is in place and there are mulitple ways to mix and consume it, choice being a huge value add. Sometimes it's a digital online entity, sometimes it's mixed media, sometimes it's a print product. Sometimes it's all of them or a unique mixture.

Sean suggested some interesting points regarding differentiations based on geography and population bases which I thought were intriguing.  Perhaps some areas can continue to rely more on physical and traditional distribution models due to large population bases and proximity factors, while others that are not as centralized or not as densely populated can take advantage of more efficient digital distributions. I can see a world in which all options are available, and the ones more advantageous to the creator/curator/consumer are the ones that grow in some areas and shrink in others.

I also received commentary on the Facebook comment channel from a friend from high school who was butting up against the walls of marketing and getting word about her novel out there when her book was first printed with a really small publisher then she moved it on into a self-published effort.  It gave me more thoughts on the value that publishers add and perhaps how authors and publishers and even booksellers could work together towards helping bring the content to the appropriate readers. The key being getting it to the appropriate readers, not to a mass audience.  As I fondly recall Robert J. Sawyer saying in an interview several years back, you don't want to thrust your novel into the hands of every single reader, just the readers who are most likely to enjoy the type of novel you've written. If you push your science fiction novel into the hands of someone who doesn't like reading science fiction you're doing the reader and the author a disservice.

Of course, in the interest of helping my friend Deena Thomson share the love about her book Poppies, and potentially helping a reader who might enjoy her book (with a catch-phrase of "One moment can change a liftime"), I encourage you to check out the Google Books listing for it -- read what it's about, check out the glowing reviews, read some free samples, then check out the options available to purchase it (putting in a plug that because of it's availability through Ingram distribution virtually any bookstore anywhere can order it for you if you'd rather go with your favourite local bookstore)

Of course there are more thoughts swirling around in my head than are typed out in this blog right now, Horatio.  Too many thoughts to attempt to put into a consise post, so I'll just stop here and keep noodling on more ideas.

But one thing is for sure, I love thinking about this stuff.

HNT - BNC Field Trip

Yesterday, 99% of the BookNet Canada crew left the office in Toronto to come visit Titles Bookstore at McMaster University.

It's not enough that the folks who work at BookNet Canada are champions of supporting the multiple aspects of our industry, by providing tools and services that help booksellers, publishers and distributors become better, stronger, faster, smarter. (Yes, but not just like Lee Majors in The Six Million Dollar Man -- they help steer innovations that allow us all to prosper)

No, working on all these various offerings isn't enough. The good folks at BNC thrive on getting out into the field and checking out various operations. (And yes, I'll admit I'm a bit biased because I sit on the BNC board -- but from the beginning days of BNC, I've had the priviledge of knowing and working with many of the people behind the scenes there, and watched them build from a great idea into something that I truly believe is a fantastic benefit to our industry -- I mean, who else out there is truly invested in trying to benefit ALL parties, from the author down to the consumer within the Canadian book industry?)

So, yesterday, the team took the loooooong and painful road trip from downtown Toronto to Hamilton. I say this tongue in cheek because it's a POV thing. If you're a central Toronto person, anything past Oakville seems like the "edge of the earth" -- but if you're from the edge of the GTA, like we are in Hamilton, you're used to the groans of people who rarely dare to venture behind the "sprawling fringes of the city" (yes, I'm quoting Rush - I like to do that regularly)

For one, it was great seeing the whole team. (Okay, it wasn't the whole team, because their fearless leader, Noah, was stuck back in the office with the auditors. Someone had to hold the fort down, and you have to admire a leader who is willing to "take one for the team" in such a way)

I gave them a tour of the main bookstore and our main textbook location (the Tank), as well as the big piece of innovation they were there to check out -- our Espresso Book Machine and how we're using it to print textbooks to lower the price for students, to get access to digitally distributed titles more efficiently than ever before, to create new business models for regional community bookstores that take advantage of technology that benefit consumers, booksellers, publishers and authors, all in one fell swoop.

The crew, (a little tech savy to say the least), were using FourSquare to check in, taking pictures and sending them off into Twitter, etc. throughout the tour.

Noah, back at the homestead, saw one of the pictures and made a hilarious comment back on Twitter: Is Mark praying that the live demo goes well?

It was in response to this picture...


Hilarious. I wasn't praying, though. I was just talking with my hands. (Hey, I'm French - it's all about using my hands as much as my lips when I speak -- besides, when I wave my hands around and make lots of guestures, I'm hoping it distracts people away from noticing the bald thing going on upstairs)

In any case, the tour went well. Laura (the main EBM operator extraordinaire) and I printed a bunch of different books for them, and they asked tons of great questions. Okay, in all honesty, Laura did all of the real work and printing -- I just did most of the talking.

One of the books we printed was an oddity I never saw before. (And you have to expect that, with any demo of a new technology, there's got to be at least ONE hiccough) -- we selected a title from the catalog of just under 1 million titles to show them how we order from the EspressNet Catalog. We picked a public domain Google Book of Shakespeare -- a "King Lear" search result that was listed as 120 pages. We figured it would be a nice short book that could be completed in about 3 minutes, as part of demonstrating the quickness of this process.

Of course, it took a unexpected longer time for the book to load to our system and start printing. And once it started, the print que was showing a gigantic page count, well behind 120. So we let it run it's course and out came a 1000 page book.

The BNC folks, grinned at this and stated something they often say, and something I'm familiar with given my previous job role as data wrangler at Chapters/Indigo between 1999 and 2006.

"See," Tom, the Bibliographic Manager at BNC said. "It all comes down to the quality of the metadata."

Spoken like a true bibliographic data manager and BookNet Canada team member.

Doing It Right Digitally

I complain a lot about the broken textbook industry and how things continue to spiral out of control in a "chicken and egg" battle involving bookstores, publishers and students. The price of textbooks goes up -- sales go down. Prices go higher. Sales plummet further. It's a vicious cycle.

Everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else with very few parties actually looking for real solutions.

But sometimes there is good news -- a glimmer of light among the gathering storm cloud. Sometimes one or more of the groups out there tries something a bit different in an attempt to break the vicious and maddening cycle.

Not that many days ago, I blogged about a university department working with a publisher to offer a workable and very promising solution that I believe was good for the publisher, I know was good for the bookstore, and which I also believe was beneficial for students. A wonderful three way win situation.

And here is some hope in the world of digital books/ebooks that I'm quite delighted with.

First off, I'm very proud to be a member of the CCRA (Canadian Campus Retail Associates) and to know that the time and money we're investing in working together to come up with solutions like this that can actually benefit students and save them money on their textbooks.

Campus E-Bookstore is an initiative to allow for ePub format books to be downloaded by students. The initial offering, or phase one of the platform is a selection of the most popular public domain titles being used most often in North American campuses being offered for free. Full details can be seen on a NACS press release announcing the partnership between CCRA and NACS Media Solutions.

The idea is to help individual campus stores be able to provide easy links to these texts for those students looking for an alternative or compliment to existing course materials. With the ability to create dynamic links and an easy way to get a decent DSV (or Digital Study Version) copy downloaded with as little hassle as possible. These study versions have been produced in the EPUB format, enabling them to be viewed on most mobile reading devices, such as the Sony Reader.

I believe that a project like this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Just to reiterate -- a group of campus stores paid money to create digital material to be given out to students for free.

My own experience having access to POD technology in my bookstore has continued to demonstrate that even when students can get a public domain or open access textbook for free (via Project Gutenberg, etc), they will likely purchase a hard copy of the book if it is a REASONABLE PRICE. I use upper case for the words "reasonable price" because reasonable means different things to different people. But I have seen the positive effect of giving something away for free and offering a low-cost alternative hard copy. Those who wish not to or cannot afford to purchase the product but still access the content are happy -- those who want a hard copy for a decent price are happy. And sales of the reasonably priced hard copy typically increase.

Of course, FlatWorld Knowledge is another entity out there that has the right idea -- in a similar fashion, they offer free online versions of textbooks and reasonably priced hard copies available for sale.

There is a fantastic interview from CBC's Spark with Nora Young that you can download and listen to where Eric Frank explains the concept of Open Textbooks.

At the end of the day, I'm delighted to see another glimmer of hope in these two wonderful efforts to put a stop to the madness.

Doing It Right

[Overheard regularly at Titles Bookstore McMaster University on a daily basis for the past couple of weeks]

Student: "Excuse me, sir. Do you sell this Chemisty textbook on its own?"

Me: "I'm sorry, we only sell it as a package. The textbook on it's own sells for anywhere between $120 and $190."

Student: "Gulp. So how much does this three part package cost?"

Me: "$97.95. You get the hardcover textbook, the paperback solution manual and an interactive software media pack."

Student: "Oh!"

There's a reason the student's reaction is typically a really stunned look or that they eye me suspiciously for a long time and usually back away slowly, careful not to turn their back to me.

It's because by the time they find this package, which is being used in almost all of the first year Chemistry courses being taught at McMaster, they're used to being ripped off. But I think this is a case of an academic institution and a publisher working together and doing it right.

I'll be the first one to admit -- the textbook industry is broken. It's a horrible mess. It's a legacy monopoly environment that keeps spiraling out of control. For the longest time academic publishers sold millions of books because instructors "adopted" them and students had no choice but to buy them. But in the past ten years particularly, sales stopped going up. The price got to a point that students couldn't afford the books and so started looking for other solutions, which include buying used books, using the library, international editions or other illegal methods, or simply opting NOT to purchase the textbook at all.

In fact, unit sales of textbooks have consistently been going downhill for many years now and publishers are spending more and more to try to stay relevant, produce additional value in their course materials and compete with one another for the elusive "textbook adoption" -- but the additional millions upon millions of dollars they are spending to compete with one another is having a negative effect on the textbook price -- it's driving the prices upwards. And thus the frustrating death-spiral.

CCRA (Canadian Campus Retail Associates) stores across Canada launched a great promotion last year called WeirdBlame. With the phrase "Don't blame the bookstore, we didn't pick your roommate either" the site attempts to use humour to help educate frustrated students on where things went wrong.

CCRA and other campus stores are doing their best to work with student groups and publishers on solutions to help fix this broken market. Titles Bookstore at McMaster is a member of many such groups and we are constantly looking for new solutions to these problems before the textbook industry goes the way of the auto industry. The writing should be on the wall -- it's too bad so many intelligent people who DO know how to read aren't seeing it.

But in the meantime, rather than point out the obvious negatives, I wanted to return to spotlighting one particular approach taken done by a faculty at McMaster which I think created a win-win situation for students, the publisher and the bookstore.

Three years ago, the Chemistry Department at McMaster negotiated a deal with Pearson Education Canada. As I understand it, it was done after a lengthy RFP-type plan put out to a number of publishers. But, in a nutshell, McMaster's Chemistry department agreed to "lock in" the same textbook package for the majority of their first year Chemistry classes provided that the publisher whose textbook was chosen locked in the textbook package at a reasonable price.

The result is that first year Chemistry students at McMaster for the past three years have been able to purchase the Petrucci Package for a fantastic and very reasonable price.

The package includes the 9th edition of the Petrucci General Chemistry textbook (which normally retails on its own for between $120 and $190 -- if you don't believe me, check out Amazon's listing for the book, which at the time of me writing this, lists the book for $140 US), plus the paperback Solution Manual (which I've seen listed for between $60 and $90), plus a software Media pack (a kind of interactive "Study Guide" to assist students, which usually retails for under $30 on its own) for the price of $97.95.

I applaud the wonderful efforts made by McMaster's Department of Chemistry as well as the folks at Pearson who made this possible. When I think of the millions of dollars that both parties have helped to save students over the past three years at McMaster it makes me proud to have been a part of it.

But what, business-wise, is the end result?

From the bookstore's perspective, I can tell that in the past three years we have sold thousands upon thousands of units of this package. Having personally unpacked thousands of boxes and broken down dozens of skids of the textbook (that were selling like Cabbage Patch Dolls or the lastest iPhone release from Apple), I have continually witnessed the effect of a reasonably priced textbook package.

And even though our bookstore is admittedly aggressive in the pursuit of used books in order to save students money, and we did sell a lot of used packages for about $73, more than 90% of our sales in this case were for the NEW BOOK PACKAGE.

Simply put, this is a textbook package that the students can easily see the value in and which most are willing to purchase new. (Value is tough to nail because it's weighed on two elusive tiers. On one side, the price needs to be "reasonable" and on the other, the students need to actually use MOST of the material in the book. When both things are true, the students tends to find "value" in their purchase. If you ask the average student to define what a good priced book should be, most are likely to say "it depends" because of these elusive factors -- that is one of the things that makes the business of creating textbooks at a reasonable price so frustrating for publishers. There are no hard numbers to rely on.)

I don't know the figures at Pearson with respect to this package and sales at McMaster, but I'd like to believe that they did okay and actually made some money on this deal. Despite all the arguments I often get into with publishers over outrageous textbook prices, I respect the money they invest into their products and recognize that they are businesses and need to generate a profit in order to stay in business. I just prefer that the profits are made from making smart business decisions and when expenditures aren't placed onto the backs of the students.

So I really would like to believe that Pearson also saw this as a worthwhile return on their investment. I'd like to believe that because I think that THIS is one of many solutions that can help publishers and help students at the same time. And if a publisher can make money while students can spend less and get a good deal, then that's a good thing that can last and break the vicious cycle of what the textbook industry has devolved into.

Since we're at the end of the 3 year commitment for this package at McMaster, I am eagerly awaiting to see what the Chemistry Department does next and which publisher will step up to the plate this time around -- but I truly hope that a similar deal can be struck for the next three years.

For the sake of students and for the sake of the death spiral this industry is so desperately trying to avoid.

Don't Buy That Book

The September Rush starts today. That's a term used in academic bookselling to describe the busiest time of year for campus bookstores -- the time when the new fall term starts and thousands of students will be coming into the bookstore looking for their course materials.

And because the "Rush" starts today, I'll be uttering a phrase quite regularly: "Don't buy that book."

It seems a bit counter-intuitive, doesn't it?

I mean, I'm a bookseller. That's where my main stream of income comes from -- selling books. My job is to oversee all book related operations of the campus bookstore at McMaster University. Like most retail operations, we have particular sales goals to meet on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. However, owned by the university and run from the Department of Student Affairs our mission is to assist in the academic process. Thus, the needs of students and faculty are often our FIRST concern.

And that's why, repeatedly, I will advise students not to buy a particular book for a first year course.

I'll be spending most of my time in the next several weeks out on the sales floor not to ensure that we meet our sales targets, but rather to ensure that me and my staff are informing students to the best of our ability -- that customers are getting information that allows them to make an informed decision on their academic purchases.

Let me go back to a particular book that I'm going to advise students NOT to purchase.

First, there's nothing wrong with the book. It's a great book -- it does an excellent job of introducing students at a first year level to their subject of study. It is priced of $113.25 for a new copy or $84.95 for a used copy, which, while expensive, is comparable to the other books like it on the market for that subject area. (Our textbook operation carries both new and used books and place them right beside each other on the shelves allowing students to decide which they would rather purchase.)

But there are two factors students need to know about this particular book in question that aren't at first apparent.

One, the book is listed for the course in question as OPTIONAL. Optional means that the faculty member teaching the course doesn't require the students to read the material contained within it. A book can be listed as optional for number of different reasons -- the professor might suggest it to some students in the class who want to read further on particular topics covered in class, or that it could be used by those having trouble and need the extra reading, or perhaps there are particular chapters or items within it that might assist students with one or more assignments, tests or exams that will come up in the student year.

In THIS particular case, based on two previous years of feedback from students who have taken the class with the same instructor and same optional textbook, I know that most students who have purchased the book are sorely disappointed that they bought the book and consider it a huge waste of their money.

Here's why. The faculty member in question never requires the students to open this particular optional book once during the course of the class. And he does such a good job of covering the topic area he is teaching that he doesn't need to refer to the textbook. Any readings assigned are all contained within a custom coursepack that the professor and the department put together themselves. It sells for $45.95. If a student purchases that and reads it and goes to all their classes, they'll have all the content they need to succeed in the course.

Which makes this optional textbook un-necessary.

Which is why I strongly urge students NOT to purchase it.

(When there's time, or when the students press for more reasoning, I sometimes add a caveat. I tell them that if they plan on skipping a lot of their classes and thus missing out on the content provided by the professor, this particular textbook does an excellent job of providing them with the basics they'll need to succeed in the class. So if they plan on skipping classes, I suggest they buy the textbook and read it cover to cover. But then I remind them that they paid a lot of money to be enrolled in university, so why would they choose to skip a class and spend more money?)

Sometimes, the students actually listen to what I'm telling them. And, hopefully, I helped them make an informed decision that is right for them.

But it still seems counter-intuitive for me to do such a thing, doesn't it? I mean, if I tell people not to buy something from me, doesn't that jeopardize my livelihood?

I don't honesty think so.

Yes, I'm a bookseller. Yes, selling books is how I make a living.

But the key, in my mind is selling the right books to the right customer. And this works not just for selling academic books that are required for courses, but also for general interest books that people are looking for whether they are doing research, wanting to know more about something, or just for the sheer pleasure of reading (ie, enjoying a great novel).

I don't want someone to buy a book and be disappointed. I want them to be satisfied with their purchase. I want them to buy a book and find it interesting, useful or a good read.

And that's where the real pleasure of bookselling comes from.

Selling the right book to the right person at the right time.

Hopefully, the customers who I advise not to buy a particular book because I don't feel they are going to find it useful will remember that. Hopefully, they'll remember the honesty and integrity with which I advised them. And THAT will bring them back in to my store the next time they are looking for a book.

And on that next visit, my job isn't to sell them a book, it's to sell them the right book for them. And, if it's the right book, I'll gladly sell it to them.

If I believe it's the wrong book for them, well, you already know what I'll do, won't you?

Godin Gets It

I was absolutely delighted to see Seth Godin's recent rant about textbooks.

I should have known that someone outside of the industry would be so keen as to have picked up on the topic with the proper angle and hit the nail so perfectly dead centre on the head.

It's not surprising, though. I only recently finished reading Seth Godin's book Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers. It was highly recommended to all participants at a recent CCRA meeting I was at in Montreal. Not only was the book a compelling and quick read and chock full of fantastic information, but in it Godin also made predictions about Amazon that are coming true. (Let me put this into perspective -- this book, which was first published in 1999, is now in it's 24th printing and still in hardcover, which, I imagine, suggests just HOW many copies are still selling today) In the book Godin suggests some strategies that Amazon would be likely to adopt -- lo and behold, they're coming true. Nuff said about that. Get out there and read Godin's book. Me, I'm about to pick up and read through as many of his other books as I can.

But back to Godin's rant. Looking at marketing textbooks, he found a frustrating list of problems with the existing textbook market. Like the folks in CRAM (Canadian Roundtable on Academic Materials) *, he realizes that the current model is broken and needs to be looked at seriously.

If you're in Canada and somehow invested in the textbook industry (be it as student, bookstore, faculty member, librarian or publisher), please do check out CRAM to see how you can be involved in helping make a difference in the industry. If you're not in Canada, you still still go check it out and take advantage of the resources listed because all of these principles are universal and likely apply in your own country.


* CRAM is a group of students and bookstores working together with as many industry partners as possible (faculty, libraries and publishers) to try to find new solutions to this existing broken model. Their nine principles are listed below:

1. Academic materials must be a high quality and offer reasonable value to students.
2. Academic Community Members are the ultimate decision makers for selecting academic materials.
3. Academic Community Members should consider the cost for students when selecting course materials, and should explore and utilize the most cost-effective forms of delivery.
4. Publishers and other supply chain providers should, where feasible, utilize the most cost-effective technologies for delivering academic materials.
5. Strive for a clear balance in copyright legislation between owner and user rights that promotes the sharing of ideas.
6. Encourage academic community members to fully and clearly understand the legal implications of copyright-related agreements, so that Fair Dealing can be fully exercised at the campus level.
7. The academic materials delivery processes at each participating school should incorporate joint Bookstore, Student, Academic Community Members and Library committees that foster communication, promote enhanced relationships, and facilitate the sharing of ideas and concerns.
8. Establish monitoring and feedback mechanisms in order to measure and enhance the quality, affordability, and accessibility of academic materials.
9. Advance the cost-effectiveness and affordability of academic materials through the development of:
   1. Advocacy strategies and tools that can be utilized at the campus level to promote enhanced awareness of the problems and the solutions.
   2. Advocacy strategies and plans at the national level that focus on presenting a concerted and unified position in relation to matters concerning academic materials.
   3. Communication with other national entities in the sphere of post-secondary education, including but not limited to the Association of Universities & Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and Campus Stores Canada (CSC).

HNT - Book Heist

It's been expectedly busy at the bookstore these past couple of weeks. Back to school always brings long days, endless hours of helping first year students find their appropriate course materials, and unpacking carton after carton of textbooks.

We call it the September Rush -- and it's definitely a rush -- a rush of activity, a rush of text material, a rush of students. (Yet, sadly, no Geddy, Alex and Neil)

Early last week, during some welcome week activities, a group of students on a scavenger hunt had to acquire a picture of themselves stealing books. They asked if I would pose with them, pretending to be chasing a group of them attempting to steal books.


Fun pics and a good group of kids.

FYI, despite the angry look on my face and the big stick I was swinging, no students and no course materials were hurt in the staging of these photographs.

Da Count - Home For A Skirmish

I'm continually amazed at how lucky I am to have the job I do. Sure, it's a lot of work, I put in a ton of hours, but man oh man, the payoff is incredible. The fun that I get to have, the interesting things I get to work on are just phenomenal.

For example, earlier this summer on a day off, I was at the Family Festival in Westdale and there was a band playing on the stage central to all the family fun activities going on. They were quite good, very talented, and played a diverse range of music -- all fantastic songs. The band's name was Skirmish.

When the band broke after their first set I started chatting with the lead singer -- listening to the various songs they'd played in the first set made me wonder if we could book them for one of the special events we were planning at the bookstore. After chatting for a few minutes, I learned that the lead singer, Kenny, was none other than a Physics prof at McMaster. Yeah, kinda cool. A physics prof by day, a rocker at night. The bass player, Kari is also a prof and happens to also be an associate chair of the Physics dept.

After learning this, I just HAD to book them for some September Rush events (no, not the band with Geddy, Alex and Neil -- although having a Rush event at my store would be quite awesome) -- "Rush" is a term campuses use for those first few weeks in September when the school's population suddenly explodes and it's complete mayhem and madness on campus.

Because students have to line up to get into the store, go through the process of finding and carrying a big whack of textbooks and course materials, then get back into line to purchase these items, we're always looking for ways to make the experience a bit less tedious and perhaps even fun. We often try to get in free samples of product handouts to pass out to them and have installed Plasma screens near the cash desks of the main store so that for our 10 to 20 minute loops, they can be informed, entertained or at least distracted by changing images.

But this year, I'm delighted to note that the local Hamilton band Skirmish will be performing two sets of acoustic solo and acoustic duo performances at three of our locations during those first few days of Rush.

On September 2nd they'll be playing at T29 (Temporary bookstore location for 1st year Arts & Humanities texts) from 2 to 4 PM.

On September 3rd they'll be playing in The Tank (a large warehouse sized textbook store where all upper year texts are sold) from 1 to 3 PM.

And on September 4th, they'll be playing at Titles main store (where during Rush we will be selling the 1st year Math and Science texts) in Gilmour Hall from 3 to 5 PM.

Here's a video (featuring a musical track of the band covering the Spirit of the West song "Home for a Rest") announcing the event. I'm quite delighted that we're able to do this, but also particularly tickled that some of the students there are going to be shocked to learn that the rocker belting out awesome cover versions of some great songs is none other than the guy who'll be teaching them a couple of days later.



This week I'm counting how fortunate I am to work at a great place like McMaster University and that my role at Titles Bookstore allows me to work on some really fantastic projects.

HNT - CRAMing

I spent three days this week with a group of other campus bookstores and student representatives from across Canada. We were meeting as a collective known as CRAM (Canadian Roundtable on Academic Materials). The group begin meeting in November of 2007 as an attempt to bring students, booksellers and publishers together to discuss the state of academic materials, the rising costs continuing being pushed out to students and what we might all do, working together, to help make a difference in an industry that has spiraled out of control in vicious cycles for far too long.

For this week's HNT picture, I thought I should post a picture of the first two editions of David G. Myers psychology.


For my own first year Psych class, I believe I was instructed to use the Darley/Glucksberg/Kinchla text (4th edition - 1988) - it was $34.15 at Carleton University that year.

However, because I was extremely interested in Psychology, wanted to do further reading and considered majoring in it, I ended up getting my hands on some additional textbooks and took a liking to the David G. Myers textbook -- I likely got my hands on them via friends. I ended up taking Myers Social Psychology in 2nd year and quite enjoyed Myers' approach to that subject. (So this blog rant isn't an attempt to discredit David Myers -- I have found his writings on psychology both approachable and interesting -- this rant is about the bizarre nature of the textbook industry)

The 1986 1st edition of Psychology by David G. Myers retailed at Carleton for $31.95.
The 1989 2nd edition of Psychology by David G. Myers retailed at Carleton for $36.95.
There are a ton of stats for years in between that I do not have.
The 2007 8th edition of Psychology by David G. Myers retails for about $128.00.

In 20 years the cost of a book that, fundamentially hasn't changed (remember, we're talking BASIC principles of a 1st year introduction to psychology course -- basic concepts of psychology, which are a combination of biology, development and society) has increased by almost $100. So basically, in 20 years, the price has increased by approximately 400%. Terrifying.

I AM going to try to get my hands on the 2007 edition, but just comparing the preface from the 1st and 2nd, I see a few interesting changes and want to remind you that all a publisher needs to declare a book a NEW edition is to change 10% of the book.

10 % can constitute revising or adding a single chapter to a 10 chapter book. But I'd be curious to learn if the following types of changes consistute changes.

Example - from the Preface of Myers 1st Edition Psychology (1986):

My goals in writing this book can be reduced to one overriding aim: to merge rigorous science with a broad human perspective in a book that would engage both the mind and the heart.

From the Preface of Myers 2nd Edition Psychology (1989):

My goals in writing this book can be reduced to one overrising aim: to merge rigorous science with a broad human perspective in a book that engages both the mind and the heart.

Interesting change of wordage there -- the second is a bit tighter, a bit more concise, so I'll give the editors of the book that. But does that minor tweak in style constitute one of the changes making it 10% change?

Similarly, the Preface numbered points of 8 priciples are flipped around.

Consider - 1st edition:

1) To put facts in the science of concepts
2) To exemplify the process of inquiry
3) To be as up-to-date as possible
4) To integrate principles and applications
5) To enhance comprehension by providing continuity
6) To teach critical thinking
7) To reinforce learning at every step
8) To provide organizational flexibility

2nd edition:

1) To exemplify the process of inquiry
2) To teach critical thinking
3) To put facts in the science of concepts
4) To be as up-to-date as possible
5) To integrate principles and application
6) To enhance comprehension by providing continuity
7) To reinforce learning at every step
8) To provide organizational flexibility

Well, at least 7 and 8 are in the same spot as in previous years -- but someone please tell me the reason why the exact same principles have been flipped around? Is that to meet ye olde 10% edition change requirements? And how much more of the same type of unsubstantial types of changes occur throughout the rest of the book? IE, chapters flipping around, or changing titles, etc.

It looks to me like a little bit of smoke and mirrors is going on here. But it's interesting how, within almost every single discipline that requires a college or university textbook and across the 5 main publishing giants that are producing these textbooks, there's an overwhelming cycle of 3 years between edition updates. Is collusion too strong a word to use here? It likely is, but it does nicely capture what seems to be an intense desire to deceive or mislead, both in the actual pedagogical requirement to update a textbook and in the costs associated with such updating.

Sure, there are cases where examples and pictures need to be updated. When seeing instructional videos (like the one that Fran and I saw a few years ago during a parenting preparation "course" we attended) we often laugh when we see people in their cool dude 1970's clothing. So sure, drawing on newer photographs and examples is likely a good thing. But the truth is, in most cases, particularly at an introductory level, the content is the same. I mean, if there's a picture of a young man standing in a 1970's leisure suit it's understandable to replace that picture in a textbook with a student wearing those stupid low never-ending hanging ass jeans that are popular (you can tell I've never been much into popular fashion) -- but it's hard to tell if that cross-section of the human brain defining various lobes was created in the 70's rather than in 2007. While fashion has continually changed I don't think the actual shape or structure of the brain has evolved all that much in 30+ years.

Okay, so my ranting and frustration about this situation aside, the textbook publishing industry as we know it needs some serious investigation and analysis done so we can bring it all back to the basics: Students require a reasonable balance between quality and affordability for academic materials.

And I am confident with the brilliant young minds I spent three days sharing ideas and strategies for improvement with, that groups and efforts such as those seen in CRAM are going to help drive the industry in exactly that direction.