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Wednesdav, September 14, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
TEXTBOOK TRAUMA
Hundreds of students still waiting for book arrival
By Cindy Harger Kansan staff writer
After two weeks of class, Krista Speaks still can't buy her book for Geography 104.
The bookstores are out of the text, and they aren't expecting the second order to arrive for another week and a half.
"I probably wouldn't be reading it anyway, but yet I just is kick of sorry not to have it after two weeks of school. They don't teach me semine." At least the teachers are being cool about it because there are 150 others who don't have it yet.
Speaks and some of her classmates have been wondering what a number of frustrated students would each request to read. To order enough copies of the textbooks, especially when the faculty is asked to provide copies of classmates and book requests, please call 612-534-7890.
Steve Jewett, manager of texts at the KU Bookstore, said that the most common reason for running out of books was that faculty didn't provide information early enough or that they gave inaccurate enrollment estimates.
"From our perspective, it's a situation where, ultimately, the system has broken down in some way. It's
regrettable," Jewett said.
The RU Bookstore asks for orders by mid-October for the spring semester and by mid-April for the fall semester. Ordering dates came in about a month later.
Grewett said that no class or department consistently caused problems but that all departments and faculty needed to get their orders on in time.
He said that another reason the store sometimes ran out of books was because it underestimated how many books the Jayhawk Bookstore would
"We have a working knowledge of their habits and trends," he said. "We make some assumptions, but we understand an official relationship with them."
"We decide on a number if we underestimate, and the Jayhawk Bookstor does the same thing, then we have to wait." We have to get a book, or they have to wait."
Bill Muggy, owner of the Jawhak Bookstore, said that estimating how many books to order was difficult because, as a private business, he was not allowed detailed enrollment information. He has to pay the Uptake fee for each class and these classes will be using, and he is denied updated enrollment information.
"We will stock what we think is
Students always have complained about the price of books, but the KU Bookstore makes only a small percentage of its profits from book sales, a bookstore official said.
By Cindy Harger Kansas staff writer
Book sales bring small profit, stores say
Kansan staff writer
"There's no money in books. We do make money, but we don't make much money," said Steve Jewett, manager of texts at the KU Bookstore. "We are making more on T-shirts that say 'Champs' than texts. We have to sell sweatshirts and all the other things to make a
Jesset said that most textbooks at 25 percent more than the cost. That means that when a student pays $30 for a new text, the store usually earns $7.50.
However, Jewett that freight and personal costs must be taken out of that amount.
"I wonder sometimes if the students know the book industry is a business," said Randy Parker, assistant general manager at the store. He can assist in turn a profit so the whole union can be non-profit.
*Monies generated by the bookkeeper into the bank for all the union services like SUA, FSA and AFL*.
Parker said that the store preferred, from a selftish standpoint, to carry used books because the profit margin was better, and freight costs were smaller.
The KU Bookstore will buy books from students at 50 percent of the retail price when the book was new, he said. The bookstore then will sell it for 75 percent of the retail price.
Jewett said a national wholesale company dealt in used books conducted the back-buy.
deewett that books were delayed occasionally because of a mistake made by the publishers or the wholesale book company.
respectable." Muggy said "There will always be situations where we've guessed incorrectly, or the KU bookstore didn't get their order."
The wholesale company usually will buy the used books from students at 25 percent of the retail price. Then they sell the books to other bookstores, usually for twice that amount.
Once the KU Bookstore's used-book needs fill, the company will purchase books with its own library.
Bill Muggy, owner of the Jahvyk Bookstore,
conducts his own book buy-backs. He pays
students 50 percent of the retail price of the book
used books for 75 percent of the retail price.
Muggy said he made an average of 20 percent on new book sales.
"That doesn't take into account that 25 percent of that pay just for freight and another 25 percent for delivery."
"Occasionally we will get the wrong order. Those kinds of things happen," he said. "We're dealing with human beings, and human beings make mistakes. People have to understand that."
"If we're sold out, we will contact the wholesaler first. If they have it, they can usually get it to us in 36 hours. If there aren't any used
For those who anxiously are awaiting their texts, Jewett said that they
should check with the store every couple of days. Even though the signs on the empty shelves read two weeks, orders usually don't take that long.
He said that if the store error or the books were needed immediately he would have the books shipped by an overnight air service or by an over-night air service.
copies, then we have to go back to the publisher, and, in that case, it is going to take 10 days to two weeks." Jewett said.
BOOKS
Continued from p. 1
Cogger doesn't like the way the used books reach the market.
"We get two dozen complimentary books a year for review purposes, and they plop in our offices. When we go to them, we then them to the KU Library," she said.
"The wholesalers roam the halls buying the complimentary texts. I think its unethical," he said.
At first glance, this appears to be just another used textbook. But when is revealed, some used books for sale at the KU Bookstore and the stickler is pulled off, an "Examination Copy. Not For Sale" message Jayhawk Bookstore are complimentary in disguise.
Cogger said that he knew a couple of professors who wrote to publishers asking for texts so they could sell them.
wholesale companies.
"We cannot control the stressors, and we don't see the pattern," Parker said. "We feel we don't have the time to examine each and every detail."
"It's strictly a cash transaction. They don't keep records so the IRS can't trace the money," he said.
However, he said the bookstore still might have some complimentary copies in stock because they bought used books from the national
Not everyone in the textbook industry thinks that selling complim-
tary copies is always wrong
Parker at the KU Booksale said the store would not buy compilations considered it wrong. State employees are not allowed to use their positions on the booksale website.
But Cogger wasn't worried about his royalty losses. He said that because his book would be an introductory text, which has a large student market, the company gave him more money to impact in comparison to total sales.
The Jayhawk Bookstore will buy books that are marked as complimentary copies from faculty unless the faculty member has been actively soliciting the books for profit.
Bill Muggy, owner of the store, said such solicitation occurred only in recent years. Mr. Muggy said the complimentary copies were still books that the students could get for free.
"The books may have the marks of a complimentary copy, but in my mind, the recipient can do whatever he wants with it because it came as a gift."
In addition, sales of complimentary copies benefit students because they provide many used copies of new books, he said.
"I can think of an English book adoption where close to 100 used copies were available for campus,"
Muggy said.
nowarow is an assistant to the president for marketing at MBS Textbook Exchange in Missouri, a wholesale company that buys and sells used texts. He said the problems didn't he with the professors or bookstores but rather with the authors and their marketing efforts.
The publishers are making a big deal out of it and putting pressure on faculty and bookstores because they don't want to be controlled in control! They do. Howard said
He said most of the complimentary copies were sold because they were sent to professors who didn't ask for them and didn't want them. Sometimes the professor receives several copies of the same book.
"The vast majority of complimentary copies out there are bought from unsuspecting professors who get on with their jobs and publish in the publishers." Howard said. "Some will pool the books and give them to libraries, and some sell them to universities, and some sell them to customers."
The professor is morally, legally
and ethically in the right and can do whatever he wants with them because he did not ask for them."
ouid said that his company didn't buy the books directly from the professors. Instead, a network of independent buyers buys books from college campuses and sell them to larger companies.
Because much disagreement on the ethics of selling complimentary texts exists, many universities and colleges are trying to establish regulations.
University and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington ruled in early 1987 that selling complimentary texts was unethical and unprofessional for faculty. The senates urged their university at odds to discourage book pannes and solicitors from purchasing the texts.
The faculty senates at Drake
Bob Jerry, chairman of KU's University Senate Executive Committee, is a presidential assistant for SenEx. I don't think that KU had any particular reason to change his appointment.
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