I have been in college for about two years, now, and this was the first year I experienced a professor who asked me to buy a book for his class that he himself wrote. Now, I am not opposed to buying textbooks for school, as overpriced as they are. However, I am not OK with paying an unnecessary amount on a single book so my professor can make a profit off of me.
I think I pay enough money as it is to attend the school I go to, and I also think my professors are paid enough. There is no reason I should be spending $45 on his self-written book, along with having to purchase the actual course textbook for that class, which costs me around $100. This is just exploitation. It is not my fault, nor my concern, you can’t make enough sales selling your book elsewhere, so I have to make up for that. And the catch? This book is needed for a 12-page term paper I have to write, and that counts for 30 percent of my grade. If I fail to give into his pitch, I lose out by failing the class. In conclusion, I have no choice but to waste my well-earned money on a book that is probably a waste of my time.
It wouldn’t be such a problem to me if I could buy this book elsewhere, cheaper, or if it was even less expensive. But of course, the only place that sells this book is my school’s bookstore, which is the most expensive place to buy textbooks. I’m not even paying $45 for some long, lengthy material. This book is merely 179 pages long. I pay about the same for textbooks that are around 300 plus pages. See my concern, here? And I can almost guarantee I’m not the only person who has been aggravated before because they had to pay to read whatever uninteresting material it was that their professor wrote.
I understand that textbooks are a part of the curriculum and a part of school, and that there isn’t a way to opt out of buying them. That doesn’t mean that some professors should be allowed to exploit their students by forcing them to overpay for their own self-published books -- especially when their response to you saying you can’t afford it is to, “spend some money.” Professors don’t seem to understand the concept that I’m a broke full-time college student who doesn’t exactly have money to spend.
One day, I hope we can live in a world where our schools aren’t allowing professors to force these books upon us and make a profit off of us. I hate to break it to these professors, but if your books aren’t making you money in regular stores, then it is likely that nobody is interested in them in the first place -- let alone, your students.
