It's actually mostly the publishers, not the schools or booksellers. It's a constant source of frustration to schools to be told a familiar edition is out of print and their students will have to buy a higher priced new edition, and faculty will have to revise their course planning for a new edition. And the booksellers would love to sell more used books, as the profit margins are much higher than with new books. It's the publishers that keep updating to new editions and taking the older editions out of print so they can sell more books, since if everyone kept using the same books/same editions, the used market (for which publishers and authors receive no payments) would overtake the sales of brand new books.
That makes perfect sense Malcolm. Don't many of the schools though contract the book store biz to retailers these days? Both of my kids college stores are operated by Barnes & Noble and we were told at my daughters school, by students there during orientation, that when B&N took over the store, they stopped buying used books completely, regardless of revised editions. That's why I was under the assumption that schools and booksellers had something to do with this.
It is, and I'm sure there are cozy arrangements between some booksellers and publishers. Neither can really exist without keeping the other happy. But I still think it's mostly the publishers pulling the strings. They are the ones who keep regularly bringing out new editions. I don't think booksellers care which edition is on their shelves. The Barnes & Noble near me (regular retail store, not a college bookstore) has a whole room dedicated to sales of used books, so I don't think B&N has anything in particular against selling used books.
Thanks Malcolm. My son did what you suggested whenever possible and it helped save some money which is always good. I totally agree with you about the publishers pulling the strings. It makes complete sense that they'd be the engine behind it rather than what I initially posted.
