Ive been approached by a publisher to consider a “custom” textbook. What are the pros and cons of this textbook format from the Bookstores point of view?
Custom books allow you to select only the materials that you plan on using in your course – usually only a portion of the regular textbook. Because students pay only for what they actually need, custom books may prove to be less expensive. In addition, if you re-adopt a custom book for multiple terms, students can enjoy the same saving as on traditional textbooks. And, when you use a custom edition, you do not need to worry about changing your textbooks immediately when a new edition is published. However, because only students on our campus use the custom edition, we are limited in our acquisition of used copies. With traditional textbooks, we can access the larger used book market, in addition to our local market.
