NBC29Will the Kindle make textbooks more affordable?

Will the Kindle make textbooks more affordable?

By Mark Kantrowitz
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Ebook readers work well for pleasure reading, but need some improvements in usability before they will be able to replace textbooks on a widespread basis. The potential cost-savings are more limited than most people expect.

I am an early adopter of technology and gadgetry. I purchased two Sony PRS-500 Readers when they first became available: one for my wife and one for me. We replaced them with the Kindle 2 earlier this year. I also own a Kindle DX and the Kindle application for the iPod Touch.

(I have not, however, tried ebook readers from other competitors to the Kindle such as Irex and Plastic Logic, or the Sony Reader Touch Edition or Sony Reader Daily Edition. I expect that the touchscreen adds a more natural page-turning experience, like the iPod Touch application, but also has the same problems with fingerprints.)

These devices are great for pleasure reading. It is possible to achieve total immersion in the text, even on the small screen of the iPod Touch. They are lightweight and have a large capacity so you can carry hundreds of books with you. I often read books on the Kindle on airplanes (except during takeoff and landing when the flight attendants insist on turning off anything with an on/off switch).

Amazon has also made it very easy to buy books. The wireless download and the streamlined bookstore help feed our addiction to reading. We're buying and reading twice as many books with the Kindle compared to the Sony Reader or previous print purchases. Amazon brings the bookstore to you, making it more convenient to buy books.

Kindle DX as an Etextbook Reader

But there are still a few problems with using an ebook reader as a textbook replacement, which may interfere with widespread adoption. The Kindle DX comes closest to solving these problems so far.

The Kindle DX has a high resolution full-size screen display with native PDF support, which is important for textbooks and a much-needed improvement. The higher resolution is very easy on the eyes, as readable as print publication. I don't find the page-turning flicker to be much of an annoyance, one quickly gets used to it. But the Kindle doesn't support as many alternate ebook formats as the Sony Reader and the larger format still has a sluggish screen refresh. Converting and transferring documents to the Kindle is a little inconvenient. It would be better if there were a "print to Kindle" option or if the email transfer were free.

Color would also be beneficial since some textbooks use it to good effect in diagrams and charts. But I don't think the lack of support for color will make or break the adoption of etextbooks.

Note-Taking Limitations

Note-taking capabilities are main problem with using the Kindle DX with electronic textbooks. Most people can type at a rate of 20-40 words per minute, even hunt and peck typists. Proficient typists can reach speeds of 60 to 100 words per minute or more. On the Kindle the speed drops to 15 words per minute (20 words per minute using a personal shorthand), with the sluggish screen update quite annoying. Even the thumb keyboard on a Blackberry is faster. Contrast that with the 20 to 40 words per minute speed of handwriting on paper, and you can see why many people will still prefer print textbooks. Most people speak and read at about 150 to 200 words per minute, so even handwriting is slower than the speed of thought. The Kindle DX is just not sufficiently effective for taking notes in class in real time.

When I was in college I found that transcribing my notes nightly was an effective approach to improving my comprehension of the material. It also helped because my handwriting became unreadable after it fermented for a few days. Even with the Kindle DX I would still want to take notes on paper and transcribe them later. Perhaps Amazon could provide tools for reading and annotating etextbooks online?

The annotation software on the Kindle also lacks maturity when it comes to highlighting passages of text, cross-referencing other documents, making notes in the margin or flipping through dog-eared pages of the text. You also can't draw diagrams or arrows pointing to particular passages. There's no facility for sharing notes with other students.

The Kindle has yet to take full advantage of the opportunities for interactivity. For example, an etextbook could include interactive end-of-chapter exercises and tests and dynamically provide supplemental content as needed to enhance student understanding.

Lack of Static Page Numbers

The lack of static page numbers on the Kindle makes it more difficult to cite sources or coordinate reading assignments. The Kindle needs to have a means for displaying and jumping to a static page number in addition to the location numbers. The length of location numbers makes them a little less convenient to enter. While the concept of a page changes depending on the font size and formatting, one could still report a static page number for a given "page" of text by identifying the static page number associated with the first word on the page. Page numbers do not need to have a one-to-one mapping to be useful.

Cost Savings

The cost of printing a book on paper is a small part of the cost of publishing a book, typically less than 10% of the total price. More than half the list price of a book goes to the distributors and booksellers, who often offer slight discounts. Authors get 5% to 10%, with publishers retaining the rest.

So the real savings from electronic textbooks will not come from eliminating paper, but by cutting out the middlemen. (Eliminating paper, however, does provide a net benefit to the environment if you read more than a dozen ebooks a year.) Textbook publishers will be able to cut prices in half by selling direct to consumers. However, this savings will be more apparent than real, since students cannot sell the etextbooks back to the college bookstore at the end of the semester to recoup some of the cost. Some publishers will program the etextbooks to self-destruct after an expiration date, providing the equivalent of textbook rental. (If the etextbook evaporates, what happens to the student's notes?)

Publishers will also save money because etextbooks can be delivered on demand instead of requiring minimum print runs to be economical. This will enable the publication of niche textbooks in smaller quantities.

Ultimately etextbooks will enable publishers to become more profitable by eliminating the used textbook marketplace and by cutting costs. This will encourage more publishers to offer electronic versions of their textbooks. A critical mass of textbooks is essential for widespread adoption of etextbook readers like the Kindle DX. (The Kindle DX is also useful for business documents.) There may be some cost savings for consumers (probably a little better than breakeven), but most of the benefit will be realized by publishers. Competition from ebook readers with open formats, however, may help drive down prices.

Etextbook readers like the Kindle DX will also facilitate self-publication. Professors will be able to publish their own textbooks at lower cost directly to students and still earn a bigger profit. They will also be able to put together seamless custom collections of papers and book chapter excerpts with added commentary.

Section 112 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-315) mandated a variety of disclosures about textbooks, such as the inclusion of ISBN numbers in course syllabi and the availability of alternate less expensive formats. While this puts pressure on colleges and publishers to reduce costs, it does not otherwise facilitate the adoption of etextbooks.

Mark Kantrowitzis a nationally-recognized expert on student financial aid, student loans, scholarships and paying for college. He is the publisher of FinAid.org, the leading free web site for student aid information, advice and tools, and FastWeb.com, the most popular free scholarship matching web site.

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