Why do textbooks cost so much? |
Posted: April 30, 2018 |
If you ask a publisher or a bookseller, the price is not so much. Another song is if you do it to a father: as an example, the books of 1st of ESO in a school in Madrid cost more than 350 euros. What explains the price of textbooks?
Why Do Textbooks Cost So Much? Is it an incunabulum to quote on these forks? Or does it contain, in this case, unpublished texts by Cervantes that had never before seen the light?
Jokes aside, the truth is that the rentrée represents a good bite in the domestic economy. Only in books, the one that writes, serves as an example, has spent 360 euros for the course of 1º of ESO in a concert school of Madrid. Without counting uniforms, school supplies, etc. What explains that textbooks have these exorbitant prices? With the help of an expert, we dissect the price of one of them, at the time, the previous language, but before getting into work we must clarify several terms: there are two types of price for books, fixed and free.
The fixed price assumes that the publisher communicates to the Ministry of Education and Culture price of the book and that amount who sells it cannot go down more than 5% (it is done to protect publishers and distribution channel). However, compulsory education books, understood as Primary and Secondary, have a free price. That is, you can put the price that strikes you: "75% of the school market is free price," says José María Lucía, owner of educandoo, online bookstore specialized in the return to school.
"Historically, the sector has made a lot of money with textbooks - remember that Polanco made his fortune like that - but this changed when the loan system was established and more than half of the students in Spain have this system," he says. What is this system? It is applied by some Autonomous Communities, such as Andalusia, where schools have a nominated book check per student: "The father will buy the books and pay part of the amount with that check", clarifies Lucia. The books then stay in school and are inherited by other students (at least those who can, not the practical ones of cards). Obviously, this system made pupa in the accounts of publishers and is no longer all jauja as before...
What explains the price of the textbook then? Let's go in parts: the cost of printing (paper, manufacturing, storage) is between 10% and 20% (if we took the previous price would be 4.6 or 9.2 euros, respectively). Then we have to add what represents a big game for publishers: marketing and the commercial network. If the book is not presented, it is not taught, it does not move ... the teacher does not prescribe it and it is not sold, hence the importance of this section.
Santillana, for example, can have about 250 people dedicated to this. This item is between 20% and 40% of the price of the book, "says Lucia. If we continue with our accounts, between 9.24 euros and 18.48 euros. There is also the cost of content development, another 20% or 30% (other 9.24 and 13.8 euros). "All this leaves a margin for the publisher, so far all costs have been between 10% and 15%," he adds (4.6 and 6.93 euros).
Thus, if we shuffled the lower percentages we would have totals in the price of our book, until now, of 27.68 and 48.4 euros. The profit of the distribution channel and the booksellers are still lacking. "The bookseller takes between 20% and 30% of the book's recommended price (9.24 and 13.8 euros)." Eye, that part of this amount may not go to the bookstore but that margin serves to make rebates to the buyer: "Part of that percentage can go in discounts that you do to the final buyer to be able to capture it", says Lucia.
All of the above, hairpin up or hairpin down, represents the price of your child's textbook. They are expensive? "Yes, they are expensive, but there are studies that show that for every money spent on textbooks and school supplies the double goes in other items like uniforms", concludes Lucia. Bring your hands to your head and break the piglet...
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