Bookstore contract shows discrepancy

The contract between USM and Barnes and Noble College Booksellers, Inc. limits the amount of profit the bookstore can make on textbook sales to USM students.

The Student Printz obtained a copy of the contract between USM and Barnes and Noble College Booksellers Inc. Friday following a Freedom of Information request. The contract addresses textbook pricing specifically, saying “new textbooks will be sold at no greater than the publisher’s list price or a 25 percent gross margin on net priced books, inclusive of restocking fees, return penalties and freight surcharges.”

Members of The Student Printz staff performed an informal random audit of 15 textbook prices, finding at least one text currently being sold at a considerably higher rate than the list price.

The sixth edition of “Medical Terminology Systems: A Body Systems Approach,” by Barbara A. Gylys, is the required text for HPR218 classes. Its list price is $54.95 in the current Nebraska Book Company Buyer’s Guide. Campus Book Mart in Hattiesburg and Barnes and Noble bookstores at Mississippi State and William Carey sell the book for its list price.

However, the Barnes and Noble at USM sells the book for $62.80 – a 12.5 percent markup over list price.

When asked about the discrepancy, John Byxbe, assistant director of contractual services for USM, contacted managers at Barnes and Noble at USM, who forwarded the question to corporate headquarters for clarification. No response was available at press time. Byxbe said his own audits each semester have not turned up any discrepancies in pricing on textbooks at USM.

The hodgepodge of terminology applied the bookselling industry makes a clear picture of USM’s Barnes and Noble’s pricing structure difficult to determine. Understanding it requires definition of key terms:

Net-priced books are those purchased from publishers, which do not have a list price.

Gross margin is a term for the amount of markup on a book. Byxbe said it is “an industry standard that gives indication in terms of profit. It does not take into consideration production costs, labor, utilities or overhead. “

Publishers provide booksellers with either a list price or a suggested net sale price. List prices are retail prices – what the student would pay for a textbook.

Susan Riedman, vice president of corporate communication for Nebraska Book Company, said if the book does not have a list price, publishers suggest a retail price, which takes into consideration the industry standard for markup.

The suggested retail price does not have to be followed by the bookstore; the USM-Barnes and Noble contract says the book price can be marked up 25 percent margin over the net price of selling the book.

Byxbe explained that some books cost more to produce.

“Custom textbooks and looseleaf course packets cause the net price of classroom reading material to increase,” he said. “Royalties paid to USM departments of faculty also contribute to that cost.”

Amy Miller, chair of USM’s Department of Anthropology and Sociology, said professors in that department worked with publishers to design a custom text to better suit the courses taught at USM. Part of the negotiation included a royalty for the department.

“There is a royalty associated with (the custom textbook) in part because we earned it; you know, we did a lot of hours of work on it,” Miller said. “What we do with our royalties is put them in a special account that we can then use for taking students to conferences to present papers and things like that, because we have no money.”

Byxbe said some faculty think custom textbooks save money, but that is not the case.

“Many faculty will sometimes enter into agreements with publishing companies, and the companies who want to sell a product will sometimes misquote a price… Royalties do drive prices up because publishers have to pass that [cost] on,” Byxbe said.

He said looseleaf and custom textbooks cannot be sold back to Barnes and Noble, and that also creates a loss for students who could otherwise sell a new textbook back for 50 percent of its value.

The USM-Barnes and Noble contract indicates course packets and textbooks with “restrictive or non-returnable policies” may only be priced up to a 30 percent gross margin.

Byxbe did say that Barnes and Noble personnel, the university and the USM faculty all work to find the lowest textbook prices for students. He said he is open to talking to anyone unsettled by textbook prices and will continue to work with faculty, staff and students to resolve any further concerns.