Textbooks are an incredibly expensive part of going to college.  If you think that sounds like an exaggeration, you probably haven’t shopped for your textbooks yet (or you’re just not paying attention).  Depending on you major, you might just spend several hundred or a thousand dollars for your books – in a year!  And since this is a recurring cost, the total amount you spend can really add up.  The good news is that there are a number of strategies you can utilize to save some money, and they’re pretty simple – though not everyone employs them.

According to the National Association of College Stores (http://www.nacs.org/Research/IndustryStatistics/HigherEdFactsFigures.aspx), full-time students spend an average of $693.00 on course materials in a year.  If you’re an English major, you’ll likely have to buy MORE books, and they might be physically smaller than the books of other majors (often poetry, novels, etc. as opposed to textbooks).  If you’re an engineering major, your books may be larger and more expensive (possibly over $100 for one book).  Textbook requirements vary from major to major and, sometimes, from professor to professor.

As required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act, effective July 1, 2010, higher education institutions are required to provide students with textbook information at the time of registration.  This means that schools have to tell you what books you’ll need for every course, AND what they will cost – when you enroll.  This is most likely to be accomplished by providing links to a bookstore (most likely the college’s) or other web pages containing that information, but it will still be readily available.  Particularly in the case of elective classes, this will allow students to select courses with less expensive textbook requirements.

Here are my top ten strategies in brief (I’ll explain them in greater detail below):

1. Shop early
2. Buy used books whenever possible
3. Comparison shop
4. Purchase each book at ITS lowest price (not where the total for all your books is lowest)
5. Sell back the books you don’t want to keep at the semester’s end
6. Consider renting your books
7. Consider buying an earlier edition of the book
8. Consider sharing textbooks
9. Consider checking the book(s) out from the library or borrowing it from your professor
10. Consider an electronic reader
11. Buy school supplies somewhere other than the college bookstore 

1. Shop early – The earlier you start looking for books, the more opportunity you’ll have to find the best deal before you buy.  Within reason, of course, because specific information for one semester’s textbooks won’t be available until near the end of the previous semester.  By waiting until the last minute, you will eliminate some of your choices – like purchasing your books online and having to wait for their delivery.
2. Buy used books whenever possible – Used textbooks are cheaper than new ones (obviously), and may be “lightly” used – some people buy their books, then never use/read them.  In that case, that used textbook would be, literally, good as new!  And if you shop early, you can go through the stacks of books at the bookstore and pick the ones that haven’t really been used.
3. Comparison shop – everybody understands this is how you find the best prices, but so many students just choose a bookseller out of habit or for convenience, without regard for cost.  I helped a student last Spring find a better price on one book and saved her $68.00!  I’ve got PLENTY of things I could do with 68 bucks!  How bout you?  Do that with all your books each semester and you can realize some significant savings.
4. Purchase each book at ITS lowest price - Find the lowest price on each textbook and buy that book there.  Go a step past just finding the lowest total price and buying there.  It will take a little more time, but the benefits will be worth the work.
5. Sell back the books you don’t want to keep at the semester’s end – You’ll probably want to keep the major-related books you use in those classes, but for general education classes or other courses you won’t need to refer back to later in life, selling those books back to the bookstore is a good idea.  You need to have realistic expectations here, though.  The buyback price is often below 25%, well below!  So don’t expect to get rich.  But a little money is better than none.  Shop around at buyback time too.
6. Consider renting your books – More and more bookstores and web sites are offering the opportunity to rent textbooks.  When you purchase books and then sell them back at the end of the semester, you are basically renting them anyway.  By renting your books, you see additional savings because the book seller knows what books they’ll be getting back, and generally when, thus reducing their risk.  Save big when you rent textbooks with the market leader in textbook rentals. 
7. Consider buying an earlier edition of the book – As long as you check with your professor to ensure there isn’t new information you’ll miss, an older edition of a book may contain nearly everything the newer one does and be available much cheaper.  You are more likely to need an online retailer who does more volume sales to find older edition, than to find one at a local bookseller.
8. Consider sharing textbooks – This one would be a little bit difficult for me because I would want the freedom to have access to my books at any time.  However, if you are good at planning, good at sharing, and willing to be flexible so both you and the other person have access to the book at roughly the same time, this option could save you a lot.
9. Consider checking the book(s) out from the library or borrowing it from your professor – before the semester starts, contact your professor to see if they have a spare copy of the text they’d allow you to use or if they placed reserve copies of the text in the library (often they’ll have a small number of certain textbooks available for short-term checkout).  Again, you’ll have to plan ahead and hope there aren’t too many others doing the same thing as you…
10. Consider an electronic reader – Check with your college to see if you are likely to need (or have the opportunity to use) a Kindle, iPad, Nook, or other e-reader device.  Colleges are now performing test programs where students may be given the reader and use it to access their textbooks.  More and more publishers are making books available for one or more of these devices, and colleges are investigating whether they provide measurable benefits to either the educational experience or students’ bottom lines.  Stay tuned if your college isn’t doing anything in this area, they may be soon!
11. Buy school supplies somewhere other than the college bookstore – use Wal Mart, Target, Staples, Big Lots, wherever to buy your notebook paper, pens, spiral notebooks, etc.  It will be much more expensive to buy those items at a college bookstore where they can’t buy in the quantities the big stores like Staples can (since they have to supply public school kids too).