E-books?

Textbooks are expensive.

I know, I know--so what's new?

My daughter, a first-year student at VCSU, spent $287 and some change for two books. Thank heavens she has a mom in academia who was able to let her borrow her desk copies for English and for Speech (YES, I actually let her do this! Sorry, but a teacher needs to save a buck here and there...).

And thank heavens she was able to test out of her computer class.

Why do we, as instructors, do this to our students?And why do publishers do this to the students?

Well, when an author signs a contract to write a textbook, they are signing their life away.

Okay, that may be an exaggeration.

But often the authors promise to update the books every two years. This means a new edition to the books every two years. And yes, this means that used books become obsolete every two years.

Why? Well, publishers are for-profit businesses. Used books don't provide any income for the publishers. New books, do.So do the authors get rich? No, for each book sold, they get about 10% of the cost of that book. Do bookstores get rich? No, they get about 30% of the cost of that book.That means 60% goes to the publisher. But remembr that part of that goes to editors, printers, binding, promotional materials, reviewers, and other expenses.

As the world becomes more digital, though, online textbooks are becoming more popular.

E-textbooks, which can be read online or on such devices as Kindle, are accessed for a short while, but then access can be limited after a specific amount of time.

The benefit to textbook companies is that the books are not sold back to the bookstore--thus there are no used books in circulation. Publishers will make money with every "book" sold.E-books.

Hmmmm... There's something about the feel of paper between my hands. There's something about the feel of a cover, the size of the letters, the tangible touching of a book.

For textbooks, I write in them! I react! I underline and highlight! I circle and cross-reference. I am used to reading text on a screen. I have become quite adept to it in the ten years I have been teaching classes online.

But again, there is nothing like having that paper in my hands.

Will I be making the switch?

I have learned that when it comes to technology, never to say "never." And right now I feel like my mom probably felt when she was my age and I was trying to teach her how to program her VCR.

But for now, give me paper. Give me ink. I'll continue to "pay the price" in purchasing books...

...well, at least for this year....

Social Networking: Not just for the private citizen anymore...

Last week a colleague at VCSU posted random messages on people's Facebooks. "Go to this address, (lists the url) and find out who has been checking out your site," or "Learn how to make $100 a day by just posting on Facebook. Go to..."

She didn't post these messages.

Some virus or worm got into her account and took over her names. Or something got into one of the quizes she took (where it says it will download all the names in her friend area) and sent these type of messages.

I haven't seen that happen very much on Facebook. But as more and more companies see the possibilities of Facebook, we may be innundated with these types of messages.

In an article in USA TODAY, the author reports on several clever marketing methods used by businesses via Web 2.0 tools. For example, Ford picked 100 bloggers and gave them Ford Fiestas to drive. The catch was they had to use social media tools to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Fiesta via social networking tools. They blogged. They tweeted. They uploaded videos, and they facebooked. What a clever way to get the material out.

According to this article, more than 300,000 businesses have a presence on Facebook. Will this work? I know I am a "fan" of a few businesses, such as Red Raven and Zandbroz. I get posts almost daily from some of them. And it's getting to be too much.

So is social media in marketing effective? This next year will be a year to watch.