This afternoon someone came by my office, introduced herself, and said she was “buying desk copies”.
Desk copies, if you don’t know, are free text books that publishers send to professors and lecturers in the hopes that they’ll use their textbook for a class which generates lots of sales, of course. If the professor chooses to use the book, they now don’t have to pay for a copy. If they choose not to, they often still use them as a resource. Usually the prof has to request the desk copy themselves, but sometimes they are sent unsolicited. Some universities hold book fairs, where publishing reps will give away copies then-and-there to swoon professors.
I didn’t happen to have any on hand, so we didn’t get into exactly how much she was offering or why, but isn’t this likely a scheme to buy them on the cheap and schlep them over to the bookstore resell them as used books? A desk copy is almost always identical to the student copy - right down to the ISBN. Only a few are instructor’s editions.
She left and went one office down, where I then overhead the neighboring faculty hem and haw over the ethical concerns of taking money for books they received for no cost. Which is understandable, as there is an implied understanding of [Zoidberg]Here’s a free book you’d like to choose for your class, maybe?[/Zoidberg] (squid pro quo, lol) But on the other hand, they’re often thrown away or set out in a “freebie” box.
I’d imagine she’s paying a flat rate, like five bucks a book, and then selling them to the bookstore for the going rate they’re paying for certain used texts.
Am I on the right track? What do you think about the ethics of this potential scheme?