Entries Tagged 'Publishing' ↓

An HTML version of Getting Real is now available on their web site. I highly recommend reading it.

Thanks to open courseware from M.I.T., you can now study along at home in your skivvies and become a genius in your spare time.

The Secret

There are high quality digital versions available for over half off the normal cost. With VitalSource textbooks, you also get note taking and highlighting and powerful search capabilities to go along with all that extra change jingling in your pockets.

The Costs

Let’s take for example Cay Horstmann’s 1248 page tome on introductory computer science, Big Java, 2nd Edition. If you buy this textbook from the publisher, Wiley, you will pay full price which they have listed as $89.95.

Perhaps we should look at Amazon.com? On Amazon, you can get it for $86.95. Hmmm…a whopping $3 off.

Perhaps a college bookseller would be a cheaper way to go… On ecampus.com, you can get the book for $87.73 (standard, new), $83.35 (eVip, new), $62.07 (eVIP, used), eBook (unavailable).

Ok, so now we’re getting somewhere on price at least. If you can figure out how to become one of those VIPs then you can get the used book for a third off. One curious thing is that they say that the ebook is unavailable. Well, that’s true if you are shopping at ecampus.com. However, perhaps you might like to know that Wiley publishing is a VitalSource partner and there actually is an ebook available right now for download.

If I load up my Bookshelf client and poke around their store, I can see clear as day that I can buy a shiny new digital version of this very book for…wait for it…

$43.49

Pretty amazing, huh? Something to keep in mind the next time you are shopping for textbooks. You should at least take a look over there and see what’s what.

Better Books

So check out the Ruby on Rails powered VitalSource Store sometime. You may just find that there is a better way to learn while saving money at the same time.

UPDATE:

The VitalSource Store now supports web buying as well!