The Standard

Issue date: 1/15/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Bazil Manietta

With the prices of textbooks on the rise, new companies like Chegg, an online textbook rental company, may give students more affordable options for their required course materials.

In 2007, the total sales of new and used textbooks will exceed $9 billion, according to James Lisk, the account executive at RLM Public Relations, the company that represents Chegg.

Since 1980, the price of college textbooks has risen at twice the rate of annual inflation. As a result, more than one-fourth of all college students do not buy all their required textbooks because they cannot afford them, Lisk said.

"Chegg was inspired by the founders' frustration with the policies and procedures of their own university's bookstore," Lisk said. "Not only were long lines and expensive books the norm, but at the end of the semester when they went to sell their used books, they were paid a small portion of the cover price."

Students who use Chegg will save an average of 70 percent on their textbooks, Lisk said. Students are also given the option to buy their books if they don't want to just rent them.

Expired editions and other books that bookstores often refuse to buy back can also be sold to Chegg.

Chegg also touts its positive environmental impact.

If a publisher sells one million copies of a 250-page book, it would take 12,000 trees to produce the necessary amount of copies for just that one title, according to Lisk. Chegg promises to plant a tree for every textbook rented or bought.

Students need only a title, author, keyword or ISBN to search for their textbooks on Chegg.com.

In order to rent or buy a book for a semester or quarter, Chegg requires that a student create an account. Once all the needed books are obtained, Chegg will send the books in the mail.

According to its Web site, once an order is placed, it will take anywhere from two to six business days for a student to receive his or her textbooks.

Once the student is finished with the books at the end of the semester or quarter, he or she can send them back to Chegg. This is done using a prepaid label so that shipping them back is free for the student.

All supplemental materials are included with the books; however, some materials may not be available.

Chegg's Web site said there are no monthly subscription fees and no hidden charges. Each book has a different rental price. Once a student has selected his or her books, he or she has to pay the rental fee only once.

Chegg claims the average rental price to be 40 percent of the list price.

For more information about Chegg and the rental process, visit www.chegg.com.

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