When I was in college, I worked all summer, double shifts, in gross shoes and an ugly tie at the Olive Garden to pay for my course textbooks. Later when I took MBA classes, the textbooks weren’t any better, but they were even more expensive. The textbook channel of BN.com and the ability to buy used books online had just become a reality.
I have spent a fortune on textbooks that to this day live in my bookcase and include such illustrious titles as the $150 dollar Psychophysiology, the $125 dollar Native American Art and the $90 Statistics for Managers.
A relatively new start-up, Freeload Press, thinks that they have the formula to reduce the average $900/year spend on textbooks: Books + Download + Free = Freeload Press. Their mission? Liberating the textbook by publishing and distributing textbooks with ads. 
The ad dollars allows Freeload Press to provide the textbook as a free e-book. Some print versions are also available for typically 65% less than normal. Here is the list of books currently available. According to their FAQs:
Our sponsors’ message will be placed in sections of the textbook that provide natural breaks in the subject matter: front and end matter, section openers, end of chapter material and before and after appendices, index, glossaries, etc. No commercial message will appear on the same page with text material. Because this is a new way to publish, we believe the best way to see how the placement works is to download one of our books and check out where sponsorship is placed.
While Freeload Press does not come right out and say that they won’t accept ads for college staples such as beer and cigarettes, they do say that they will only accept sponsors who “understand the mission of higher education” and whose products are an “appropriate fit”, providing “a safe and smart learning experience”.
I wonder what they would think about recruitment ads?
Source: Casper Star Tribune
technorati tags: College Recruiting Freeload Press Jobs Job Search
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
How cool is that! Maybe now, I won’t have to buy the next book on OD that I’m already obsessing about
Hey Astha. I have been amazed at the amount of emails that I have received about this post in particular. Textbooks are SO expensive and the consensus of people that have written me about it is that they are absolutely willing to deal with ads in order to offset the costs.