First of all, I'm an adjunct, you're wasting your breath, I don't have the authority to pick your painfully unoriginal book that costs too much and has uselessly complicated electronic supplements. Secondly, the semester literally started before you sent me this e-mail, who the fuck hasn't picked their books yet? And if you can find them, do you really want to have to provide them with customer service? Believe me, people who are still picking their books will be more annoying to you than you are to me. And lastly, you don't have the authority to "officially" welcome me back. You work for Wiley. I work for the state. So I forget where we left off with the days of the week and the thirsties versus the sippies, but if there can be a Monday Night Sippy:
Has anyone ever chosen a textbook because a textbook rep. sent some transparent inane message to their e-mail?
Q: What's the deal with the god damned textbook reps?
I am merciful to them only because I pity their poor souls. Who grows up wanting a job that involves selling books and talking to college professors?
ReplyDeleteThey're all desperate ex-realtors, trying to get their mojo back.
ReplyDeleteSiberia would be good for them.
Short answer: no. For the most part, I don't use textbooks. When I do use one, it's usually because it was heartily recommended by a colleague. Publisher-supplied uselessly complicated electronic supplements leave me cold; while my electronic whatchmacallits are, according to some of my students, needlessly long and complicated, they are at least my own.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Good to hear from you, wombat! How's the new job going? Are you also adjuncting?
I dunno, but I always feel sorry for them; they're like the last living door-to-door salespeople.
ReplyDeleteThe continued existence of book reps is prima facie evidence that textbooks are grossly and artificially overpriced. I drive them batty: they ask what kind of courses I teach and what books I might need, and I tell them at great length, but it's never the kind of thing they're hawking.
ReplyDeleteI'm this close to ditching the one survey textbook I use in favor of primary sources and secondary readings. They really don't want to hear that.
Somebody at the other end of the hallway told a book rep that many followed my lead and that when I picked a book they would use the same one.
ReplyDeleteNow he just won't go away.
Oh, that's brilliant! I'm totally doing that to the woman across the hallway from me. "Oh, she basically decides which textbook we use for all the introductory classes." mwahaha
DeleteI did so love the publisher that asked me to review a textbook. I did, and I wrote a long commentary (not as positive as I'm sure they hoped for). I was allowed to keep the book (oh boy).
ReplyDeleteMonths. Months later. They emailed and asked if I had had chance to review the book. I asked if they had a chance to read their email. I took the time to prepare a detailed commentary. If they can't be bothered to read it, or they choose not to... that's on them.
I've never reviewed a text since then.
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DeleteThey're supposed to pay you to do that, and not just with a free copy of the book. I hope they did.
DeleteDon't you get paid for reviews?
DeleteNo I wasn't paid. Didn't know that then - long time ago.
DeleteI got paid for taking a survey about the general field of textbooks. I actually already use the book they're hawking, but the bonus cash was a very nice surprise (and calibrated to pay out more money per hour than I am making with a FT gig). Call me crazy, but I generally don't mind taking surveys anyhow.
DeleteThe ones who send e-mail remind me of those Nigerian e-mail scams. How do they stay in business? It may be cheap to send e-mail, even lots of e-mail, but one must also generate income. Are there really enough fools out there who send money? I suppose their continued existence shows there must be.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the door-to-door ones go, I find that an effective way to get rid of them is, whenever they come to show me their new books, I show them the one I'm writing. I always try to be polite, and sometimes they even feign interest, although sometimes they quickly point out that my book will be a competitor to theirs, which gets everything out in the open and kills the conversation. I've never used a textbook recommended to me by a rep, neither door-to-door, nor especially from spam.
At least the book reps are pleasant and professional (not to mention, young and hot). The ones that bother me the most are the people wandering around campus asking to buy used books from me. They range from homeless-looking to just slightly odd looking. My two most common visitors are a guy who is refreshingly honest. "You got that book for free so now you can sell it and pocket the money." The other has a scam (I think) in which she claims that all the books go to some village in Africa which is in desperate need of a few more copies of Brown and LeMay's General Chemistry text, latest edition.
ReplyDeleteIf I hadn't already sold my review copies online, I might negotiate with the first guy.
We've got variations on the first guy (of similar description; at least if homeless guys routinely carried bar-code scanners). Haven't seen the second, but the possibility is good to know about. We have had rashes of thefts of review/desk copies from faculty mailboxes; they now have to be kept locked up until claimed, which is, of course, considerably less convenient.
DeleteBy the way, I'm not accusing the used textbook-buyers of theft; somebody would probably have noticed that, and I've seen no evidence of that sort of dishonesty. Students are, sadly, the more likely culprits.
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ReplyDeleteI got one recently where the salesman forget to fill in the personalization fields, so it read "Dear (professors name). I hope you had a good summer. If you are still considering textbooks for (course name) ..." etc. etc. The salesperson had been very helpful to me last spring when I did need to pick a new text very quickly, so I only teased him a little bit about it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what a "college book rep misery" would look like?
ReplyDeleteI also wonder how many of them really understand the content of what they're selling (e.g. Brown and LeMay's General Chemistry text).
It must be so weird trying to sell stuff you have no idea how to use...
I got to hang out with a bunch of book reps once. They think we are goofy Doris but they like us all the same. Because we bring them paying customers.
ReplyDeleteI liked one b/c she gave me a password for something I shouldn't have had. "We" switched from a generically unspectacular textbook to a memorably bad one, from the same publisher, so she let me have access to the former so I could still use some of the visual aides.
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to get a recent BLB for years. I used to get all these crappy environmental studies books for no apparent reason, and I'd be the only one not getting the year's half-dozen new copies of BLB. [And whoever the 4th guy is. (S)He doesn't count because BL&B were the only author's when I took it 20 years ago.] I dropped hints all the time to the semiretired organic professor who was literally using them (THEM - plural - he had several years of them) to make an elaborate multi-tiered support for his houseplants. His office was like a jungle and it smelled really good. But why couldn't I have had one of those books? [Yes, I know. Because my people skills are mediocre and I'm a coward, so I never just said "hey, can you put that ficus on this crappy environmental book so I can have that slightly water-stained Brown LeMay and Bursten?"]
Anyway - I love my new job. But I'm going to take some tutoring hours at the CC. It's just the fun parts without all of the responsibility, grading, grade conflicts etc. I have to check the system for appointments and I logged on for the first time to about a thousand unread (never to be read) messages. Based on the subject lines, mostly warnings about parking situations that transpired while I was away, grade grubbing from students who finally paid their bills so they could see just how bad they actually did, and a couple of textbook pitches.
Glad to hear the new job is going well -- and that you've found a way to hold onto the fun parts of the old one. That sounds like a good deal.
DeleteI'd guess your colleague was supposed to distribute those extra BLBs to TAs, or lab instructors, or someone else (perhaps you?) and forgot. Maybe the tutoring center can get you one for reference (especially if there's any chance you might be tutoring online)?