OpenStax Deal With College-Stores Group Will Trim Textbook Prices

The open-source textbook publisher OpenStax College, based at Rice University, has cut a distribution deal with a subsidiary of the National Association of College Stores that will lower prices on print versions of OpenStax textbooks.

OpenStax, a two-year-old nonprofit venture, offers open-source textbooks that are free online and that cost from $30 to $54 in print versions. Print prices are expected to drop by about 2 percent in 2015, thanks to the agreement with college-stores association. The deal will save the publisher shipping costs and includes distribution to 3,000 college stores around the nation.

The partnership, announced on Monday, comes as OpenStax prepares to begin publishing “its biggest-impact titles to date,” according to a news release. The titles target courses that enroll more than a million students at American colleges each year, such as precalculus, psychology, and U.S. history.

The partnership with the stores association will help widen access to higher education “by putting both these and our existing titles into the hands of as many students as possible,” Daniel Williamson, managing director of OpenStax, said in the release.