Since its inception in 1987, TAA members have held the problems of complimentary copies and used textbooks to be among the most worrisome and aggravating ones of the profession. An historical look at TAA's fight against the sale of complimentary copies can be found in the Media Center: click here

Stomp the Comp e-pamphlet and door signs

TAA has developed an e-pamphlet that explains toÊfaculty why they shouldn't sell complimentary copies to book buyers. The e-pamphlet, titled "Stomp the Comp," and its accompanying sign that faculty can post on their doors to ward off book buyers, are available on the TAA website as downloadable and printable PDFs.

"TAA has long lamented the sale of complimentary copies," said TAA President John Wakefield. "With this e-pamphlet, we are hoping to bring the issue back to the forefront, by sharing valid reasons why faculty should refrain from selling complimentary copies to book buyers."

The selling of complimentary copies, said Wakefield, has a detrimental effect on textbook authors and publishers, who receive no profit from these sales. Complimentary copy sales also contribute to the used book problem, he said.

The e-pamphlet outlines those reasons, and uses editorial-style cartoons that depict a faculty member disposing of unwanted complimentary copies the correct way (by donating them to a library or mailing them back to the publisher) and the wrong way (by shipping them off to a book reseller).

Download e-pamphlet PDF

Download door sign PDF

What to do with unwanted examination copies

Here are some suggestions for what to do with unwanted examination copies, from TAA's Executive Director, Richard Hull:

1. Don't open boxes of books that you are not expecting (e.g. from orders you have placed). Mark them "Return to Sender" and give them back to the postal service.

2. Write publishers to ask for a stack of postpaid mailers for return of unwanted comp copies.

3. Put unwanted comp copies in a departmental library for other faculty to examine; circulate a list of the books you receive and ask if any one wants them.

4. Write a review for your particular field's journal (mine has one called Teaching Philosophy) of the book.

5. Have an arrangement with a colleague at a local other school who would like to look over your unwanted desk copies.

6. Ask your faculty senate to hold comp copy drives for distribution of books to third world countries' educational institutions' libraries that cannot afford to buy them.

7. Tear off the covers and recycle the paper in your campus paper recycling system.

8. Send a standard letter to publishers of unwanted texts that you would never adopt asking that they remove your name from their distribution lists.

The point of all of these measures is to keep comp copies from being sold by used book dealers to students, thereby depriving authors and publishers of the potential of at least one and probably half a dozen or more new book sales. For once a desk copy gets into the system of used book sales, it will be resold and resold until either it falls apart or a new edition is widely adopted.

More suggestions on what to do with comp copies:
Click here for member suggestions