This Could Be the Year of Digital Textbooks, if Students Accept Them - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Most of the article is on Kindle ebooks, which are TA. But there's also this: "One textbook publisher simply gives away online copies of textbooks, in the hope that enough students will still opt to buy print copies. That's the business plan of Flat World Knowledge Inc., which says it has persuaded 400 professors to try its books this semester. Eric Frank, chief marketing officer, says those who adopt the textbooks in their courses can make changes to customize them. The company has spent about $150,000 on each of the 11 online textbooks it offers, Mr. Frank says. Anyone can read the books free online, but students can buy a black-and-white print version for about $30, or a color copy for about $60. About 65 percent of the students in courses that require the 'open textbooks,' as they are called, have bought some product from the company, he reports. (One popular item is a printed study guide.) 'We think we'll get to 70 or 75 percent,' he says."