Abstract
Inflation-adjusted tuition and fees in education have risen for decades. College textbook costs have risen as well. The authors discuss reasons for higher textbook costs. The development and use of encyclopedic introductory textbooks creates higher monetary cost for students and higher nonmonetary cost for students and teachers, from increased text-course friction. One method to lower costs is the custom, professor-written online textbook. Development issues, such as curriculum coordination, course organization, copyright, institutional cooperation and contractual agreements, pricing, and revenue distribution, are discussed in the business college context. Additionally, student opinion on whether the text was a valuable learning tool is presented and discussed.