International editions are one of those elusive things that many of us have heard about, but may not really have proof that they exist. Let me assure you, international editions do exist, they are real, and they are always cheaper than the real thing.
So what exactly is an international edition? Much as drug companies sell drugs in the US at a mark, and much cheaper abroad, publishing companies often have a US edition of a textbook that they’ll sell for $150, and an international edition of that same book that they will sell for $30. The only difference being the photo on the cover, or a slightly lower quality of the paper, but the important stuff, the actual text, is identical in both editions.
Finding international editions may take some time, but it is worth it when you are able to get the same book as the person sitting next to you in class, new, for 80% less! The important thing to note about international editions of textbooks is that you will never find them sold in a store in the United States, not at a big box bookstore, or at your university bookstore, and after the course the university bookstore will not be willing to buy the textbook from you. If you wish to sell the textbook following the course you will need to either sell it to another student taking the course or sell it online.
The types of textbooks that are likely to have international editions are textbooks in subjects that would be taught abroad the same way they are taught in the US: many business textbooks, computer science textbooks, most textbooks in technical fields, even many medical textbooks. To locate an international textbook there are a few options. You can Google for the title of the book + international edition, or a method that is more likely to work is to do an advanced search for the book with all of the information that you have at your disposal, (title, author, and edition) excluding the ISBN. Since the ISBN of a book is printing specific, international editions of textbook will have a different ISBN, but given that they are the same edition, everything else should be the same. If an international textbook version of your textbook exists, you are most likely to have success finding it by using a textbook comparison site such as We Compare Books, because such sites search multiple US and foreign bookstores, and are more likely to display the textbook if it exists. Don’t hesitate to use the link for “More Results” (bottom right of search results) as international editions are sometimes buried deep in the results list.
