This is a corrected version of this story.

The excitement over getting into college often fades once students and parents start to realize the costs involved. And particularly irksome is the cost of textbooks. For most students, the added expense is a boil on a bigger abscess.

Most reports show that undergraduate students can expect to pay between $700 and $1,000 annually on textbooks. Graduate students can expect to pay even more.

For many students, textbooks will be some of the most expensive books they'll ever purchase. Some titles, according to a CBS News report, can cost more than $500 if purchased new. And most students won't use the books again once they've completed the class.

During the last decade, complaints about textbook prices prompted a congressional investigation and advisory committee report to the Department of Education in 2007. And more than 30 states have looked at legislative solutions to reduce costs of college textbooks.

But solving the problem is complicated, partly because fewer colleges want the responsibility of operating their bookstores, and the publishing industry is in transition.

Most colleges and universities today contract the operation and management of their bookstores. And it's a big industry, with millions of students and faculty members across the US purchasing books every semester. Companies like Follett and Barnes and Noble are major players.

For example, Barnes and Noble manages the lion's share of college bookstores in the Rochester market. Its clients include the University of Rochester, St. John Fisher College, Nazareth College, Rochester Institute of Technology, and SUNY Brockport.

SUNY Geneseo's bookstore is operated by Follett, says Mark Scott, campus auxiliary services director. The company orders the store's entire inventory from books to snacks, and hires and manages the store's employees.

Under the majority of contracts, Scott says, the college receives a commission on most items sold in the store. And the goal, as it is with any business, he says, is profit. The store manager typically orders titles from publishers, and then prices the books to cover costs and to generate income.

"There's a markup and that varies," Scott says. "It's different at all places."

But most college administrators are aware, he says, of their students' price sensitivities.

"We hear about it all the time," he says.

Geneseo offers its students new, used, and rental options on textbooks.

"There are some students who don't want a book that anyone else has touched," says Beth Komoroske, Follett's manager for Geneseo.

There are many ways students can reduce textbook costs, but they all come with caveats.

Students can usually buy a used book at their college store and save anywhere from 10 to 50 percent. And Komoroske, like most college bookstore managers, will buy many of the books back once students are finished with them, albeit at a reduced price.

The market for used books is strong, but some students may find the notes left in the books by previous users distracting.

And there is a risk for the retailer when buying used books back from students, Komoroske says.

"Let's say we bought 20 used books back and in the next semester students don't buy them," she says. "Then we're stuck with them."

Unsold new books can be returned to the publisher, she says.

Renting textbooks is another option. The student rents a hardcopy book from the bookstore and returns it at the end of the semester, says Virginia Geer-Mentry, director of Monroe Community College Association, the organization that manages MCC's bookstore.

"It's a bit cheaper than buying a used book," she says.

While students don't have to worry about reselling the book and recouping some of their money, they still have the responsibility of returning the book in reasonably good condition.

Still, the majority of MCC's textbook purchases for 2011 were new copies with 72,834 books sold, followed by used copies with 46,766 sold.

Digital textbooks have been around for years, but they're just now hitting their stride because the technology has improved. Students buy the digital books at their bookstore and enter a code for the title into their reader device.

Some companies like Barnes and Noble have gone one step further. The company has launched NOOK Study, its own free digital study reader application. NOOK Study can be downloaded onto a PC or Mac, with no special device or tablet required. And its eTextbooks, according to its website, are 60 percent less than a new hardcopy book.

Barnes and Nobles also offers its own reader device, NOOK Reader, for about $139.

Some colleges are also experimenting with customized digital publishing. Professors can create a version of the hardcopy title that fits their specific instructional needs, and the student downloads it. For example, maybe only a few chapters of a title are needed. Or maybe no book exists on the subject, and the reading material needs to be created.

Though students have more options for reducing textbook costs than they've had in the past, the textbook market is still run to benefit the publishers and the colleges, says John McLenithan, assistant manager at Rochester Textbooks, an independent textbook retailer.

And, he says, colleges can dampen the used book market by requesting new editions when they're not needed.

"The colleges are treated like customers, while students are recipients," he says.

Chiara Inglese, a senior at Nazareth College, buys used books online through sites like Amazon.com. She says she tries not to buy anything from college bookstores.

Students have to begin looking for their required textbooks as soon as they register, she says, because finding the title and getting it delivered can take time.

Inglese says she doesn't like renting books. She says she would rather own her books than be responsible for something that doesn't belong to her. And she says she's not convinced that digital is a cost saver. If the reader device is lost or stolen, so is the textbook.