While studying for midterms last quarter, Prajwal Ciryam and Alex Leung found themselves returning constantly to a common subject of complaint — the high prices for books at Norris Bookstore.

They spent the rest of the night developing the plan for NF Booksellers, Inc., an online bookstore they say will provide textbooks for cheaper prices. The founders, Ciryam, Leung and Arpan Patel, envisioned a service that would save students money and still deliver books by the first day of class.

Once they found a supplier who could provide books for about half the price of what Norris currently offers, they decided to expand.

“All we’re trying to do is get a fair price on books,” said Ciryam, chief operating officer of NF Booksellers, an abbreviation of the play on words “Nuck Forris.”

A fair price, the founders said, is paying $45 to $65 for a book that Norris Bookstore sells for $100.

The Web site, from which all company transactions will take place, should be up in the next two weeks, Patel said.

He also said the team will start selling books for the Fall Quarter as soon as the site is in place.

A domain name has yet to be established, Patel said.

Although NF Booksellers will provide competition to Norris Bookstore, Bill Johnston — director of Norris University Center and NU’s contract administrator with Barnes and Noble, the Norris book supplier — said he wished the founders luck.

“If they can provide books at a cheaper rate than the bookstore, then I think that’s great,” Johnston said.

However, he said he worried about the customers getting what they needed.

“What happens if students need to return books?” Johnston said.

Johnston also was concerned that NF Booksellers may not be able to provide the correct editions.

“I have seen a number of organizations who have attempted to do a book exchange, and it’s hard work,” Johnston said.

The NF Booksellers site is still in development and the founders are working to find software that deals with payments most efficiently, they said.

One of the payment issues they need to consider is their plan to use a deposit system for paying for books. This system will extract an initial deposit from the student’s bank account when he or she orders a book and then withdraw the rest when he or she receives the book, said Ciryam, who serves as the Associated Student Government academic vice president.

Ciryam said he hopes to sell textbooks for as many classes as possible, but because there are so many small seminars, less than 50 percent of NU class textbooks will be available on the Web site.

But, Ciryam said, this still will reach a significant portion of campus, because the majority of the classes the site will offer books for have more than 100 students.

Another issue the founders need to discuss is how to get the books to the students. Currently their plan is to pass the books out on the first day of classes in front of each room, said Patel, the company’s chief executive officer.

However, Ciryam said the logistics are still being worked out.

“Our hope is that kids who are having trouble affording books right now will use (the site),” Ciryam said.

McCormick senior Aamer Ali said he believes NF Booksellers could fill an important niche.

“Norris has a monopoly right now. Anyone with any type of organization that comes in to compete will succeed,” he said.

Although an online book exchange currently exists where students can buy and sell used books from one another, Patel said NF Booksellers is different and better for students.

“The book exchange benefits one person — we are a business, we can offer (cheaper books) to a whole class,” Patel said.

Ali agreed that NF Booksellers would be appreciated, adding that he wouldn’t hesitate about buying from the site.

“Cheap books are cheap books,” he said.