The 2008 TAA Conference Early Registration Deadline is May 1! After May 1, registration will be $245 instead of $195.
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Register
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Download and print this 2008 TAA Conference informational flyer, containing information about how to register and book your room at Harrah's; conference workshops and sessions; the Awards Ceremony; and the Conference Schedule.
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2008 TAA Conference
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Please take a minute to fill out the 2008 TAA Member Survey
Your answers will help us shape future member benefits!
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TAA Thanks Sustaining Members
David Ellenbogen and Stephen E. Gillen
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TAA Welcomes New Members
Ross Aden, Benjamin Broome, Daniel Canary, Cheree A. Carlson, Judy Cavey, Ron Cook, Suzanne L. Cook, Fred Corey, Edward Cormier, Bud Goodall, Deborah B. Gordon, Silvinia Ituarte, Mary Ellen Lepionka, Judith Martin, Stephen Moore, Thomas Nakayama, David Natharius, Blake Peterson, Claudia Sanchez, Alan Soble, Gary Stilwell, William (Wesley) Wasmundt
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TAA Gift Memberships
TAA member Linda Butler gave a gift membership to Deborah B. Gordon.
TAA member Paul Siegel gave gift memberships to Benjamin Broome, Daniel Canary, Cheree A. Carlson, Fred Corey, Bud Goodall, Judith Martin, Thomas Nakayama, and David Natharius.
Thank you Linda and Paul!
TAA members can give gift memberships for only $15.
Give a gift membership
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Publisher offering member discount on textbook authoring reference books
Atlantic Path Publishing is offering TAA members 50 percent off Self-Publishing Textbooks and Instructional Materials, by Frank Silverman, 30 percent off Writing and Developing Your College Textbook, Second Edition, and 40 percent off Writing and Developing College Textbook Supplements, both by Mary Ellen Lepionka. Silverman's book regularly lists for $32.95, and Lepionka's books regularly list for $37.95 and $19.95.
Visit TAA's Books for Purchase section
Purchase a book (members-only)
Visit the Atlantic Path Publishing website
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2008 TAA Conference
Publishers Roundtable
A Publishers Roundtable Discussion has been added to the Roundtable Discussions that will be part of the 2008 TAA Conference at Harrah's. The Roundtable Discussions will be held over a boxed lunch on Friday, June 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Publisher's Roundtable will give attendees a chance to meet with publishers/editors and ask questions, and perhaps connect on a project. The publishers/editors participating in the roundtable so far include Mary Ellen Lepionka, the founder of Atlantic Path Publishing, and the author of books and articles on academic and educational writing and publishing; and Lauren Betsos, marketing services coordinator for Cengage Learning, Engineering.
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2008 TAA Conference
What would an author-friendly royalty statement look like?
Michael Sullivan, the author of three Precalculus series with
Prentice-Hall, will lead a discussion of issues that have been raised
regarding foreign sales, bundling and custom publication, electronic
publications, cross-collaterization, and, in general, how to get
publishers to develop a royalty statement that is transparent and
understandable, during a 2008 TAA Conference session on Saturday, June
21 from 10:15 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Michael Sullivan is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mathematics
and Computer Science at Chicago State University where he taught for 34
years before retiring in 1997. Sullivan has been writing math texts for
over 30 years. He currently has 15 books in print: three Precalculus
series with Prentice-Hall and one Business series with John Wiley.
Three of his books were awarded a Texty and a McGuffey Award from TAA.
He is a member of the TAA Council of Fellows, and is currently
Treasurer of the TAA Foundation and the Immediate Past President of TAA.
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Greetings!
If you have not already done so, please take a moment to fill out our 2008 Member Survey. Your responses will help us shape current and future member benefits and services.
View the current survey results
Some of the links in this Alert are to members-only sections on the TAA website. You should have received a username and password for accessing the members-only section. If you have not, please let me know.
If you have a specific question or concern, please feel free to contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Kim Pawlak
Associate Executive Director
Text and Academic Authors Association
Send me an email
(608) 687-3106
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TAA Teleconference Series
Don't settle for a publisher's standard contract
Sign up for the free TAA Teleconference "Don't Settle for a Publisher's Standard Contract: Terms You Can & Should Negotiate", on Friday, April 25 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Central Time, moderated by authoring attorney Stephen E. Gillen.
Gillen will cover his ten tips for negotiating a publisher's standard contract, including:
- You have more leverage than you think
- Do your homework
- Determine what's important to you
- Only sell the publisher what it intends to use
- Don't leave the back door standing open
- Don't promise anything you can't deliver
- A word about royalties
- Don't take yourself out of the market
- Don't become an indentured servant
- Anticipate the unthinkable
Sign upTips, tricks for the do-it-yourself indexer
Sign up for the free TAA Teleconference,
"Tips & Tricks for the Do-It-Yourself Indexer", moderated by Seth Maislin, a professional indexer and managing partner of Potomac Indexing, Inc., on Thursday, May 8 at 1 p.m. Central Time.
Writing an index isn't just the last thing an author has to do. It's the last thing an author wants to do. Maislin has prepared a list of insider secrets to getting that index out of the way fast, and without compromising quality. This seminar is chock full of time-saving nuggets like "Leverage the TOC," "Cross-Reference? Wait-Reference!," and "Netting the Page Number Swarm." Written specifically for the do-it-yourself author-indexer, this teleconference might just pique your interest, too.
Sign up Listen to a recording of "A Coach's Perspective on Finishing a Dissertation" Teleconference moderated by Dave Harris: Listen Now
Listen to a recording of "Royalty Q&A" Teleconference moderated by Paul Rosenzweig, former president of Royalty Review Service: Listen Now
Listen to a recording of "Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar" Teleconference moderated by Tara Gray: Listen Now
Suggest Topics for the Fall TAA Teleconference Series
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TAA conducting royalty rate survey
TAA is conducting a Royalty Rate Survey to provide its textbook author members with a useful tool in negotiating new contracts and/or amending existing contracts.
The survey asks questions such as the author's name, and his or her publisher's name, discipline and level (college, high school, elementary); the main title of the book and edition; the units sold; royalty rates for domestic, foreign, and translations; number of authors and how royalties are split between them; and whether the rate was renegotiated and for what edition.
All author identifying information and that of their publisher or publishers will be held confidential. Other data will be aggregated, analyzed, and reported for the membership with no identifying information included.
"If knowledge is power, then the larger our response rate, the better armed TAA members will be when they go into future royalty rate negotiations," said TAA Executive Director Richard Hull.
The deadline for receipt of surveys is June 1. TAA plans to announce the results at the 2008 TAA Conference in Las Vegas, June 19-21. A copy of the report will be distributed to each person who fills out the survey.
Fill out the Royalty Rate Survey
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Notable Author: James Kalat
by Kim Seidel
Psychology Professor James Kalat fantasized about becoming an author as a child, although at that time he imagined novels. His dream continued at Duke University, as he began to further develop a keen interest in psychology and a curiosity about textbooks.
"When I was a freshman at Duke, I took introductory psychology under Gregory Kimble, who had written the textbook we were using," Kalat said. "It was the first time it had ever occurred to me that a person wrote a textbook. All the high school textbooks just listed the name of the publisher. And now here was a real-life person who wrote the book."
This jump-started Kalat's thinking about someday writing his own textbook. "Although it was very much in the back of my mind at that time, I did start collecting ideas about what I might do and what I might include," he said.
Read the full profile
Read more Notable Author profiles
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Authors Asking: What software do you use for revisions?
Q: "Does anyone know of a way to edit the PDF files or to put them into another program that allows additions, deletions, re-numbering of figures and sections, etc., without requiring the whole manuscript to be re-typed?"
Read members' answers
Read more Authors Asking Q&As
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TAA unveils new Texty, McGuffey logos
TAA has created new logos for its Textbo ok Excellence Award and McGuffey Longevity Award. These logos can be used by all Texty and McGuffey winners, past and present. Please link your logos to http://www.taaonline.net/awards/, or the website associated with the year that you won your award (scroll to the bottom of main awards page for the link).
Silver stickers containing either the Texty or McGuffey logo can be ordered for $40 per 100. These stickers can be used on already printed textbooks taken to conferences or sent as complimentary copies.
To purchase stickers, contact Janet Tucker at TAA headquarters at (727) 563-0020 or Send Email
Download Texty and McGuffey logo images
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Busy TAA People: Matt Stevens
Matt Stevens was interviewed by the journal of the Design-Build Institute of America, Design-Build Dateline, about his book, Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day.
Read the interview
Busy TAA People: Richard Hull
TAA Executive Director Richard Hull published the second edition of Ethical Issues in the New Reproductive Technologies by Prometheus Books in 2005, as a revised, updated, and expanded version of the first edition, published in 1990 by Wadsworth. An electronic edition of the book, self-published by Hull, is available through his website.
Hull also published an article in Free Inquiry (vol 28, nos 2&3), entitled, "Can We Survive? The Changes Required to Deal Effectively With Global Warming," with co-authors Stephen Paley and George K. Oister. He is also completing, with coauthors Paley and Oister, an academic version of the two-part article, that will appear in a volume edited by Paul Kries and Randall Osborne, Global Community, Global Security, which will be published in 2008 by Editions Rodopi.
Read about more of your fellow TAA members in the Busy TAA People section.
Share your news
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Center for Inquiry raises concerns over 'egregious' errors in civics textbook
The Center for Inquiry (CFI), an international think tank promoting science and secularism, released a 25-page report today detailing what it calls "egregious errors" sufficient enough to warrant "immediate correction," in a widely used civics textbook found in many secondary schools around the country, including advanced placement courses. CFI believes that the textbook American Government: Institutions and Policies, 10th edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) contains inaccurate and misleading statements, in particular in its analysis of global warming and certain constitutional law issues.
Read the full article
Download the CFI Report
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Texty, McGuffey Award winning publishers share comments on winning, congratulate authors
Several publishers of 2008 TAA Texty and McGuffey Award winning textbooks have shared comments on winning, and congratulated their authors.
Two publishers, W.H. Freeman and Worth Publishers, have purchased ads in the May issue of TAA's member newsletter, The Academic Author, congratulating their authors.
W.H. Freeman on winning a 2008 McGuffey for Dan Harris' textbook, Quantitative Chemical Analysis:
"W.H. Freeman is thrilled that Dan Harris has been recognized by the TAA for the McGuffey Longevity Award. His Quantitative Chemical Analysis text has long been the best-seller in this market, and has been responsible for educating well over 50 percent of the chemistry majors today. As his publisher, we have been privileged to work with Dan throughout seven editions (eleven, counting his equally influential text, Exploring Chemical Analysis) and look forward to extending that privilege for many years to come. Dan is an exemplary author both in his meticulous attention to detail and his dedication to learning from his colleagues. We would be remiss if we did not also congratulate his wife Sally, whose support, contributions and dedication to the projects are a large measure of their success. We join in celebrating Dan's achievement and are extremely gratified that his authorial colleagues have awarded him this distinguished honor."
Read the rest of the publishers' comments
View the 2008 Award winners
Learn more about the TAA Texty and McGuffey Awards
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Florida 'Textbook Affordability Bill' includes language regarding comp copy sales
Due in part to the efforts of TAA and its members, Florida's HB603 "Textbook Affordability Bill" has been amended by Representative Anitere Flores to include language regarding the sale of complimentary copies.
The bill was amended to include the following: "These materials may not be sold for any type of compensation if they are specifically marked as free samples not for resale."
"While this means that comp copies that are not specifically marked as 'free samples not for resale' can still be sold, on the whole, our effort to modify Florida's comp copy law was a reasonable success," said TAA Executive Director Richard Hull. "Now it is up to publishers to make sure comp copies are appropriately marked."
See "TAA asks members to help stomp the comp in Florida"
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