2009 TAA Conference Sponsors
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Sponsor the 2009
TAA Conference for only $200!
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SAVE THE DATE!
2010 TAA Conference to be held in Minneapolis, MN
The 2010 TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring will be held in Minneapolis, MN at the Ramada Mall of America, June 24-26.
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TAA member benefit: Books for Purchase
TAA members may list and promote works on-line if they hold the rights. These works can be out-of-print or self-published.
Works will be posted on the TAA site, permitting adopters and individual buyers to buy directly from the author.
Authors set the price.
Authors provide the means of delivery, either electronic or print format.
To list your work in the Books for Purchase section, fill out this application. Email an image of the book cover to kim.pawlak@taaonline.net
To view the works for sale visit http://www.taaonline.net/books/index.html
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Subscribe to TAA Listservs
Subscribe to one or both of TAA's Listservs, one on textbook authoring and one on academic authoring.
Subscribe to the Textbook Authoring Listserv by sending an email to TAATextbookAuthoring-on@mail-list.com
Subscribe to the Academic Authoring Listserv by sending an email to TAAAcademicAuthoring-on@mail-list.com
You can switch to the Digest version of the Textbook Authoring Listserv, in which you receive only one email message per week with all that week's posts contained within it, by sending an email to TAATextbookAuthoring-switch@mail-list.com
once you have been subscribed.
To switch to the Digest version of the Academic Authoring Listserv, send an email to TAAAcademicAuthoring-switch@mail-list.com once you have been subscribed.
After you are subscribed to the Textbook Authoring Listserv, send messages to TAATextbookAuthoring@mail-list.com
After you are subscribed to the Academic Authoring Listserv, send messages to TAAAcademicAuthoring@mail-list.com
Read the archives for both Listservs here
If you have any questions, please email Kim Pawlak
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Already have a writing group or are considering forming one? Make it a TAA Chapter and get a $500 start-up grant, a TAA Chapter website and Listserv, and 20 percent of your chapter's dues returned each year!
Recruit at least 30 members and you'll receive one complimentary TAA Workshop!
Contact Kim Pawlak for more information.
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Greetings!
Happy New Year!
TAA is starting off the year on the right foot, with more than 1,600 members, up almost 20 percent from this time last year. We are very excited about this growth, and believe it is the result of several factors, including the generosity and commitment of TAA's members, and an increase in member benefits and services over the past year.
Here are just some of the ways that TAA's member benefits and services grew in 2008:
- In January, TAA expanded its Busy TAA People section as a way to showcase members' work. The expanded section includes Featured Member profiles, member news (such as recent books or journal articles published, promotions, etc.), and links to member websites.
- In February, TAA increased the number of issues of The Academic Author that members receive from four per year to 10 per year.
- In March, TAA launched its Spring 2008 Teleconference Series with its first teleconference, "Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar" by Tara Gray. TAA held a total of six teleconferences in March, April and May 2008 and five teleconferences in September, October and November 2008. More than 150 members participated in TAA's 2008 Teleconference Series. The series attracted 20 new members to TAA. More teleconferences are planned for Spring 2009.
- In April, TAA expanded its Academic Authoring Workshop series, adding three new workshops by Dr. Sonja Foss, a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado, and Dr. William Waters, an assistant professor of English at the University of Houston: "Destination Dissertation: Practical Strategies for Writing the Thesis or Dissertation"; "Sharing Results: Crafting an Article"; and "Individual Coaching to Facilitate Writing Progress".
- In May, TAA surveyed its members about royalty rates. The Royalty Rate Survey gathered information that will provide members with a useful tool in negotiating new contracts and/or amending existing contracts.
- In June, TAA launched a redesigned website to provide a more streamlined look and better navigation tools. It also has more user friendly features, such as the ability for members to login to a section devoted solely to the interests of textbook authors, or a section devoted solely to the interests of academic authors, or both.
- In July, the TAA Publication Grants process was revised to make it easier for members to apply. Applicants now only have to complete a TAA Publication Grant application form and attach a copy of the journal's or editor's letter of acceptance and a copy of the journal's or editor's charge invoice. Two grants were given in 2008, one in November and one in December.
- In September, TAA launched a new TAA Chapter System as way to encourage TAA members to develop textbook or scholarly article writing support groups. Two TAA Chapters were started in 2008, the first at Minnesota State University, Mankato (TAA Alpha Chapter at MSU, Mankato) and the second at Mansfield University at Pennsylvania (TAA Chapter at Mansfield University, PA).
- In November, TAA launched a Textbook Authoring Workshop series, which currently includes Michael Spiegler's "Textbook Writing 101" workshop, and Mary Ellen Lepionka's "Developing a Textbook Proposal" workshop.
The 2008 TAA Conference, held in Las Vegas, June 19-21, attracted more than 80 attendees - a record attendance for the association. The conference featured two workshops, 14 sessions, and 11 Roundtable Discussions. Planning for the 2009 TAA Conference is well underway, and will feature three workshops, more than 20 sessions, and 10 Roundtable Discussions, as well as a group trip to The Alamo.
All of this would not have been possible without the support of TAA members like you, so again, thank you!
Sincerely,
Kim Pawlak
Associate Executive Director
kim.pawlak@taaonline.net
(608) 687-3106
(507) 459-1363 cell
www.TAAonline.net
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Spring 2009 TAA Teleconference Series
Sign up to participate in one or more TAA Teleconferences being held in February, March and April 2009. TAA Teleconferences are free for members. Sign up (click here for form) or email Kim Pawlak at kim.pawlak@taaonline.net (include your name, email address and the title of the teleconference(s) in which you want to participate.)
Upcoming 2009 TAA Teleconferences include:
"Taxes and Authors - What You Should Know"
Tuesday, February 10, 12 p.m. Central Time (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. Mountain, 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Robert M. Pesce, Partner, Marcum & Kliegman LLP
This one-hour teleconference will cover the following topics:
· What type of entity should you be?
· Are you keeping good records on your business deductions?
· Income from Royalties and other sources.
· Tax deductions
· Home Office Deduction.
· Self Employment Tax ("SE Tax")
· Pension Plans, SEPs, IRAs.
· Foreign Tax Credit. Foreign Tax Certification Form 6166
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"Royalties: Are You Unknowingly Losing Money?"
Tuesday, February 17, 12 p.m. Central Time (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. Mountain, 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Gail R. Gross, CPA, Marcum & Kliegman LLP
This one-hour teleconference will cover the following topics:
· The Audit clause
· Channels of Distribution and their royalty rates
· Cross Collateralization
· Subrights
· Packaging Your Product
· When You Need a Royalty Review
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Writing and Editing Effectively Using 'Fast Writing' and 'Slow Editing'
Thursday, February 19, 12 noon Central Time (10 a.m. Pacific; 11 a.m. Mountain; 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Dr. Sonja Foss, Professor of Communication, University of Colorado, and Dr. William Waters, an assistant professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown
You know what you want to say-the ideas you want to communicate in your article or dissertation. Now you want to put your ideas into print. You want to turn them into prose as quickly as possible and then polish that prose. This teleconference is designed to help you do that. The objective of the teleconference is not to teach you how to write, but it will help you make the processes of writing and revising easier and more effective if they are difficult for you.
The teleconference focuses on two key processes that allow you to write effectively-fast writing and slow editing. Fast writing means writing as fast as you can in a state of uninhibited invention, getting your ideas on paper in any form. Slow editing follows, and it is a serial, systematic process that includes the two separate steps of editing and proofreading. Foss and Waters will share strategies for engaging in fast writing and slow editing that will help you move your rough drafts more efficiently and effectively to high-quality finished products.
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Negotiation of Author/Publisher Contracts for the Experienced Author
Wednesday, March 4, 12 p.m. Central Time (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. Mountain, 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Michael R. Lennie, Esq., Lennie Literary & Author's Attorneys
This discussion is for experienced authors who have more advanced contract questions and who would like to share their contract experiences with fellow participants. Discussion items will include: How to Prepare for Negotiations; The Key Concepts for Successful Negotiations; Strategies for New Edition Amendments vs. Contracts for New Works; Big Advance, Little Advance, No Advance?; Electronic Rights Update; BEWARE! Publisher Supplements ("PubSupps"); Are There Rights The Author Should Retain?; Scaled Royalty Rates; Retroactive Royalty Rates; Canadian Royalty Rates; What Sub-rights Are Likely to be Exploited?; Rates for Subsidiary Rights; Who Is The Publisher?; Phase out Royalties; Re-openers; The Importance of the Competing Works Clause; Right of Approval vs. Right of Consultation; Cover/Art/Photography; Supplement Authors & Supplements; Marketing Plan/Advertising Copy; Reserving the Right to Hire An Assistant; The Timing of Supplements; Audit Clause/Inadvertent Shortening of the Statute of Limitations. Lennie will also share a few sample improved contract clauses.
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You Want To Write a Textbook? Here's How To Do It!
Monday, April 13, 12 p.m. Central Time (10 a.m. Pacific; 11 a.m. Mountain; 1 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Robert Christopherson, Professor Emeritus of Geography, American River College (1970-2000), and author of the leading physical geography texts in the US and Canada
Writing a textbook is extremely focusing, extends your classroom to the world, and is potentially rewarding. Yet, in reality, everyone (author, editor, publisher, colleagues) assumes that everyone knows what they are doing. But they don't! Every project is allowed to roll along burdened by its own idiosyncrasies. A goal of this discussion is to place you ahead of the curve, to simplify the process, and to share experiences. This is not a complete account of how to do it, for that would take a book. This is merely one author's opinion, which is under constant revision as each day's lesson is absorbed.
The original task of writing a textbook is not what it seems to be--that is, talking about it, outlining it, sketching it, discussing it with publishers, telling relatives about it. These preliminaries are different than actually writing the manuscript, but critical and necessary for the author must convince him or herself to do the project. This discussion will hopefully provide a starting point for your efforts: the project, writing studio, outline, style/writing guide, prospectus, research/writing, computer, art manuscript preparation, chapter production, publisher launch, sales/marketing, roaylties, taxes, and future revisions.
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How to apply mainstream book publicity strategies to academia
Thursday, April 23, 11 a.m. Central Time (9 a.m. Pacific; 10 a.m. Mountain; 12 p.m. Eastern)
Presented by Michelle A. Blackley, Literary Publicist, Don't Judge a Book by its Cover
With today's viral marketplace even academic authors can become strong competitors in the popular fiction and non-fiction book categories. Learn what publicity strategies work for mainstream writers and how they can be applied in academia. Some publishers do supply their own marketing efforts to your campaign, but what can you do outside their influence in the marketplace? Getting in libraries, local bookstores and online tours, sales and content are just a few categories we'll cover.
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Featured Member Christy Keeler:
Blogging keeps author on track to write regularly
By Kim Seidel
Christy Keeler
Christy Keeler, a pedagogy scholar/consultant for the Teaching American History Grant for Las Vegas's Clark County School District, uses a blog to motivate herself to write and as a means of personal accountability.
"My goal is to blog every time I write for a peer-reviewed publication," she said. "Though I sometimes get lazy, and don't log my time and progress, such as over the summer when I was writing infrequently, I'm usually pretty good about blogging during each writing session."
Keeler also has several other blogs that she uses to support her teaching. She taught for two years as a visiting professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She's now considered a part-time instructor at UNLV, because of her work with the Teaching American History Grant.
As a pedagogy scholar/consultant at UNLV, Keeler teaches 50 third- through fifth-grade teachers in five-week modules six times each year. "The modules couple pedagogy and history, and I work with two historians who teach the history content while I teach the pedagogy," she said.
With her teaching and family responsibilities - Keeler and her husband have two young sons - blogging is a way to organize her professional and personal writing life. The path that led her to blogging her writing efforts started about two years ago, when UNLV offered its faculty the ability to attend a workshop presented by Tara Gray, entitled "Publish and Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar" (this workshop is co-sponsored by TAA).
"It was fantastic; we were all motivated to write and broke into writing groups following the training," she said. "My group lasted for over a year, and we were very supportive of one another."
Keeler discovered, however, that even with the writing group, she still became complacent about her writing. She would fail, for instance, to bring writing samples to the weekly meetings. "My group didn't hold me as accountable as I needed to be, so I knew I needed a different motivational method," she said. "At about that time, I was beginning to experiment with blogs for use in my classes, and I thought that a blog might provide a means of personal accountability."
Some of the main benefits of blogging are that it's easy and fast, said Keeler. "Though I am keeping the blog for myself, it also increases my feeling of accountability, because I know anyone can look at it and judge my dedication to my writing efforts," she said. "Therefore, I feel guilty when I know I haven't written in awhile."
Keeler always blogs about where she is in the process of a given project. "This enables me to review where I left off on the previous writing session so I can pick up there, instead of having to review the entire document on which I'm working," she said. "Also, it's been great for me to go back and recall who I've contacted regarding a paper, which journals have rejected articles, which journals are reviewing articles and other progress."
During Gray's workshop, she stressed the importance of writing religiously for 15 minutes every day, said Keeler, but that was the one piece of advice she hasn't followed. "Given my life as a wife and mother first, and a scholar second, this never works for me," she said. "I am much better at writing in spurts - usually right before a project is due. My goal is to write as often as I can. My blog has proven that the more often I write, the more often I have articles published."
Ideally, Keeler said she would like to have an "accountability partner", in which each author would blog and use RSS to review each other's blogs. That way, they could check up on each other several times a week. "We could also leave encouraging notes for one another as comments in our blogs," she said.
A blog also could work well for collaborators on a writing project, she said: "If each of the collaborators logged their work on the project each time they contributed, there would be a nice accounting of the progress made and the next steps to take. There are other online applications such as Google Docs and spreadsheets that allow collaborators to work jointly on writing projects, but blogs provide a nice accounting of progress. The blog entries can automatically and immediately be downloaded to all group members' computers as soon as comments are posted."
Blogs are easy to create, and very easy to use, Keeler said. She believes so strongly in the value of blogging that she's created videos about it. They can be accessed by downloading iTunes and subscribing to the "Keeler's Training Videos" podcast or by visiting http://keelertrainingvideos.blogspot.com. She suggests the following episodes, "Using, Posting and Commenting in Blogs," "Introduction to Blogger" and "Procuring a Blogger Account."
Don't know how to subscribe to a podcast? Keeler recommends the online video "iTunes Basics," which can be found on one of her websites: Click here. This video is also available via the "Keeler's Training Videos" podcast.
Keeler has kept herself accountable to her writing by a Microsoft Word document detailing parts and due dates for each project in her office, among other ways. View PDF sample
Along with blogging, other ways Keeler has kept herself accountable to her writing are by using Academic Ladder, which provides online academic writing coaching; a writing board in her office; a Microsoft Word document detailing parts and due dates for each project in her office; and logging her writing times on her handheld computer/phone.
Keeler used Academic Ladder for one month, and experienced an incredibly productive month. "It was very motivating, because I knew that I had paid for the service, and I wanted to make sure I hadn't wasted the money," she said. "It's also very rewarding to mark a little checkbox each day after you write."
Someday, Keeler said she'd like to see something similar to Academic Ladder that could be used by academic advisors. This could be a great resource for dissertation advisors to help keep their students on task. It also could provide advisors with readily available information about the progress of their students. "That way, there would be accountability online as well as in the face-to-face environment."
The writing board is a tool Keeler learned about several years ago while attending the American Educational Researcher Association (AERA) Annual Meeting. The idea is to keep a board listing all of your projects and moving the projects across the board as they progress from conception to publication.
The writing board is a tool Keeler learned about several years ago while attending the American Educational Researcher Association (AERA) Annual Meeting. The idea is to keep a board listing all of your projects and moving the projects across the board as they progress from conception to publication.
"Not only is this a visual reminder of current projects - and a constant reminder of those projects hiding in the shadows of your file drawer - but it helps organize projects so you always have some in various stages of the writing process," she said. "The AERA presenter said that it is important for a healthy writer to always have projects in different stages, so that there is no dead time in between projects."
A benefit to these tools from Keeler's life is that if she has a research project stuck in an Institutional Review Board (IRB) review process or is under review with a journal, she can work on another project listed on her writing board. "The result is that I should have a regular schedule for rolling out new articles," she said. "This is especially good if one is expected to produce peer-reviewed articles every year."
To create her writing board, she used a white board and Sharpies to devise the sections. She then printed out all of her writing projects on bright paper and placed a magnet on the back of the page. She cut out each article and placed the project titles into the correct section. "This sits right next to my desk so it's like a weight around my neck if nothing's moved lately," she said. Keeler also has a similar document she maintains simultaneously in a Word document on her computer. She can share this with potential employers and also record anticipated completion dates for each aspect of each writing project.
"There are simple and inexpensive programs that allow individuals to log their time spent on given tasks throughout the day," said Keeler, who uses SDS Time to calculate the amount of time she spends each week on her writing. The program allows her to download the data and review it over a period of time. Keeler may find, for example, that during a four-week period, she only dedicated 10 percent of her work time to writing.
When she's not blogging, she loves to spend time with her family and she loves to teach. She lives in Las Vegas with her husband, Mike, and their children, Ryan and Spencer. "We love to spend time as a family, especially traveling," she said. "In my spare time, I like to work. I enjoy teaching and helping teachers become even better at their craft. I am very rewarded by creating resources that others can use to improve their instructional delivery."
Her passion for helping teachers is why she offers a large number of free online resources (http://christykeeler.com). "I also enjoy learning and presenting at conferences," Keeler said. "I know this sounds funny because most people do these things for their 'work.' For me, my family is my work, and my hobby is my profession."
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Rippy awarded $150 TAA Publication Grant
Marguerite Rippy
Marguerite Rippy, an associate professor of English at Marymount University in Virginia, has been awarded a $150 TAA Publication Grant that will allow her to incorporate a copyrighted photograph of Orson Welles from his unfinished film adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in her book, Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective, which will be published by Southern Illinois University Press in Spring 2009.
"The grant was tremendously helpful to me, since neither my press nor my university have resources to subsidize photographic copyright fees, so I am paying most of these fees out of my own pocket," she said.
The photograph of Welles that Rippy will be using in her book is from a rarely seen series of promotional stills taken by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, whose photographic rights are now held by the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography. "It is a key photograph because it represents Welles' concept of a first-person singular narrative at the center of this film," she said. "The photo depicts him standing in front of an equation that says 'Eye=I'. Although Welles did not finish this film for RKO, the first-person singular interrogation proved central to his next film project as well--the famous Citizen Kane."
TAA members can apply for a Publication Grant of up to $750 to cover the cost of publishing already accepted journal articles, or for the preparation of artwork or other charts, diagrams or images to be included in accepted articles or academic books. (Click for more info on TAA's Publication Grants)
"I read about the TAA Publication Grant through a mailing I received as a member, and I applied simply because the timing was incredibly fortuitous," she said. "TAA's mailing arrived the same day that I was working on copyright clearances and fees for the cover art and insert photographs for my forthcoming book, and it just seemed like a natural match. I've been enjoying my TAA membership in terms of reading advice and commentaries from the email listserv, and it seemed like a great opportunity to further enjoy TAA's resources."
Rippy's forthcoming book on Orson Welles provides an in-depth examination of Welles' unfinished RKO projects: "I train a postmodern lens on four emerging narrative modes that came to define Welles' work: deconstructions of the first-person singular; adaptations of classic texts for mass media; explorations of the self via primitivism; and examinations of the line between reality and fiction. These four narrative styles greatly influenced the development of modern mass media entertainment, including today's popular mockumentaries and reality television. Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects documents Welles's emergence as a storyteller who would shape culture for decades to come."
The book's intended audience is film and media studies scholars, Welles fans, and cultural studies students and professors.
Rippy received her Ph.D. in English and performance studies from Indiana University, and her M.A. in English from Vanderbilt University. She has published several articles on film and drama, addressing topics ranging from the evolution of black female sexuality in cinema, to Orson Welles' adaptations of Charles Dickens. Her film reviews have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
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2009 TAA Conference Roundtable Discussions
Time Management: Unpacking the Toolbox
Susan Robison, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, College of Notre Dame of Maryland
Join Susan Robison, who is presenting in a one-hour session on Time Management on Friday at 9:30 a.m., for a small-group discussion of time management.
Working With Editors: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Steven Barkan, Department of Sociology, University of Maine, and the author of five textbooks and one trade book
From the initial submission of a book proposal to the publication of the first and subsequent editions of a textbook, every textbook author works with at least one editor and perhaps several editors. Like people in other occupations, some editors are a pleasure to work with (the "good"), some editors are ineffective and have other faults (the "bad"), and some editors are downright disagreeable (the "ugly"). This roundtable discussion draws on the moderator's experience as a textbook author with several publishers and many editors during the past fifteen years. It will examine the qualities that make an editor good, bad, or ugly and offer suggestions on working with editors with these various qualities. Roundtable participants will be encouraged to discuss their own experiences with editors of various kinds and to provide other participants with advice and suggestions that may help enhance the author-editor relationship.
Coping With Copyright Conundrums
Christopher Kenneally, Director, Author & Creator Relations, Copyright Clearance Center
A crash course in getting and giving permissions, this roundtable discussion will deal with such topics as:
- Fair use, and when you cross the line
- Copyright permissions
- Research procedures & record keeping
- Understanding licenses and costs
- An in-depth exploration and definition of subsidiary rights, and special sales
- Creative ideas to market and license such rights
Publishing in the School Market
Don Collins, mathematics textbook author and former editor in K-12 publishing, TAA Vice-President, President-Elect
Former managing editor of a major educational publisher and current textbook author Don Collins will address the following questions plus anything else posed:
- How do you go about publishing for the school market?
- What homework should you do?
- What publishers should you consider?
- How much work will this venture entail?
- Will this publishing venture be worth your effort?
- Suppose you get an offer or a contract, then what do you do?
Conference registration is now open. Register here
We are still in need of 6 more Roundtable Discussions. If you are planning on attending the conference and would like to volunteer to moderate a Roundtable Discussion, please contact Kim Pawlak.
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New web-based copyright licensing service for independent content creators
Copyright Clearance Center, the world's largest provider of copyright licensing solutions, announced the beta launch of Ozmo (www.ozmo.com), a web-based service that makes it easy for independent content creators to license the use of their work for commercial purposes and for content users to tap into the wealth of user-generated content found online.
Ozmo allows artists and writers to select their license terms and set the price for the use of their content. CCC handles the entire licensing process and all payments go through Amazon's Flexible Payment Service when a license is purchased. With Ozmo, buyers know instantly that they have the right to use the content and sellers know how their content is being used.
There are no set-up fees with Ozmo and content creators can license as much content as they want. Payment is collected from the buyer when the rights are purchased. Ozmo also helps sellers track and manage sales and buying trends. Ozmo supports the Creative Commons CC+ protocol for bridging the gap between commercial and non-commercial licensing. Content creators can apply the Creative Commons link for non-commercial use, and the Ozmo link for commercial use.
"We applaud the release of Ozmo, not only because it represents Copyright Clearance Center's commitment to the CC+ protocol, but also because Ozmo provides an excellent commercial peer to Creative Commons' public license", said Mike Linksvayer, vice president of Creative Commons. Ozmo was created by the rights licensing experts at Copyright Clearance Center. A not-for-profit company founded in 1978, CCC is the world's largest provider of rights licensing services. In just the last year, CCC distributed more than $135 million in royalties to rightsholders. CCC created Ozmo in response to a market need for a comprehensive solution to license user-generated content for commercial use.
"Advances in digital technology have opened new commercial markets for images," said Eugene Mopsik, executive director of the American Society of Media Photographers. "OZMO provides an easy, fast and legally secure new channel for online sale and license of images. Ozmo's contributors and their customers will benefit from an e-commerce system based upon industry standards that simplify the licensing process and ensure a precise mutual understanding of the rights associated with every image."
To get started, users need only create a free Ozmo profile. Then, the content creator selects his or her license terms and pricing, and registers the work with Ozmo. Sellers can add an image, banner or bio that will be displayed with their work. Profile information can even be pulled over directly from Facebook. Using Ozmo is easy because it works with content where ever it resides online. Content creators never have to re-enter their work; Ozmo simply links back to the original host location.
Buyers, such as design firms, publishers, bloggers and other journalists, who want to tap in to the fresh content available through Ozmo, can do so by searching the Ozmo website or clicking on the Ozmo link wherever they find it online. CCC handles the billing, the buyer receives the license by email and the content creator gets paid.
"We realize that licensing may not be the first thing most people think about when they create or post original content on the Web," said Bill Burger, vice president of marketing at Copyright Clearance Center. "With Ozmo, content creators get paid for their work and also get the satisfaction of knowing how their work is being used. And advertising and marketing firms get easy access to the immense supply of online creative content with the peace of mind that they are using it with permission."
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TAA thanks Contributing Member Roth Wilkofsky.
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Busy TAA People
Jan Lyons, adjunct assistant professor of engineering management, information and systems, at Southern Methodist University, recently published the revised edition of her text, Risk Management for Technical Professionals (2008, currently available at Lulu.com). She also recently published an article in Leadership and Management in Engineering, entitled, "Objectively Assessing Risk in a Complex World." (October, 2008).
Matt Stevens, author of Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day, and a consultant with Stevens Construction Institute, has been hired to run a program to help newly formed Minority Business Enterprise firms understand the essentials of running a construction company. The program, The Contractors Book Camp, is being funded by a Workforce ONE Maryland project grant awarded to Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) for Base Realignment and Closure-related workforce development efforts done at Ft. Meade, Maryland.
Two original plays and a folk opera written by Mary Kay Switzer, an associate professor of communication at California Polytechnical State University in Pomona, California, will be performed by the Cultural Alliance of the Pass Area Performing Artists in March, April, and May. Kate DiCamillo has also agreed to allow Switzer to adapt her Mercy Watson series for the stage. DiCamillo is the author of Winn Dixie.
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Book Review
Writing for Publication: Road to Academic Achievement by Kenneth T. Henson
Reviewed by Jan Walker
Meet the master, I have. I first became familiar with Ken Henson's book, Writing for Publication: Road to Academic Advancement, shortly after I was introduced to his articles in Phi Delta Kappan. With this book, Henson has brought to the book shelf a rendition of his work used in his "Writing for Publication" workshops and in his articles for various journals including PDK. As a professor at the Citadel and prolific writer, Henson knows of what he writes. He believes writing is challenging work, even for the most widely published authors; however, if one sincerely wants to succeed at writing, it takes discipline, time and energy. As a tenure-track professor and hungry for the "how to" of quality manuscript writing, Henson's book provided me with practical suggestions for article and book publication and for designing grant proposals.
The book is organized into a logical sequence from the first chapter appropriately entitled: "Why Write?" to the last chapter discussing gaining tenure. Key ideas are: setting goals for writing, organizing work time, writing clearly and
Henson reviews frequent mistakes and common errors with journal writing and publication. He shares common excuses for writing avoidance and helps the reader and neophyte writer dispel such notions with practical advice and a little cajoling. When I become victim of procrastination and start adopting excuses, I pick up Henson's book and once again find his words to be both chiding and motivating: "The remark, I don't have time to write, actually means I have committed all of my time to other things or I have not yet learned how to effectively budget my writing time."
Henson's style is comfortable and informal, yet rife with honest, no-nonsense advice, sprinkled with dry wit. "Writing is good therapy; it lets you express yourself. Trading an evening of reruns for an evening of writing may be the best decision you've made in a long time."
It takes dedication and discipline to be a writer, and in Writing for Publication: Road to Academic Advancement, Henson, the master of writing, provides practical advice for those of us who are endeavoring to find success with writing.
Jan Walker is currently an associate professor in Educational Leadership at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She has been a professor in educational leadership for nine years. Her areas of research and publication are educational leadership, diversity and parent involvement. Prior to teaching at the university level, she was a principal and director of curriculum for school districts in Iowa. concisely, knowing journals and publishers, selecting topics of interest for journals or books, and using steps for grant writing. Henson offers examples such as an article tracking system and models of a query letter and questionnaire letter. He provides a plethora of various forms, sample timetables for production, examples of grant proposals with prototypes for title pages and table of contents, a listing of university presses, and a table of publication information for selected journals.
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Tech Bit 1: Back up your hard drive
 by Gregg Marshall
100 million hard drives fail every year. I've had my share, including one last Christmas eve.
When was the last time you backed up your notebook? Your home desktop? Your work PC?
500 gigabyte external USB drives are selling for $99 to $129 on sale. That's enough to back up a notebook and most people's desktop(s).
My favorite backup software is CMS Products' BounceBack Professional ($79, www.cmsproducts.com). While Windows has a built in backup program, BB Pro can create a backup drive that can be simply installed to replace a failed drive (obviously you can't put a 3.5" hard drive into a notebook).
What I really like about BB Pro is it's the ultimate "nagware." You tell it how often you want to back up and it will nag you to plug in that external drive and do your backups.
So really, when was the last time you backed up?
Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is a speaker, author and consultant. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall@repconnection.com, or visit his website at http://www.repconnection.com
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TAA 2008 Teleconference Series
TAA members can now listen to recordings from TAA's 2008 Teleconference Series. The playback options have been enhanced to enable members to rewind, fast-forward and pause the recordings in addition to stop and play. The recordings can also now be downloaded and listened to on a computer or Mp3 player.
These recordings are for members-only. Only TAA members have permission to download TAA Teleconference recordings. Recordings may not be copied, shared with, or distributed to non-members.
Listen to or download the recordings:
Learn more about these teleconferences at http://www.taaonline.net/TAATeleconferences/schedule.html
Don't have your member username and password? Email Kim Pawlak
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