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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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Greetings!
The Fall 2009 TAA Teleconference season started Monday, with the first parts of Generating & Refining Research Ideas and Textbook Supplements: The Big Three.
If you weren't able to participate in these teleconferences, you can listen to the recordings and download the handouts, here.
I encourage to participate in upcoming teleconferences on Oct. 8, 12th, 19th and 27th, and Nov. 2nd and 3rd. See the full schedule below.
If you recently joined at a workshop or were given a gift membership, please fill out a Member Update Form so that we can learn more about you and direct you to the member benefits and services that fit your needs.
Please feel free to contact me anytime you have questions.
Sincerely,
Kim
Kim Pawlak
Associate Executive Director
kim.pawlak@taaonline.net
(608) 687-3106
(507) 459-1363 cell
www.TAAonline.net
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TAA FALL TELECONFERENCES
Participation is free for members. Non-members pay $69 per teleconference.
You will be asked to enter your member username and password to access the sign-up page. If you do not have them, email Kim Pawlak.
Upcoming teleconferences:
How Authors Can Navigate Successfully Through Copyright-Related Issues
Thursday, October 8th, 1-2 p.m. EST
Generating & Refining Research Ideas, Part Two
Monday, October 12th, 11 a.m.-12 noon EST
Textbook Supplements: Electronic Products, Part Two
Monday, October 12th, 1-2 p.m. EST
Making the Most of the Author-Editor Relationship: Insights From An Author & Editor
Monday, October 19th, 11 a.m.-12 noon EST
Members also have free access to recordings of past TAA Teleconferences.
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Textbook authoring in the digital age, Part Two
by Mary Ellen Lepionka
There is a whole new language for the teaching and learning enterprise today, and it is not textbook-based. The very word textbook has become vilified, vulgarized-a dirty word associated (rightly and wrongly) with the profit-taking and business practices of commercial higher education textbook publishers. Expository writing on a course subject for digitized delivery is not even called a textbook. Rather, the product is content-in the form of learning objects, modules, and media assets, offered in the form of an online course or a portal or gateway to new (or newly networked) knowledge. The term textbook will become obsolete or will be narrowly defined to refer only to conversions-non-interactive digitizations of textbooks in print.
Read more
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How to pitch your book proposal to a publisher
Jean Lukesh (Ed.D., Teaching, Curriculum, and Instruction), author of the award-winning history textbook, The Nebraska Adventure, says she learned how to pitch a textbook proposal by attending the Denver University Publishing Institute (DUPI), from pitching her own multi-award-winning textbook to a publisher, and from doing a bit of publishing for others.
She shares what she has learned: click here
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INDUSTRY NEWS
TAA president, ED, respond to article on textbook costs
TAA President Paul Siegel and TAA Executive Director Richard Hull respond to a September 24, 2009 article in Inside Higher Ed, entitled, "Free, But at What Cost?". The article talks about a free digital textbook program being instituted at the University of South Florida in partnership with a state-supported digital library called The Orange Grove.
Click for more
Authors embrace open educational movement
by David Cole
Voicing concern about the financial burden of textbooks on students, a growing number of authors are embracing the concept of open educational resources (OER)-teaching materials that are free, modular, and adaptable.
Click for more
Textbook 2.0: What's the future of textbooks?
Panelists of a June 2009 TAA Conference session on Textbook 2.0, including Roth Wilkofsky, president of the Arts and Sciences Communication, English, and Political Science group for Pearson - considered how technology can make textbooks better by improving the educational experience, and accommodating different learning styles. Listen to a podcast of the session on the Copyright Clearance Center's Beyond the Book website: Listen to the podcast
Authors to benefit from textbook rental royalties
by Anne Millbrooke
Textbook publishers McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage Learning say their new textbook rental programs will provide authors a royalty on each rental. Cengage plans to rent its textbooks directly to students through a new retail website called CengageBrain.com starting this December.
Click for more
With textbook rentals, authors should read their contracts
by Anne Millbrooke
Although Cengage Learning and McGraw-Hill Education's rental programs seem to be a win-win for authors, copyright attorney Stephen E. Gillen, of Greenebaum Doll & McDonald, cautions authors to read their contract and to ask themselves the following questions as they do so.
Click for more
Authors embrace new open source publishing model
by David Cole
Several authors who have signed contracts to write textbooks for online textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge (FWK) say that despite some initial reservations, they are enthusiastic about taking part in an experiment that promises to serve students, instructors, authors, and publishers.
Click for more
View news about the Copyright Clearance Center and its Beyond the Book program: Click here
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TAA NOTES
2010 Texty, McGuffey Award deadline Oct. 15
Nominations are now being accepted for 2010 TAA Textbook Excellence Awards ("Textys") and McGuffey Longevity Awards ("McGuffeys"). Deadline for nominations is October 15, 2009.
For the first time this year, textbooks can be nominated by both authors and publishers. Textys recognize excellence in current textbooks and learning materials. McGuffeys recognize textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time (15 years or more).
Click for more
Busy TAA People: Dr. Kathleen P. King
King delivered two keynote speeches at the Western New York Educational Service Council on Oct. 1, 2009 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cheektowaga, NY. The speeches followed the theme: Unleashing the Power of Web-Based Tools for Every School Leader: Using Digital Tools for Instruction, Communication, Community Building, and Professional Development.
TAA ED interviewed by WHYY radio about textbook costs
TAA Executive Director Richard Hull was interviewed Tuesday, Sept. 15 by Mary Moss-Coane of Philadelphia, PA radio station WHYY (90.9 FM) about textbook costs:
Listen to the podcast
Help TAA grow and receive a free book
TAA is launching a direct mail campaign this fall to attract more textbook authors to the association and we need your help to build our list. Help TAA grow by sending us the names and mailing addresses of your friends, co-authors, and colleagues who are either current textbook authors, or who are considering writing a textbook.
Click for more
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Tech Bit: Portable scanning
Being able to print on the road is really handy. Being able to scan on the road is amazingly useful.
I've been to trade shows and brought home 40 or 50 pounds of literature. With the changes in most airline travel policies, that literature could cost $50!
Recently I've brought home just a few random pieces of literature.
Everything else I scan and bring home as a PDF or JPG file, either on my computer hard drive or a USB flash drive (or both as backups).
You can also use the scanner and portable printer as an in-room copier, pretty handy if you don't want to change out of your pajamas to go make a quick copy.
I have two scanners I take, depending on how much scanning I think I'll do.
On almost every trip I take a Plustek OptiSlim M12 (http://www.plustek.com/product/m12.asp). It is very small about 9" wide and about 2" in diameter. It is powered by the computer via the USB port that it connects with. It can scan 300 dots per inch (dpi). It's two disadvantages are that its moderately slow (about 45 to 60 seconds per page) and it can only scan one side of one sheet at a time.
When I think I'll be doing a bunch of scanning I take my Fujitsu S300 duplex scanner (http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/scanners/scansnap/s300.html). It works best using its power brick (doubling its scanning speed). It's big advantage is that it can scan 3 to 6 sheets a minute, scanning both sides of the sheet at once. And it has a sheet feeder, so I can stack 25-30 sheets, start scanning and watch TV. Interestingly I noticed my new Atom powered netbook slows the scanner down because it can't keep up.
For those rare occasions I need to "scan" something that isn't loose sheets (e.g. a book), I take a picture of it with my 10 megapixel digital camera. It doesn't do as well as a real scanner (usually because of lighting), it is good enough.
Why haul that paper home when you can just scan it and bring home the images. And they take less physical storage space!
Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is a speaker, author and consultant. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall (AT) repconnection.com, or visit his website at http://www.repconnection.com
Disclaimer: TAA has not tested and neither endorses nor opposes any product or procedure recommended in this article or ones referenced in any TAA publications, teleconferences, or workshops. |
Listen to recordings of 2009 TAA Teleconferences
TAA members can listen to the following 2009 TAA Teleconference recordings free (non-members pay $69 each):
- Taxes and Authors - What You Should Know
- Royalties: Are You Unknowingly Losing Money?
- Writing and Editing Effectively Using 'Fast Writing' and 'Slow Editing'
- Negotiation of Author-Publisher Contracts for the Experienced Author, Part One & Two
- Grants Gamesmanship
- Is Textbook Writing for You?
- You Want to Write a Textbook? Here's How to Do It!
- How to Apply Mainstream Book Publicity Strategies to Academia
Listen to the recordings here
You will need your member username and password to access the recordings. Please email kim.pawlak@taaonline.net if you don't have a username and password.
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TAA Gift Memberships
You can give a TAA Gift Membership for only $15.
Providing a gift membership to a family member, friend, student or colleague is a great way to assist them with their writing and show your support for TAA's mission.
Learn more
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DISCLAIMER: TAA has not tested and neither endorses nor opposes any product or procedure recommended in this article or ones referenced in any TAA publications, teleconferences, or workshops.
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