2003 TAA Convention
Richmond, Virginia
June 20-21

Convention News

• Leftwich shares pitfalls, pleasures of authorship
• Author attorneys share contract negotiation advice
• Tips on marketing self-published works
• Actual price of publishing textbook higher than most expect
• 'Royalty Guru' teaches 'Arthur Author' the importance of having legal counsel
• Author attorneys advise authors to watch out for merger clues
• Pynn satirizes TAA authoring workshops
• TAA names first Lifetime Achievement Award winner
• Pawlak, Heimbecker receive Norma Hood Award
• Ethics author Jay Black receives Mike Keedy Award
• Education author John Wakefield receives President's Award
• Harris shares benefits to online, electronic journals
• Keep Your Textbook Alive Through Multiple Editions
• Making difficult concepts easy to understand
• Silverman: Online, print editions of texts the future
• Be a proactive author: A key strategy for success
• Publishing journal articles: Seasoned pros give tips
• TAA reveals Texty, McGuffey judges' comments

Leftwich shares pitfalls, pleasures of authorship

TAA's 2003 convention keynote speaker Richard Leftwich, author of The Price System and Resource Allocation, told his audience of text and academic authors that although there are some pitfalls of textbook authorship, such as the constant feedback by users and reviewers, there are many more pleasures. The pleasures of textbook authorship, he said, include fulfillment, professorship opportunities and monetary awards. He shared this advice for fellow authors:

• Find a niche.
• Make sure you have something to say.
• Put your blood, sweat and tears into it.
• Be prepared for the pitfalls.
• Get it in writing.
• Sit back and enjoy the rewards.

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Author attorneys share contract negotiation advice

Author attorney Michael Lennie compares author-publisher contract negotiations to car shopping. "The sticker price of a car on the lot is always negotiable," he said. "So is an authoring contract." Lennie and fellow author attorney Lilly Ghahremani shared the following advice for negotiating contracts during their presentation "Negotiating with Publishers", at the TAA convention June 20:

• Be reasonable with the delivery date.
• Remember that permissions can be very expensive – the permission clause only talks about who's going to pay.
• Beware of vague words like "satisfactory" and "acceptable".
• When working with a new co-author, be frank, and get everything in writing.
• Keep a record of everything you send in a revision. Also keep a copy of all e-mails, files, etc.

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Tips on marketing self-published works

Tim Larson, co-owner of Larson Texts, told his audience of text and academic authors during a presentation on self-publishing at the TAA convention in Richmond, Virginia, that self-publishers especially have to "put on their marketing cap". He shared several ways self-publishers can market their book:

• Attend trade shows.
• Create an online ordering site.
• Hire an independent book representative.
• Ask your family and friends to help.
• Advertise in journals.

Larson also shared some tips for others wanting to self-publish:

• Check with the post office on mailing costs for different sized packages. Certain sizes can cost more than others to mail.
• Develop, and stick with, a schedule.
• Find reviewers and a really good copy editor.
• Use an external printer and binder.
• Hire a good attorney and accountant.
• Don't do huge print runs.
• Be cautious with your advertising dollars.

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Actual price of publishing textbook higher than most expect

Self -publisher John Webber illustrated the cost of publishing a textbook by having attendees play "The Price is Right," during his presentation on self-publishing at the TAA convention June 20.

Attendees were separated into seven groups, A through G, and asked to guess the prices of various textbook publishing services such as problem checkers, copy editors, typesetting, etc. Once the group spokesperson listed all the guesses, Webber unveiled the actual price of each service. The winning group received a candy bar.

During the presentation, Webber also presented a hypothetical budget for a textbook on a three-year cycle. The total projected budget was $222,500. If the book retails for $60, he said, the self-publisher would need to sell 3,800 books to break even (222,500 divided by 60). "ItÕs a risky venture," he said. "You need to weigh your risks."

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'Royalty Guru' teaches 'Arthur Author' the importance of having legal counsel

Armed with a red cape, a lobster hat with claws, a yellow jacket and a table, Gail Gross and Paul Rosenzweig of Royalty Review gave a four-act "Off-Off-Off Broadway" presentation laced with important lessons for authors. During their TAA convention presentation, "Royalties: A Comedy in Four Acts", Gross, dressed in a lobster hat, led Rosenzweig, wearing a yellow jacket and playing the "Royalty Guru", through the trials and tribulations of dealing with a publisher.

During the entertaining presentation, "Arthur Author" places himself in the publisher's hands without legal guidance. Arthur Author's series of problems with the publisher including a merger, translated editions he didn't know about, and changing statements, brought many moans of understanding from the audience members. As the Royalty Guru and Arthur Author synchronized their palm pilots and later decide to meet at Starbucks (Arthur Author didn't have enough money for anything more), the audience kept laughing – and learning.

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Author attorneys advise authors to watch out for merger clues

Publishing mergers don't come on suddenly, author attorneys Steve Gillen and Michael Lennie told their audience of text and academic authors at the TAA convention in Richmond, Virginia: "Look for hints such as costs being pulled back, editors moving through frequently, etc."

If a merger does occur, the two suggest doing a lot of research about the merging company – the titles that will be merged, which titles compete with their books, etc.

Although authors should watch out if they're with a publisher that's acquiring, they said, if they're with the company being acquired, they should try to establish contact with the sales force for promotion of their book, and establish a relationship with the sales people who will be selling their book. "A sales conference is an ideal place to introduce yourself to the sales people for the acquiring publisher," said Gillen and Lennie.

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Pynn satirizes TAA authoring workshops

Ron Pynn, TAA's executive director takes a humorous look at TAA's authoring workshops during the awards banquet at the close of the 2003 TAA convention.

Ron Pynn, TAA's executive director, had TAA awards banquet attendees rolling in the aisles with his humorous look at TAA's authoring workshops. Below is the text of his speech at the 2003 TAA Convention awards banquet in Richmond, Virginia, June 21:

As you well know, TAA provides workshops to writers and aspiring writers, so tonight I thought I would provide you a little insight into our workshops in order to help you convince your campus to host a TAA workshop.

TAA's workshop is called Writing to XS. We guarantee success in XS. First, you need to be an advocate for XS. But this seldom proves a problem as faculty are trained in XS and are quite good at doing things in XS.

With this said then, you should make an appointment to see your president or provost. This may prove difficult as they are likely to be in a meeting. Presidents and Provosts do this, you see, in order to avoid meeting with faculty members. If scheduling to see the president or provost proves difficult, go see the football coach. Tell the coach you have a workshop the team can attend, for which they get a semester's worth of credits, and retain their eligibility. It's important to emphasize to the coach that there will be no tests or note taking, that way it will not disrupt the normal semester sequence for the athletes.

In the off chance you do get to meet the president or provost, be sure you have a picture so you know who they are. TAA will supply you with letters of testimonials to give to them that stress the success of workshops and the presenters. Here is a sample from the letters we supply you:

"This is the best workshop I have attended in the last ten years, well, it's the only one. During this workshop I was able to completely address and write messages on all my Christmas cards. In the afternoon session I was able to plan out a shopping list and the stores I needed to visit to purchase my Christmas gifts.

The presenter started out being the most overbearing, obnoxious, arrogant facilitator I ever encountered, but as the session went along, the person improved somewhat."

You should stress to them this is faculty development. Presidents like faculty development, especially if it doesn't cost them any money. Faculty development is defined as anything faculty do outside of class that they would prefer not to do. Because faculty don't want to do it, instinctively presidents know its worth doing, and therefore faculty development.

You will want to stress the goals and objectives of the workshop to the president as well. You can't come right out and say we are going to sit around all day, drink coffee, and fill out faculty activity forms and still get them home in time to do something constructive, like mow their lawns. You will be required to talk about prestige publications and modeling effective teaching. Tell the president you plan to build a model effective teacher at the workshop. All presidents prefer to hear about dynamic, effective teaching. They know this is an exaggeration and not true. After all they were faculty once too. We all know effective teaching is overrated. Students don't want effective teachers. This means they get homework and have to take tests. Students want passing grades and not having to attend class, now that's effective teaching.

Once you have secured the workshop, TAA will also provide you a complete preparation guide on how to conduct the workshop. Let me review this with you. Workshops are held on the college campus. You will know where that is by following all the automobiles that are perpetually circling in search of a parking spot. College campuses are also full of young adults, appearing as students, walking to and fro. Now this might appear as students going to or from class, but, more likely, people looking for a party or just coming home from last night's party.

To find your parking space, it is not a good idea to park in the space reserved for the provost. Its likely to be occupied anyway. You see provosts all come in early to avoid faculty contact and then they remain cloistered in a meeting all day. However, you should feel free to park in the space marked president. They will not be on campus, most likely in Indianapolis visiting the NCAA over the latest recruiting violation, or they are visiting a rich alumn, convincing them to contribute to the basketball program.

Once on campus, you need to find your faculty contact person. If you find an office that's big enough to hold a desk, or even has a secretary, that's not it; its an administration building. Rather, you need to knock on doors marked storage or electrical. This will be a 5 x 7 room holding 4 or more faculty. Here you will find your faculty contact. Their job is to tell you where to go.

Once you have found the room, place a computer on a table in the center of the room. You will have no use for the computer during the session but it is sure to impress your audience. Arrange all the tables and chairs so that everyone is facing in a different direction. You can explain this is an innovative approach based on the latest literature in the field of faculty development or feng shui. Then step back and hope to hell the school didn't forget to advertise the workshop and someone besides the football team show up.

In preparation for the workshop, you will want to dress appropriately. If you are wearing cut off jeans, females should accent it with 3 inch heals, males with a tie that blinks. Also be sure your fly is closed, as this can be embarrassing , so be sure to reach down and check it every 30 seconds or so.

You should also provide plenty of handouts. I recommend giving complementary copies of books. This will orientate your audience to what a book looks like, its free up valuable shelf space for you, and audience members can then sell the books to used book vendors at the end of the workshop and take their spouse out for dinner. You, of course, will not sell any complementary copies. You know there is too much good material in them that you can use in your next book.

Learn to read the audience's reaction to your presentation; non-verbal communication can be especially important for a successful workshop. If people stick out their tongue, make arm or hand gestures, or make obscene noises with their armpit, you will want to consider taking corrective measures. I have found facing them and saying, "yeah, says you" generally does not have the desired effect. A nervous breakdown is much more effective. If members of the audience fall asleep, this tells you people are having a really good time. When this happens you can do one of several things. First, just steal their material and put your name on it. Or you can tell them when they wake up their idea has been accepted by the publisher as a K-16 text series and they have a six month deadline to complete it.

Finally, a proven fun technique is for all remaining workshop participants to file out quietly and reassemble at the local pub for some serious work. Finally, we have an evaluation sheet all participants are to fill out before leaving for the local pub, regardless of who fell asleep when. Participants can select all responses that apply.

1. The presenter was
   • Much more interesting than my departmental colleagues
   • Someone I would consider dating
   • As interesting as the bubbles in my beer
2. The information provided
   • Showed me how to steal other people's work and pass it off as my own
   • Proved though I have nothing to say, I can still get it published
   • Let me adopt my own book and require students to buy it
3. Overall, this workshop
   • Let me fantasize
   • Fulfilled all my fantasies
   • Was better than my fantasy

Introduction to begin the workshop.

Make eye contact with the audience at all times. In fact, never take your eyes off the audience. Would be authors can be a shifty lot and one or more or them may attempt to sneak out. I recommend using both eyes, lest someone think you are making a pass.

Well, on second thought....

Begin the workshop with a joke such as why did the author cross the road or there was a priest, a rabbi, and an author. I like these two because the punch line is the same for them both, "to get to heaven."

Then cite some pithy quotation from an old dead guy. These are collected in the work: Encyclopedia of Pithy Sayings from Old Dead Guys. The book is shelved in your library's wine cellar.

Finally, state your credentials. Tell the audience you are going to write a book someday, but TAA keeps you too busy giving workshops on how to write books. This is clearly much better than telling them you read a book once. Impress the audience with your cultured learning by using several big words. I suggest empowerment, parameter, and multi-tasking. But the audience should not write these words on the 3 x 5 cards you are handing out.

Note taking during the workshop.

Obviously workshop participants will want to take notes, you having so much to say. All members of the audience should be required to use the 3 x 5 note cards just handed out. On the cards they will write their answer to the question, "Why do I want to write an academic book?"

People not having 3 x 5 cards should be sent out get them. This will weed out the dweebs who actually think they can write a book using 3 x 5 cards. These will be the same people who will answer "I have something to say," or "this book will be a powerful learning tool." But we all know students are not going to read the book anyway. And if they wanted a learning tool, they would just purchase the lecture notes and exams from last semester's students. The lecture notes probably will be better written anyway.

Now that we have weeded out those seeking career advancement, advancing the discipline, or professional satisfaction, we can get down to those serious workshop attendees who know why they are here, to make a buck, to rub their department colleague's noses in it by saying, "I wrote a book and you didn't," or to escape a nagging spouse.

And everyone knows shuffling 3 x 5 cards won't get you any wealth but it can irritate the spouse. OK, got your 3 x 5 cards? Now write down the first 500 reasons why you want to write a book. Now arrange them in order by the number of words used. Delete all those with less than 50 words. If you deleted more than 10, you should consider leaving the workshop and trying another occupation, like administration.

Administrators are used to short sentences, like "no," or "I'll look into it."

The workshop spends a good deal of time on the book proposal. Here is what we say. First, you need to present the subject for the book. I find it best to leave the subject blank, allowing the publisher to fill it in. This increases chances the topic fits into their publishing plans. By following this approach you can proceed to the rest of the proposal with confidence of no adverse impact.

Outstanding features of the proposed book. This should be a fairly long paragraph as you want people to think there are many outstanding features.

Reasons for writing the book. This is a restatement of the outstanding features, but the sentences are in reverse order. Also it wouldn't hurt to name drop, like saying the Pope thought you should write a book on the Topic.

Pedagogy. This is a restatement of the reasons for writing the book but the sentences are numbered as in a list. However, you must be sure to emphasize that the pedagogy supports the reasons for writing the book as well as its outstanding features.

Author experience. Let them know you are an experienced writer, that your writing is thorough, imaginative, and expressive. To do this you should include some writing samples. Here is what is recommended:

Thoroughness - a shopping list

Imaginative - a ransom note

Expressive - love note (selected with caution as your spouse may read the proposal)

Next the proposal must address the competition. Begin by noting the Bible is not coherently written, appears written by more than one author, it has no pictures to enhance the text, there are no tables or pie charts, and it has a really scary, but ambiguous ending.

Next move to the history of writing in your field. This should begin with the dawn of time, including representative samples of cave art. It wouldn't hurt to include the 10 Commandments, noting it took two full stone tablets to include them all. Now everyone knows the 10 Commandments but ignores them anyway. This helps you explain the weaknesses of the competition.

Include letters from students explaining why they haven't read the text. Better, get letters saying they didn't even purchase the text. In the competition, include only works where the author is dead, as this makes their revisions less likely.

After this, you are ready to conclude you can do better. This means you must prove there is a market for your book. There are some very clear rules here that you must follow, and you need to have some very specific

numbers. These can be obtained from the government, the Bureau of Surplus Statistics. Government always has a lot of numbers lying around. These are collected and filed by the government. Publishers always like numbers, and since these come from the government, they have to be true.

Rule 1. Always start by saying you have researched the market, that you are in possession of market data. Unfortunately homeland security prevents you from releasing that data. If the publisher wishes, they can contact Tom Ridge to verify.

Rule 2. There is student dissatisfaction with the current texts. There is no worry of contradiction here as students are always dissatisfied with anything costing them over $50.

Rule 3. Be specific on the market for the book. You might say there is a market for this book, but it is better to say there is a big market for this book. Better still, say there is a market for this big book. This means publishers can charge a lot of money for the book, publishers like this.

Rule 4. End with a strong conclusion. Say something like you are an imbecile if you don't think this book will be widely used. Or if that is too strong, you could say this book will be widely used by imbeciles, but you don't want to say I am an imbecile for publishing this book with you in the first place.

Finally, you will need some sample chapters to accompany the proposal. You can get these from any book presently on the market. It is best not to use the first chapter, so Genesis is out, but Psalms or Proverbs are good, and if the work includes pornography, including pictures is a must. When the proposal is complete, you want to get the name of the president of the publishing house to which you send the proposal. In the upper left hand corner of the proposal's first page, write a note saying, "this looks good, with real sales potential. Sign the author and spare no expense." Sign the president's name and submit it to the acquisitions editor.

Now you are ready to write the manuscript, with complete assurance that your proposal will be accepted, and a big, fat advance is coming your way. So now the workshop moves on to helping people with their writing. Be sure to write so no one can understand. The more incomprehensible the prose, the more profound people will think it is. There is a side benefit for this as well. Faculty like this and will be more inclined to adopt it. It makes them appear as deep thinkers and when it come time for them to write their semester exams, they can make any multiple choice response the correct answer.

Be long winded. Student will complain if they have to pay $100 for a book under 600 pages.

Avoid citing other works. This proves you are the expert, and no one can trace back your stealing their material.

Don't over punctuate. Try and keep to one period and one comma per page. Most publishers prefer this and will reward you with a bonus period or comma every now and then. These can be placed randomly anywhere in the text.

Write in a conversational tone. The best way to do this is to call up students on the phone and read them sections of the manuscript. If they don't hang up right away, you know the tone is perfect. Another way to do this is to attend frat and sorority parties and do book readings.

Grammar. Be sure to turn as many nouns into verbs as possible. Never say, "the task is for students to learn long division." Better to say, "students will be tasked with boring long division exercises." Better still, "while exercising, students will task long division with a boring book."

Never split an infinitive. These are sentences with "to" in it. Such as "students are to learn long division." It is better to say, "students might learn long division." Better still, "long division is too difficult learned using infinitives."

Don't end a sentence with a preposition. That is, unless it's a proposition, as in, " I'm going out, you want to go with?" It's always proper to end a proposition with a preposition in order to prepare the preposition for the proposition. But to prepare the perfect proposition with a preposition in its proper place is probably not possible at the present time. Perhaps no presenter can prepare the perfect preposition proximate to its proper place.

But if you say, "From this book we both can make money with," then you have properly prepared the preposition for the proposition of publisher profit, and that's all they can possible pursue.

Avoid dangling participles. Participles are words that dangle, often right in the middle of the page because somebody has added an "ing" to them. An example, "tasking students, long division can be learned." You should say, "students learn long division by numerating and denominatoring." As you see this can get complicated, so I recommend the copy editor just delete all words ending in "ing."

TAA advocates using writing circles to improve your prose. This is how writing circles work. Put all the chairs in a circle. Start with blank sheets of paper. Each person writes down a word or phrase and passes the paper to the person on their left, the next person adds words or phrases. Whenever a period is placed, change the direction and pass the papers to the right. When no one has any room left or they start doodling, its time to quit. Now randomly delete 2/3 of the words, what remains is what you publish.

You can tell by now that writing is difficult business, and writer's block is a serious issue. So the workshop has to provide some time for those words that just won't seem to come. The TAA recommendation is to put the writing away, leave the manuscript for a while, go out and have fun.

Well, this is standard TAA advice for everything, so it also works for writer's block. Sometimes by just going to bed, you will find that the block breaks free and the words start to come. When this happens, you can boast to friends and colleagues that you do your best work in bed. Unfortunately, they will all know you are not talking about sex. Authors don't have sex, much. There are several hypotheses for this. One is authors are too preoccupied to pay attention to romantic signals and thereby miss the opportunity. Two, authors work in short bursts of energy, with too many pauses and transitions, nobody wants to wait around for that energy burst. Finally, they have likely traded in their bed to purchase a laser printer.

Now we need to turn to revisions, as your book certainly will be a hugh success. First, always change the cover. We all know books are judged by their cover, and you want it to look nice on the shelf. Second you need a new preface. Several reasons demand this. By now your spouse will be sick of the book and having divorced you, will have nothing more to do with you. The children want to be disassociated from the book as well. Their friends by now realize it was their parent who wrote the book and is the source of so much misery for them. And this is also the perfect opportunity to blame the cat for any and all errors.

As for the text, you will need to update the material. This can be done by watching MTV and copying down the lyrics to the most popular rock songs. It doesn't really make any difference what songs are used or where they are placed in the text, for the students will quickly make the connection and see the relevance to whatever subject is being discussed.

All revisions should be on 2 x 4 yellow sticky notes. These then should be posted on your office wall, den or bedroom, remember its not being used for much else anyway.

Now, if you don't use some of the posted notes, they can be part of your home decorating project. Those that are used can be peeled off the wall and randomly placed over paragraphs to be replaced. An even better idea is to invite the editor to your home and let he or she do it, that way you won't have to rearrange the notes later.

Marketing the text.

Here are some helpful hints to turn your tome into a best seller. First, be sure to use telemarketers. They are friendly, helpful folk. When they call they always want to know how you are doing. Then when they hear people are depressed because their present text is not working, this is a great lead in for pitching your text.

TV ads are good. Get an Oscar or Emmy winning actor or actress's testimony that they wouldn't be where they are today if it weren't for your book. If this proves too difficult, on the paid programming infomercials, have your book placed prominently on the exercise equipment being demonstrated or right next to the Vegamatic. I also recommend pictures of cabinet meetings, with Bush, Powell, and Rumsfeld sitting around a table where your book sits right in the middle of the table. Just be careful if you use a summit conference meeting that Jacques Chirac of France is not in the picture.

Finally, it is helpful if you personally visit all potential adopters. You should plan on visiting every college campus personally. You can expect the publisher to pay for this, and any costs not covered by the publisher can be charged to your university's travel budget.

Before we finish, TAA always wants authors to be knowledgeable about their contract and how to negotiate one. So we have some sage advice for them. At all costs, avoid using the words "cha, ching, baby."

Co-authors. If you use a co-author, they should always be referred to as "that other person."

Satisfactory manuscript clause. This manuscript is deemed satisfactory when I no longer can stand the sight of it.

Royalty rate. Why do they call it royalty? Is it fit for a king, a king's ransom? You should always negotiate the royalty. We recommend the phrase, "and the publisher will make my house payments for the next 20 years."

Indemnity clause. Here you want to be sure to say if there are any mistakes, they are not your fault. But you will need more legal terms to say this, so I recommend the phrase, "don't blame me." Then on the bottom of every page should appear a disclaimer, something to the effect, "The Surgeon General has determined that some of the words in this book may be too complicated to understand; pregnant women should be especially careful in carrying this book."

In conclusion, I did not come here this evening seeking your approval. Who wants it anyway. My biggest reward is knowing you have been able to sit upright for one-half hour without falling headfirst into your dessert.

I leave knowing all of you have learned the parameters for the TAA workshop, have been multi-tasked to put one on, and have the empowerment to succeed. So with your multi-tasks, go search the parameters that you might be fully empowered. In the meantime, I will leave with the $40 each of you paid to sit here and listen to this drivel.

Take then these skills, fully confident you have been empowered to face the challenges of the future. But wouldn't it be easier to simply turn your chairs around and face a different direction?

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TAA names first Lifetime Achievement Award winner

Texty winner Frank Silverman was the first to be presented with TAA's Lifetime Achievement Award. Silverman received the award at the awards banquet held the last night of the TAA convention in Richmond, Virginia. This is the first year that TAA has presented the Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a lifetime of excellence in authoring and a career of support and service to authors. Winners are also recognized for having fulfilled the highest ideal of the association.

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Pawlak, Heimbecker receive Norma Hood Award

TAA production editor Paula Heimbecker and TAA newsletter editor Kim Pawlak were awarded TAA's Norma Hood Award. The Norma Hood Award recognizes the efforts of a member whose devotion and commitment to the association, away from the limelight, keeps the organization strong and vibrant in the best tradition of the award's namesake, Norma L. Hood, the association's first executive director.

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Ethics author Jay Black receives Mike Keedy Award

The 2003 Mike Keedy Service Award was presented to Jay Black for his dedicated work on behalf of authors.

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Education author John Wakefield receives President's Award

The 2003 President's Award was presented to John Wakefield. TAA's President's Award is given in appreciation for skill and diligent efforts for TAA.

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Harris shares benefits to online, electronic journals

Photojournalism author Chris Harris shared some of the benefits of submitting journal articles to online, electronic journals such as the strictly online journal, Academicleadership.org, during his TAA convention presentation in Richmond, Virginia. Some of the benefits to online, electronic journals, said Harris, include:

• Journal articles can be translated into five languages and it will soon be expanded to 12.
• Online, electronic journal articles are printer friendly.
• Rights to the journal article can be assigned to the author.
• Online, electronic journals make it easier to archive editions/issues.
• Online, electronic journals allow for a cumulative bibliography.
• It's free to anyone browsing the website.
• Journal authors get an international response to their work.

http:///www.academicleadership.org

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Keep Your Textbook Alive Through Multiple Editions

Award-winning math author Michael Sullivan shared tips for sheparding your text through multiple editions during his TAA convention presentation in Richmond, Virginia. If you want your book to live through more than just the first edition, said Sullivan, you need to work at it. "Complacency is your enemy," he said. "No book is ever finished. No book is ever perfect. Every book can be improved." Sullivan shares these tips for ensuring textbook longevity:

• Immediately after the textbook is published, start two files, a reprint file containing little changes, and a revision file, containing larger changes.
• Ask your publisher to get competitive reviews.
• Ask to attend a national sales meeting. Get to know the salespeople. Hang out in the Hospitality Room, but watch your drinking.
• Offer to make sales calls.
• Be prepared for unkind remarks.
• When you attend professional meetings, hang out in the booth where your books are being sold. When there's down time, you can get to know the sales reps very well.

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Making difficult concepts easy to understand

Ida Flynn, a part-time teacher at the University of Pittsburgh who retired from full-time teaching three years ago, shared some tips for making difficult concepts easy to understand during her TAA convention presentation in Richmond, Virginia. "When you're writing a book you can't read people's faces like you can when you teach," she said. She shares these tips for making difficult concepts easy to understand:

• Think about your audience, forget everything you know and start from the ground up -- where your audience will be starting.
• Use familiar words and eliminate any technical terms and acronyms.
• Use metaphors, analogies and creative examples.
• Build on previous knowledge.
• Find the "essence" of the concept.
• Ask questions and make your reader pause and think.
• Try to have people not familiar with the subject read your explanation and try to explain it back to you.
• Use a picture, but only if it pertains to the subject and lesson.
• Say it again in different words. Repetition is good.

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Silverman: Online, print editions of texts the future

Doug Mathews of Learning Point, Dan Jones, development editor at Atomic Dog Publishing, and Franklin Silverman, a speech pathology author whose latest book was published by Atomic Dog Publishing, talked about the future of online textbook publishing at the TAA convention in Richmond, Virginia.

Mathews said Learning Point, a publishing company that works with mainly middle and high school level texts, helps teachers teach subjects that are "out of field." Jones said Atomic Dog, which works with higher education texts and publishes both online and print, has created a "new breed" of books. Silverman said he believes that online editions of textbooks with interactive media is the future.

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Be a proactive author: A key strategy for success

Physical geography author Robert Christopherson, who has the bestselling physical geography book in the United States and Canada, said being a proactive author has been his key to success. At the TAA convention in Richmond, Virginia, Christopherson, who retired from teaching and now writes exclusively, shared some of the things that have helped him become a proactive author:

• Develop a style guide and make it specific to your textbook (basic rules, spelling and grammar).
• Prepare a figure and permission tracking log. Design it according to how your book is set up. Christopherson's is 95 pages long.
• Be involved with your book's design and color palette.
• Use website links for recent news flashes.
• Use a large computer monitor -- perhaps even a flat screen.
• Let your editor and publisher know that you're on the cutting edge.
• Buy a laptop for communication while traveling.
• Have text-specific business cards printed.
• Have a writing studio. This is critical for avoiding interruptions.

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Publishing journal articles: Seasoned pros give tips

Jay Black, co-editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, and Charles Holland, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, shared tips for getting published with author attendees during their TAA convention presentation on publishing journal articles.

Black: "Get familiar with the journal – don't submit blindly. Skim through several issues and find the journal's pattern, topics, style, etc. If your article is too long or not in the required style, it shows that its not really focused. Don't give up. Eighty percent of resubmitted articles are accepted."

Holland:

• Have a general outline and write like you're telling a story to someone. Go back and polish it.
• Eliminate the 'fog factor'. It may sound good, but do people really understand what you're trying to say?
• Keep sentences short and make sure they say exactly what you want them to say.
• Look into the literature and reference everyone that's done work in the subject area of your article. They may be your reviewers; you don't want them to think their work has been ignored.
• Don't give up on your article. You will get recommendations back from the reviewer. Make the changes and resubmit.

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TAA reveals Texty, McGuffey judges' comments

TAA's Texty and McGuffey winners were announced, and some authors were present to receive their awards, at the TAA Awards Banquet held the last night of the convention. TAA Executive Director Ron Pynn read some of the judges' comments about the books. Here are some of those comments:

Texty winner Computer Organization and Architecture Designing for Performance, 6th ed., by William Stallings, published by Prentice Hall (college level, computer science/engineering):

"The graphics used in this text such as figures, diagrams, etc., are excellent. The text provides excellent breadth as well as depth. The review of the history of computer architecture is a nice feature. I also like the fact that the author included some material from older architectures and included this with the newer material."

"I found this book interesting, informative, well-organized and teachable. I immediately loaned it to our internet marketing professor."

"I did not just review this text, I took it home and read the whole thing!"

"This is a top-notch, prize-worthy textbook – well-written and easy to follow. A suberb text by a veteran teacher. Give it a Texty!"

"This text is one of the best combinations of text and supporting materials that I have seen. I can say with honesty and objectivity, the high marks I give this book are absolutely deserved."

"Highly original format with many pedagogic aids, statements by practitioners in the field, CD-ROM with glossary, review questions and answers. Handsome layout!"

"This book is engaging, well-organized and well-written. The photos and quotes from different medical billing specialists gave me a new respect for the profession. I'd definitely give the award to this book!"

"Reader-friendly style. Beautiful illustrations. Plenty of exercises. Well-organized."

"This book is about as good as it gets in this field. It is deserving of recognition for excellence, not only because it is a sound book, but also because author Zeilik has a rich legacy of positive contributions to introductory astronomy instruction."

"It would be hard to imagine a better presented, more informative text to teach beginning students about Brazilian language and culture."

"I find this textbook to be well-organized, imaginative, attractive, inviting and logical in its presentation and progression. I believe that it would be both enjoyable and profitable in the classroom."

"Andrew Tanenbaum is widely regarded as one of the top authors of computer science texts, and Computer Networks is one of his all-time classics and richly deserves the McGuffey Award."

"Outstanding book. Exceptionally clear. Well organized. Comprehensive. Really geared toward student. It's rare that I am this excited about a book."

"This is a solid, thorough textbook in which the authors have organized broad, changing and inter-related subject areas."

"The information in this book is soundly based in research. The coverage is comprehensive. I recommend it for a McGuffey Award."

"Many pedagogical aids (glossary, objectives, review questions) are a strength. Many illustrations. Eleven editions is pretty darn unusual!"

"This text describes and illustrates the most important facts that introductory students in health sciences need and does both exceptionally well!"

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