2003
Richmond, Virginia
June 20-21

Omni Hotel, Richmond, Virginia

Hotel and Area Information
Convention Registration

Itinerary

FRIDAY, JUNE 20

8-8:30
Coffee and pastries

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8:30-9:00
TAA: The Year in Review
Ron Pynn, TAA Executive Director and Mike Sullivan, TAA President
Welcome: Tara Gray, Convention Chair and John Webber, Co-Chair

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9:00-10:30
Keynote Address, Textbook Publishing: Pitfalls, Pratfalls and Pleasures
Richard Leftwich
Introduction: Tara Gray

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10:30-10:45
Break

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10:45-11:15
Richmond GeoPrimer – Are We in the East, or the South, or the North?
Robert Christopherson
Introduction: John Webber

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11:15-12:15
Negotiating with Publishers
Michael Lennie and Lilly Ghahremani
Introduction: John Webber

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12:15-1:45
Lunch

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1:45-3:15
Royalties: A Comedy in Four Acts
Starring Paul Rosenzweig and Gail R. Gross of R & M Royalty Review
Introduction: John Webber

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3:15-3:30
Break

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3:30-4:30
Electronic Publishing
Moderator: Ron Pynn
Doug Matthews
Tom Doran
Frank Silverman

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4:30-5:30
TAA Ethics Town Meeting
Jay Black
Introduction: Ron Pynn

SATURDAY, JUNE 21

8-8:30
Coffee and pastries

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8:30-10:00
Does Self-Publishing Make Cents?
John Webber and Tim Larson
www.WebberTexts.com and www.LarsonTexts.com
Introduction: Ron Pynn

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10:00-10:15
Break

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10:15-11:15
Mergers and Acquisitions
Steve Gillen
Michael Lennie

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11:15-12:45
Lunch

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12:45-2:15
Publishing Journal Articles: Some Seasoned Pros Tell All
Moderator: Chris Harris
Gerald Stone
Charles Holland
Jay Black
Chris Harris

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2:15-2:30
Break

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2:30-4:00
Publishing Textbooks: Some Seasoned Pros Tell All
Moderator: Tara Gray
Introductions: Kathryn Henry

Author-Publisher Relations: The Smiles and the Tears
William Pasewark

Be a Proactive Author: A Key Strategy for Success
Robert Christopherson

Making Difficult Concepts Easy to Understand
Ida Flynn

Hey, It's All About the Next Edition
Mike Sullivan

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4:00-4:30
The Future of TAA: An Open Forum for Members
Ron Pynn, TAA Executive Director and Mike Sullivan, TAA President

ABSTRACTS AND BIOS

Publishing: Pitfalls, Pratfalls, and Pleasures
Richard Leftwich

In this keynote address, Dr. Leftwich will use his experiences to illustrate problems of writing, securing a publisher, production, and the like. He will point out his mistakes, as well as his encounters with copy editors, advertising gimmicks, and other unexpected twists. Finally, he will reflect on a lifetime of profits and pleasures derived.

Dr. Richard Leftwich received his masters and Ph.D. in economics at The University of Chicago. Before retiring, he taught for thirty-seven years at Oklahoma State University, including ten years as a department head and twenty years as a Distinguished Regents Professor. Dr. Leftwich has also served as a distinguished visiting professor seven times, including serving in Chile, Egypt and Taiwan. He has published four textbooks including an economic issues book that went into twelve editions. His most famous book on microeconomic theory went into ten editions and was translated into eight languages. This book became the industry standard.

Royalties: A Comedy in Four Acts
Starring Paul Rosenzweig and Gail R. Gross

Act I - The royalty agreement
Act II - Reading royalty statements
Act III - Confirming accuracy of royalty statements
Act IV - Reporting royalties to the IRS

PLAYBILL NOTES: Actors are not members of Actors Equity (as you will quickly discern). There will be no intermissions between acts, but plenty of question and answer time afterwards --and at the nearest bar!

Paul Rosenzweig began his professional career in 1974 as a CPA with a traditional career path in public accounting. In 1978 he became Vice President and Treasurer of Academic Press, Inc., a multinational publisher and distributor of technical books and scholarly journals, with revenues of $100 million. In 1993 he became President of Royalty Review Service, Inc., representing authors who wish to confirm the accuracy of their royalty statements. Mr. Rosenzweig is a member of The Authors Guild and recently served on the Council of Text and Academic Authors.

Gail R. Gross began her publishing career in 1976 as a CPA with Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In 1982 she began serving as assistant to the Treasurer of Academic Press, a subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In 1994 she began working as a consultant at Royalty Review Service, Inc. In 1999, Royalty Review Service, Inc. joined the accounting firm of Rosenzweig & Maffia, changing its name to R&M Royalty Review LLC. Ms. Gross was promoted to Chief Operating Officer.

TAA Ethics Town Meeting
Jay Black

The TAA Ethics Town Meeting will include the presentation of findings from a spring, 2003 survey of TAA members who are being asked dozens of questions concerning the ethics of authoring. A lively discussion is anticipated as we explore controversial topics such as bowing to pressures from publishers and marketers; assigning our own textbooks to our students; using university resources to prepare books from which we get royalties; appropriately using and acknowledging contributions from other authors and our own students; selling unwanted complimentary books to used book buyers; padding our resumes by recycling our research efforts; etc. Following the discussion the TAA Code of Ethics will be reassessed – and possibly rewritten.

Jay Black is Vice-President of TAA and chair of the TAA ethics committee. A Texty winner for a media and society textbook that has been in press for nearly 20 years, he is a prolific author and lecturer on ethics, media and society subjects. He has authored or co-authored ten editions of various texts and academic books, and since 1984 has been co-editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics. He has won university and national teaching and research awards, and in 1996 was named co-winner of the national Journalism Teacher of the Year prize sponsored by The Freedom Forum. At the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, he serves as the Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics. He also chairs the interdisciplinary Program for Ethics in Education and Community (PEEC), working on ethics projects with the campus, business, educational, and other communities.

Self-Publishing
Tim Larson and John Webber

Participants will learn about self-publishing from the perspective of authors turned publishers including how to approach writing as a business; the essentials of the publisher's role; tools available to help self-publishers; and, how to expand your role as a publisher. The advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing will be discussed.

Participants will engage in a team competition, "The Price is Right," to estimate the costs of copy-editing, problem checking, review fees, typesetting, printing, etc. Finally, participants will prepare a budget for a contemplated college text and determine the sales volume needed to break even for recovering hard costs only and for recovering both hard costs and something for the author's time.

Tim Larson earned a B.S. in Mathematics-Computer Science from Penn State University at Erie in 1987. He is co-owner of Larson Texts, Inc., formed with his father in 1983. His publications include software and lessons he developed that have been used to produce over 70 tutorial products. Mr. Larson has published several papers and earned a best paper award at the 1999 Frontiers in Education conference. Tim lives with his wife of 20 years and their two teenage daughters in Erie, Pennsylvania.

John Webber has been teaching business and math courses at the Salt Lake Community College for 13 years. He has authored the texts Math for Business and Life, Contemporary Business Mathematics, and Investment Analysis. He has published through a national publisher and has also self-published so he has a feel for the advantages and disadvantages of each.

John's business background, primarily in real estate development, is reflected in his writing. He tries to keep his writing simple, friendly, and real-life. John lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and enjoys the activities in the nearby mountains, like white-water rafting, camping, and fishing. He is a respectable tennis player, but a frustrated golfer. John says that according to his weight, he should be 4 inches taller.

Negotiating with Publishers
Michael Lennie and Lilly Ghahremani
Lennie Literary Agency & Author's Attorneys

Michael R. Lennie
Michael R. Lennie has been an attorney for more than 30 years, holding licenses in California and New York. For the last 16 years his practice has focused on the representation of authors, highlighted by the historic settlement of Buffington v. Macmillan and hundreds of successful contract negotiations.

Michael Lennie's knowledge of publishing practices, contract negotiations, licensing, and author/publisher rights gives him a unique advantage representing authors as both a literary agent and attorney. His literary agency and law office represents both trade and textbook authors in a variety of genres, and includes both published and unpublished authors.

Mr. Lennie is a charter member of the Text and Academic Authors Association, San Diego Publishers Alliance, the Authors Guild, and several local publishing/writing groups. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of San Diego School of Law and regularly speaks at national conferences, conducts workshops and publishes articles for author associations.

Lilly Ghahremani
Lilly Ghahremani is an attorney licensed to practice in the state of California. She began her literary career with a degree in English from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her education there included surveys of medieval literature in English and French, Native American literature, and studies of the modern novel. Lilly holds a law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, where her coursework included copyright, First Amendment, and the laws of cyberspace.

ln law school, Lilly was involved in the founding of a legal journal on Middle Eastern law, for which she also served as chief articles editor. She has worked with the prominent Los Angeles entertainment law firm Codikow, Carroll, Guido & Groffman, where she was involved in domestic and international copyright and trademark matters. Lilly speaks four languages and has a special interest in women's and ethnic literature.

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