Links

This section provides a collection of links to author organizations, groups, and resources especially for textbook and academic authors.

Textbook & Academic Writing Blogs

Cassie Premo Steele's blog is dedicated to empowering women in the academy. It contains weekly tips and inspiration.

Explorations of Style. Rachael Cayley is a wealth of knowledge for academic writing and productivity.


Get a Life, PhD. Tanya Golash-Boza offers practical step-by-step advice for various aspects of the writing and publishing process.

James Hayton, PhD. James Hayton has a vast archive of articles, many of which I'm sure you'll find to be practical, easy to follow, and, of course, helpful.

patter. Pat Thomson covers everything from thesis writing to journal etiquette and rejections, to how to get started on the page.

PhD2Published. This blog is packed with tips, so many that we're not even sure where to start. You’ll just have to check it out for yourself.

PhD Talk. Tips not only include those on writing and motivation, but also on surviving as a PhD student. Eva Lantsoght will draw you in with her down-to-earth personality and sound advice.

ScholarStudioBlog. This blog is unique in that it addresses graduate students as well as graduate faculty and administrators. By “overhearing” articles addressed to their counterparts, these stakeholders in graduate education come to better understand each other’s needs and professional realities.

The Academic Creative. Katie Linder is an academic creative. Whether she's writing books, recording podcast episodes, hosting webinars, or building courses, she loves to create new things that help other academics and higher education professionals see their creative potential.

The Chronicle of Higher Education. The ‘Advice’ section offers academics advice for all facets of academia, but if you scroll almost to the bottom you’ll find the heading, ‘Page Proof.’ Focus is on academic writing and book proposals; all are written by Rachel Toor.

The Scholarly Kitchen. The mission of the Society for Scholarly Publishing is “[t]o advance scholarly publishing and communication, and the professional development of its members through education, collaboration, and networking.” The Scholarly Kitchen is a moderated and independent blog aimed to help fulfill this mission by bringing together differing opinions, commentary, and ideas, and presenting them openly.

The Textbook Author contains tips, tools, and notes on the practical side of being an academic text author.

The Thesis Whisperer developed ‘Shut up and Write!’ which “turns writing from a solitary, to a social experience.” You can either start a group near you or find a group in your area using their interactive map.

Author-Related Services

Academia.edu is a "tree of academics around the world" that helps academics keep track of new people and papers in their field.

Academic Coaching & Writing (ACW) is a group of professional academic coaches and consultants that provide research consulting and coaching for dissertation and academic writing, career and professional growth (including help with balancing the demands of research, teaching and service), and leadership development.

Ankura Consulting Group is a business advisory and expert services firm.  As an independent firm built on five key principles – Integrity, Quality, Diversity, Collaboration and Longevity – Ankura’s relationships extend beyond one engagement or issue. Ankura has an extensive practice relating to royalty compliance audits of underlying publishing agreements.

BookXtra is a free service for authors. Add your book cover and your book's accompanying & unique content to sell your book from their website.

Copyright Clearance Center helps authors, creators, individual copyright holders and their representatives license the use of their copyrighted material and gain a deeper knowledge of the business of writing.

Enago specializes in providing scientific and academic editing services to researchers and helps them to get published in high-impact factor journals globally.

Enago Academy's Book Review Section provides the perfect platform for publishers and authors to showcase their books along with reviews written by distinguished experts in their fields.

FlatWorld is a higher-education publisher dedicated to breaking down the barriers to education. By offering more than 100 titles starting at $29.95 each, we're helping put textbooks in the hands of all students, on the first day of class.

Gadget Software designs smart manuals around collections of ideas, each containing media elements that are key to express its concept (e.g. images, videos, maps, etc.). Our smart manuals can connect to other data resources to bring relevant information into view, and can integrate with other technologies, such as AR and smart eyewear, to provide a complete understanding of an important process or procedure. Just as Google and Waze maps help us navigate from one place to another, smart manuals help us quickly navigate from one idea or concept to another.

Global English Editing is an online-only professional editing company that provides specialist academic editing services to academics and PhD students seeking publication.

Open Colleges: 5 Handy Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills - Professional editor, Lisa Lepki, explains 5 ways to edit your writing to get your point across much more clearly.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized.

Publishing Training Centre is a network of over 50 publishing and training professionals focused solely on delivering training courses for the publishing industry and developing publishing skills.

Research to Action (R2A) is a website catering for the strategic and practical needs of people trying to improve the uptake of development research, in particular those funded by DFID.

Riverwinds Consulting offers a full catalog of services to associations, publishers, and other organizations. Specializing in scholarly publishing, Riverwinds addresses both print and digital needs.

Rubin & Ulrich LLC provides creative legal solutions to help their clients - including textbook and academic authors in all disciplines- make the most of their intellectual property. 

Scholar Studio. Dr. Daveena Tauber is a scholar and writing consultant who works with graduate programs and graduate students nationally and internationally. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University. Daveena is passionate about helping graduate students succeed and has worked with hundreds of clients as they have defended theses and dissertations, published articles, and landed jobs. Her talks and workshops are engaging and valuable.

StudentMentor.org pairs professionals with college students in a mentor/mentee relationship.

The Expert Editor recently published a list of the top 50 apps and resources for writers.

Thought Clearing provides dissertation coaching and academic editing services.

WordCo is America’s largest full-service indexing company, with offices located in Norwich, Connecticut. Our clients include many of the major publishing houses as well as smaller presses and individual authors. Our team of indexing professionals is dedicated to getting the job done right, on time, and for a fair price.

Software for Textbook & Academic Authors

Bulk Rename Utility. This free file renaming software for Windows allows you to easily rename files and entire folders based upon extremely flexible criteria.

Citeulike is a free service to help you to store, organize and share the scholarly papers you are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. Citeulike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser so there's no need to install any software. Because your library is stored on the server, you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection.

Crossref makes research outputs easy to find, cite, link, and assess.

Evernote provides one workspace that lives across your phone, tablet, and computer.

Fences desktop organizer helps you organize your PC by automatically placing your shortcuts and icons into resizable shaded areas on your desktop called fences. 

Goodsync synchronizes and backs up files such as photos, financial documents, MP3s and emails between desktops, laptops, servers and external drives.

Instapaper allows you to save and store articles, videos and other information you find while browsing and read it across all of your devices.

Roboform password organizer. This password management software allows you to use only one master password to access all of your password-protected sites.

The Lens serves global patent and scholarly knowledge as a public good to inform science- and technology-enabled problem solving.

Open Access Resources

Author-Related Websites

24 Tips for Teaching Writing The 24 essays in this collection will prompt teachers to help their students grasp changes in what is acceptable language, explore the mysteries of word usage, and learn strategies to improve their writing. The essays are drawn from Lingua Franca, The Chronicle’s free blog about language in academe. 

A Comprehensive Guide to APA Citations and Format provides you with an overview of APA format. Included is information about referencing, various citation formats with examples for each source type, and other helpful information.

Academic Decluttering designed and facilitated by Meggin McIntosh, PhD. This series will not be “decluttering lite.” Yes, we will talk about paper and other physical stuff that is clogging up your office and home. Yes, we will talk about email and digital clutter. And, we will also talk about commitments, promises, hostility, stories, roles, planners, to-do lists, and more. Your learning will be framed using these six principles: courage, authenticity, service, truthfulness, love, and effectiveness (CASTLE® Principles).

Co-authorship in the Humanities and Social Sciences is a white paper exploring the experiences of co-authorship by researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS).

Copyright Clearance Center's Beyond the Book explores issues facing the information content industry and helps creative professionals realize the full potential of their works, while encouraging respect for intellectual property and the principles of copyright.

Editorial Freelancers Association offers resources to scholarly and textbook editors, indexers, and other editorial professionals.

Enago Academy offers comprehensive and up-to-date resources for researchers, publishers, editors, and students to learn and share their experience about research and publishing. Enago Academy also conducts workshops primarily for ESL authors, early-stage researchers, and graduate students.

IBPA Hybrid Publisher Criteria. In February 2018, the IBPA Advocacy Committee published a list of nine criteria defining what it means to be a professional hybrid publisher.

Image Description Guidelines. These image description guidelines were developed by the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM) in conjunction with the DIAGRAM Center (Digital Image And Graphic Resources for Accessible Materials) at Benetech.

Introduction to Academic Writing and Publishing Master Course. This how to: academia master course created by Katie Linder includes nine mini-courses for new and experienced academic authors. This master course covers: Juggling Multiple Writing Projects; Organizing an Edited Collection; Promoting an Academic Book; Interacting with Journal Editors; Setting & Accomplishing Writing Goals; Writing a Book Proposal; Being a Productive Writer; Creating & Maintaining Your Publishing Pipeline; and Designing a Five-Year Publishing Plan.

Navigate the sea of scholarly communications This Open Access series of modules is designed to help you - scholars and aspiring scholars - navigate the world of scholarly communications and publishing. Take this opportunity to draw on the knowledge of our expert presenters and gain insight into the capabilities you need for success in publishing.

Office Hours Rebus Community & Open Textbook Network bring you "Office Hours". A regular video chat with special guest on topics around all things Open Textbooks.

Publish, Not Perish, The Art & Craft of Publishing in Scholarly Journals is an online library research course offered by the University of Colorado.

Scholars' Retreat is a for-profit retreat designed to provide the opportunity for intensive, focused, non-distracting, supervised writing time so that you may make significant progress toward the completion of your dissertation, thesis, or writing project.

Scribendi offers professional editing and proofreading and contains articles about front matter, how to conquer writer’s block, tips to stay awake when writing, how to use proper punctuation, and common mistakes to avoid in writing.

SoTL by Design is your comprehensive guide to navigating the IRB process, choosing a research question, exploring SoTL research designs, mapping evidence, creating a data analysis plan, crafting a project timeline, and strategizing about the dissemination of SoTL project results.

The 30 Articles in Just 30 Days Self-paced, Self-study Program gives you the structure and instruction to be able to write 300- to 1000-word articles easily and quickly.  You can drop the stress and anxiety and instead find yourself writing regularly – and very possibly – even enjoying it!

The Academic Book Promotion Toolkit is a course for new and experienced academic authors who need the structure, tools, templates, and guidance to create a plan and timeline for promoting a new book.

The Complete Guide to MLA & Citations provides an in-depth overview of MLA format. It includes information related to MLA citations, plagiarism, proper formatting for in-text and regular citations, and examples of citations for many different types of sources.

Author Organizations

Alliance of Independent Authors. ALLi is an open and diverse organisation with a core mission of ethics and excellence in self-publishing.

American Society of Journalists and Authors. ASJA, based in New York, represents mostly freelance contributors to magazines and newspapers.

American Society of Indexers. ASI's mission is to promote excellence in indexing and to increase awareness of the value of well-written, well-designed indexes.

Artists Rights Society. The Artists Rights Society, based in New York, is the preeminent copyright, licensing and monitoring organization for visual articles in the U.S.

Association of American Publishers. The AAP is the principal trade association of the book publishing industry.

Authors Coalition. The Authors Coalition represents several major U.S. author organizations, including the Text and Academic Authors Association, as a recipient of repatriated reprographic monies for its member organizations.

Authors Guild. The Authors Guild predominantly represents trade book authors.

Dramatists Guild. The Dramatists Guild is the professional association of playwrights, composers, lyricists & librettists.

Garden Writers Association of America. The Garden Writers Association provides leadership and opportunities for education, recognition, career development and a forum for diverse interactions for professionals in the field of gardening communications.

The International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM). Nonprofit professional membership association whose mission is to promote research on, and an understanding of, textbooks and educational media; establish contact between all parties interested in educational media and textbook issues; and strengthen the focus on educational media and textbook issues in teacher education and teacher training.

Kopinor. The Norwegian reproduction rights organization.

Mystery Writers of America. Mystery Writers of America is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre.

National Association of Science Writers. NASW fights for the free flow of science news.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity. NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of over 25,000 graduate students, post-docs and faculty members

National Writers Union. The National Writers Union, formed in 1981, is affiliated with the United Auto Workers union and the AFL-CIO.

Novelists, Inc. Novelists Inc. is based in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. Ninc is the only writers organization devoted exclusively to the needs of multi-published novelists.

Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. OASPA is an international community of Open Access publishers whose mission is to represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journal and book publishers globally, across all subjects and disciplines.

Romance Writers of America. Romance Writers is based in Houston, Texas.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers. SFWA is a professional organization for authors of science fiction, fantasy and related genres.

Sisters in Crime. Sisters in Crime promotes the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry.

Sisters of the Academy. Founded in 2001, the mission of Sisters of the Academy (SOTA) Institute is to facilitate the success of Black women in the Academy.

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Based in Los Angeles, SCBWA is the only professional organization specifically for those individuals writing and illustrating for children and young adults in the fields of children’s literature, magazines, film, television, and multimedia.

The above directory is being built as members give us information about other author organizations and author resources. We will do our best to build a comprehensive list and to keep the list up-to-date. But because there are so many author organizations, and because some are short-lived, you may find some information is dated. Please help us keep the list current. Email us at Info@TAAonline.net

While TAA may provide information about certain providers, the inclusion of such information is solely for your convenience and should not be interpreted in any way as an endorsement of the provider.