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2005 Convention
Photo Gallery
Return to Current Members-Only News TAA Convention receives high marks
The majority of those attending the 2005 TAA Convention in Las Vegas this June gave the convention high marks. Most of the sessions were given an excellent or good rating. One attendee called it "a very good convention for newbies and veterans." Another attendee said "I learned a lot at this conference both from the sessions and from talking to experienced authors." One attendee said he enjoyed the banquet: "It was nice to meet authors whose books I had used or reviewed." Many had suggestions for future topics. They include:
One attendee said the convention should always be in big, popular cities. Some suggestions for future convention sites: Seattle, Portland, Orlando, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Albuquerque, Denver, San Francisco, San Diego, Washington DC, New York, and Tuscon. Click here to download executive director Richard Hull's convention evaluation data. Outgoing Executive Director Entertains Convention Attendees
Outgoing TAA executive director Ron Pynn depicts the typical woes of a textbook author in his convention speech, a playful poem. Click here to download Pynn's speech. Award-winning Author Shares Tips
Marilyn "Winkie" Fordney, author or co-author of more than 50 books in three different medical career fields, has won five textbook awards from TAA, including a 2004 McGuffey Award for the fifth edition of Administrative Medical Assisting; a 2003 Texty Award for the first edition of Medical Insurance Billing and Coding: An Essentials Worktext; and a 2002 McGuffey Award for the seventh edition of Insurance Handbook for the Medical Office. Click here to download her tip sheet PDF. Advice on Getting Your Scholarly Articles Published
Don't get discouraged because your journal article is rejected, said Jay Black, editor of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics and professor of journalism ethics at the University of South Florida during a TAA Convention panel, "An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Scholarly Articles Published." "Your correspondence with editors should be enough to let you know where to go with it next," he said. "Even worse is to shelve a 'revise and resubmit' request from an editor. The fact that they asked you to resubmit means that they see quality there and want to work with you." Black said he has received his own journal articles for resubmit practically bleeding red ink. "I made it a point to fix every error and work with the editor to resubmit the article, " he said. "The editor is supposed to be nurturing scholars. I tend to think young scholars need more nurturing. If there's hope for a revision, we do that." The ones that don't eventually make it are those that don't revise the areas that reviewers suggest, he said. Black also recommended writing a cover letter in response to the revisions. The letter should tell which changes you made and why and which changes you declined to make and why. "Editors then recognize that you care and listen," he said. "It also shows that all the work done by the volunteer reviewers is being respected." Black shared some additional advice for scholarly journal authors:
Black's tip sheet from the convention: Click here to download the PDF. Prolific grant writer shares his advice on landing grants
The key element in grant writing is attitude, said Kenneth Henson, distinguished professor at the Citadel's School of Education, and author of a new book by Allyn & Bacon, Grant Writing in Higher Education: A Step-by-Step Guide. "You have to believe that you can take it as far as you want to as long as you're willing to work hard," said Henson, during his TAA Convention presentation, "Grant Writing in Higher Education," in Las Vegas, June 22. "If you don't have a belief in your ability to succeed, it's not going to happen." Henson, whose grant writing has brought in more than $100 million, said that pursing grant writing in an organized, controlled way will eventually lead to success. Start with your goals, he said. Decide where you are going professionally and then choose grant topics that will get you there. Identify the people who will be making decisions on your tenure and then go after those projects important to those people in their decision making, said Henson. For example, Henson's first grant was based on a statement he overheard about 85 percent of physics teachers working out of field. He wrote a grant that would provide summer seminars to help teachers gain certification as physics teachers. The grant was not only funded once, it was refunded several times. "When you get a grant, you want to get it refunded and refunded," he said. "It's not only easier to get the second and third grants, it looks good to those whom you are requesting additional funding." Henson shares some of the lessons he learned from his first grant:
"Grant proposal reviewers look for unique features," he said. "Include something in your grant that is different." For example, when he wrote his second grant proposal for the summer seminars, Henson said that if the grantor gave him a car and gas money, he would visit the teachers who took the summer seminars every fall to see how they were using what they learned in the classroom. "The reviewers look at this as 'he's doing all this and then wants to visit these teachers in the fall?' I just wanted to see the results of my work. I asked the teachers all the same questions ('What did you bring back from last summer's institute and use?' and 'What might the institute have offered that you could have used?') and I used their answers to write the next year's proposal." There are a whole lot of inexperienced people out there writing grant proposals, said Henson, yet there are also a lot of opportunities for grants. "So if you have some knowledge of grant writing, you can have success," he said. "You can be as successful as you're willing to work to be." 19 Tips for first-time authors
Four authors, three from TeachingPoint, a publisher of course specific materials for el-hi and college instructors, shared their advice for first-time authors during a TAA Convention panel on "Writing for the First Time".
Policies and politics of textbook adoptions
Christopher Stream, assistant professor of Public Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, took attendees through the history, policies and politics of textbook adoptions during his TAA Convention presentation, "Beyond the Three R's: The Policies and Politics of Textbook Adoptions." Stream was hired by TAA to write a grant to research textbook adoptions and policies. "When I began my research, I thought you just chose a textbook among a selection of books available and that was it," he said. "I learned very quickly that I was wrong." Stream said the textbook adoption process is totally the opposite of what you might think it is: "The textbook adoption process doesn't work like a market. El-hi schools cannot adopt a book outside of those adopted by the state. If they do, they have to pay for it on their own." Learn more about the textbook adoption process by viewing Streams' PowerPoint presentation. Click here to download. Read Stream's transcript from the presentation. Click here to download. Attorney advises authors on e-rights
The items in a publishing contract are like a bundle of asparagus, you can sell all of them together, or negotiate the terms for them one by one, said Michael Lennie, an authoring attorney and agent for Lennie Literary & Author's Attorneys during a TAA Convention panel presentation on text and academic materials development in the digital age. "Electronic rights is just one of those spears of asparagus," he said. "And on that one spear are many different e-rights elements. The author is in the enviable position of owning all of those spears." The publisher, said Lennie, will want them all, and the author has to decide whether to give those rights to the publisher or retain them. If your publisher wants all of your e-rights, he said, here are a few things to consider: What has the publisher done with e-rights in the past? Do they have the technical expertise to do it or will they license those rights to a third party? "The publisher may give you 50 percent of the rights of third party sales, but that may only be seven percent of the publisher's 15 percent from the licensed third party," he said. Lennie cautioned authors against giving away their e-rights in haste: "We are on the early cusp of e-technologies. Don't shut the doors to e-rights for the long term. E-rights will gain authors more money from publishers in the future." Electronic products have no paper costs, no storage costs, no inventory costs, no shipping costs and no returns, he said, thus e-products offer a lot to the publisher and author: "Because they don't cost too much, they provide a benefit to all of us." Lennie said a lot of electronic products are being sold without e-rights permission because the accounting structure at publishing companies hasn't caught up with publishing capabilities: "The ability to make electronic products is way ahead of our ability to account for them." Two authors inducted into TAA Council of Fellows
TAA initiated its Council of Fellows program in June 1998 to honor distinguished authors who have a long record of successful publishing. Any author whose textbook or other instructional materials have established his/her presence in the market place over time, who has been innovative in the presentation of material, is qualified for nomination into the TAA Council of Fellows. Induction into the Council of Fellows is the premier honor bestowed by TAA. Fordney has been a member of TAA since November 1990 and has attended five conventions, four of those in last four years. She is also a judge for TAA's Texty and McGuffey Awards. She has won five textbook awards from TAA, including a 2004 McGuffey Award for the fifth edition of Administrative Medical Assisting; a 2003 Texty Award for the first edition of Medical Insurance Billing and Coding: An Essentials Worktext; and a 2002 McGuffey Award for the seventh edition of Insurance Handbook for the Medical Office. She has made more than 39 presentations. "I want to thank TAA for this special honor," said Fordney, as she accepted her award during TAA's Awards Banquet, held during the association's annual convention in Las Vegas. "I feel like my journey has culminated at receiving this award. I have received a lot of warmth from people in this organization. Authoring is a lonely world, but knowing there is help out there as you're going through the highs and lows is comforting. This organization has a lot to offer authors. If they only knew what good things are here we would have even more participation." Timberlake has attended four TAA conventions, including the most recent one in Las Vegas. She has presented at many educational conferences throughout the country including a session at TAA's Houston convention on how authors can motivate students through teaching strategies and textbooks. In 1985, she received the Chemical Manufacturer's Association Regional Catalyst Award for Excellence in Chemistry Teaching, an award based on comments from students. Her textbooks include Chemistry: An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, which won a TAA McGuffey Award in 2004, General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry: Structures of Life, and Basic Chemistry. Chemistry: An Introduction, now in its 9th edition, has been a leader in the market of chemistry for allied health for many years. She has also authored numerous study guides, laboratory manuals and instructors manuals. "In the classroom, I always loved teaching and finding ways to excite students about chemistry," said Timberlake. "For me, writing textbooks has been an extension of helping students learn chemistry and continue towards their career goals. I am delighted to be on the Council of Fellows and hope to mentor new authors and increase the awareness of the rich resource of community college authors." Fordney and Timberlake join a dozen other authors who have been accepted into the Council Fellows since 1999. TAA ad manager sold $4,600 in ads The TAA Council congratulated TAA Advertising Manager Lisa Thorsell on bringing in $4,600 in advertising revenue in the past four months. New advertisers/sponsors include Lennie Literary Agency & Author's Attorneys, StudioB Literary Agency, The Copyright Clearance Center, and Academic Internet Publishers, Inc. (AIPI). Lennie Literary Agency and Academic Internet Publishers, Inc. purchased a full page ad in The Academic Author for four issues at the cost of $1,300 each, and StudioB and the Copyright Clearance Center purchased a half page ad for four issues at the cost of $1,000 each. Harris named 2006 TAA Convention chair The TAA Council announced that Chris Harris will serve as convention chair for the 2006 TAA Convention in New Orleans during its annual meeting in Las Vegas June 21. Harris is a New Orleans native. He is also TAA vice president-president-elect. TAA to ask members to contribute $5 to TAA Foundation With the goal of getting 100 percent participation from members, TAA will begin asking members to make a $5 tax-deductible gift to the TAA Foundation when they renew their membership. TAA plans to add a line for making the donation to its member renewal forms. One hundred percent member participation is an important factor in foundations' decision making process when making grants to nonprofits, said Richard T. Hull, TAA's new executive director. "The amount of support from each member is not as important as the percentage of support by members." The TAA Foundation is in the process of writing grant proposals to foundations to support a TAA-sponsored project to increase diversity among textbook authors. TAA awards $15,000 matching grant to TAA Foundation In support of the TAA Foundation's efforts to secure funds for a project to increase diversity among textbook authors, the TAA Council approved a motion to provide a matching grant of $15,000 to the Foundation contingent upon its raising an additional $15,000 in matching funds from other donors. Christopherson receives TAA President's Award TAA Treasurer Robert Christopherson received the 2005 President's Award from TAA. The President's Award is presented by the current TAA president to someone in his or her view has great potential for service in TAA. "TAA means everything to me," said Christopherson, a geology author. "Thank you." Last year's winner was John Wakefield, who is now TAA President. Tucker receives TAA's Norma Hood Award TAA's Managing Director Janet Tucker received the 2005 Norma Hood Award from TAA. The Norma Hood Award is given in recognition of the efforts of a member who, because they are away from the limelight, doesn't often receive the recognition they deserve. Gillen receives TAA's Mike Keedy Award TAA Council member Steve Gillen received the 2005 Mike Keedy Award from TAA. The Mike Keedy Award is named after the founder of TAA and is the highest award the organization can give a member for their work on behalf of authors. Gillen is an authoring attorney with Greenbaum, Doll & McDonald, PLLC. TAA Council appoints at-large member The TAA Council approved the appointment of Michael Lennie, an authoring attorney and agent with Lennie Literary Agency & Author's Attorneys, as an at-large member, during its annual meeting in Las Vegas June 21. Other at-large members are Don Collins, Steve Gillen, Tara Gray, Jim Prekeges, Paul Rosenzweig and Mary Kay Switzer. Council officers for the 2005-2006 fiscal year are John Wakefield, president; Chris Harris, vice president/president-elect; Robert Christopherson, treasurer; Ron Pynn, secretary, and Michael Sullivan, immediate past president. Pasewark, Mountain to serve on Council of Fellows Committee Computer science author William R. Pasewark and reading author Lee Mountain were appointed by the TAA Council to serve on the Council of Fellows Committee, which reviews nominations to the Council of Fellows. TAA initiated its Council of Fellows program in June 1998 to honor distinguished authors who have a long record of successful publishing. Any author whose textbook or other instructional materials have established his/her presence in the market place over time, who has been innovative in the presentation of material, is qualified for nomination into the TAA Council of Fellows. Induction into the Council of Fellows is the premier honor bestowed by TAA. |
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