A: John Vivian, former TAA president: The nomination fee offsets TAA's considerable expense in sponsoring the Texty and McGuffey competition. Shipping nominated works to judges is a major expense, especially massive el-hi packages. We have other costs too. For several weeks during the winter, the awards consume most of the staff's time at national headquarters. When TAA created the awards, we felt that the nomination fee, at $200, is more easily shouldered by a publisher than an author. We knew that publishers of winning texts could capitalize on the attendant publicity, which they have. Some publishers trumpet the news on book covers and in promotional literature, which has made the nomination fees a great marketing investment. At the beginning, when these awards were created, some publishers didn't want to participate, mostly out of a reluctance to even acknowledge TAA's existence. Those were the old days. Now only McGraw-Hill is holding out. I encourage McGraw-Hill authors to keep asking their editors to nominate them. I'm confident we are on the brink of bringing McGraw into the McGuffey-Texty family. It would be a further signal to McGraw authors that the company is supportive of their work.

> Vivian writes in mass communication.

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