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updated 2/9/10

TAA thanks Sustaining Members
Thank you to Sustaining Members Susan Fawcett and Steven Barkan.

TAA thanks Contributing Member
Thank you to Contributing Member Martin S. Roden.

Authors Asking: My book is running too long!
Q: "I am writing a book under contract and my chapters have been running so long I have already written the maximum number of pages negotiated with my publisher, yet have only fulfilled half the overall content promised. How should I approach this with the publisher? Should I renegotiate the overall content covered in the book or engage in some major editing?" Click for answer

Dr. Jerry Wilson

Notable Author: Jerry Wilson
Curiosity remains a constant for physical science author
by David Cole
Though he has been retired from teaching for 17 years, Jerry Wilson continues to educate students through his textbooks. Wilson authored or co-authored nine textbooks during his academic career, three of which are still in print. Click for more

updated 3/2/10

Reviewed by Dr. Janet Belsky

Book Review of Philip Yaffe's Gettysburg Approach to Writing and Speaking like a Professional
by Dr. Janet Belsky

I'm assuming that "no one will want to read what I'm writing" (Gettysburg Approach to Writing and Speaking like a Professional, principle #1). So how can I hook your interest in this review? As I just learned: 1) Give you, the reader, what YOU want to know not what I want you to know. 2) Make this review as long as necessary and short as possible. And 3) offer information, that is precise, specific, detailed or, in the author’s words, logically dense. So here goes: Read full review

updated 2/9/10

Daniel Botkin
Dr. Daniel Botkin has published a new environmental science book Powering the Future, published by FT Press, a division of Pearson Education. The book represents Botkin's findings of more than 40 years of independent, objective environmental research--sans the politics. It delivers the unfiltered, non-biased truth about energy--the world's growing need and demand for it and the prospects, limitations, risks and costs associated with leading and newly emerging sources of energy. Botkin is one of the world's most published and highly acclaimed naturalists and scientists regarding topics surrounding environmental issues. He is the author of several other books on environmental science, including the textbooks, Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century, and Environmental Science: Earth as a Living Planet, which won a Textbook Excellence Award from TAA in 2004.

Mary Kay Switzer
Communications author Mary Kay Switzer published new editions of her Conflict Resolution workbook and Nonverbal Communication workbook. She was also named to "Who's Who in Arts and Entertainment".

updated 3/26/10

Stan Gibilisco

TAA Member Column: Let’s prepare for the VAT
by Stan Gibilisco
The President's deficit reduction panel will likely recommend a national value-added tax (VAT), such as most of the other developed nations have, at the end of this year. This tax, if it becomes law, will come on top of all the existing taxes we pay now. We writers had better watch what happens in 2011 after the panel makes this recommendation and Congress starts to consider it. Click for more

updated 5/10/10

Attorney advises authors on e-rights
Michael Lennie, an authoring attorney and agent for Lennie Literary & Author’s Attorneys, compared the items on a publishing contract to a bunch of asparagus and said authors can either give all their rights away in one bunch, or negotiate them one by one. Click for more

Five myths to overcome when writing your first book
by Dr. Kathleen P. King
Many people live exciting lives, have great vision or imagination and are compelled to seek the long road of writing a book. Writing your first book is an especially daunting task. Where to start? How do you proceed? What if writer’s block hits? And will I ever find a publisher? These are just a few of the myriad of questions that keep would-be authors away from the keyboard and awake at night as they wrestle with conquering the page. Click for more

How-to Article: Bringing in a co-author requires ‘reconstitution’ of book project
Finding a co-author for your textbook should involve more than finding someone to share the workload, said Mary Ellen Lepionka, owner of Atlantic Path Publishing and author of Writing and Developing Your College Textbook. "Rather than serving merely as a hired hand, each co-author should have content to contribute," she said. Click for more

How a copy editor can help you polish your work
by Laura Poole
As a professional freelance copy editor, I have the pleasure and honor of working with publishers and authors of scholarly titles. I have known authors who resisted copy editing (or any kind of editing), and publishers who won’t pay for a thorough edit of a manuscript. Sadly, these occurrences generally result in inferior work being published. Click for more

How to pitch your book proposal to a publisher
Jean Lukesh (Ed.D., Teaching, Curriculum, and Instruction), author of the award-winning history textbook, The Nebraska Adventure, says she learned how to pitch a textbook proposal by attending the Denver University Publishing Institute (DUPI), from pitching her own multi-award-winning textbook to a publisher, and from doing a bit of publishing for others. She shares what she has learned: Click for more

'Publication Party' great way to promote your authoring
by Kim Pawlak
Writing a textbook not only has the potential to generate royalties, but is also a great way to advance your career. Karen Morris, author of Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Law, 4/e, has used her textbook to do just that by hosting a "Publication Party" each time a new edition of her book is published. Click for more

Protect yourself from lower royalties from foreign sales
by Kim Pawlak
Textbook authors need to be alert for the possible impact on them of the practice among some U.S. textbook publishers of selling books in foreign countries using an "inter-company" transfer price. Click for more

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