January
19, 2005
Warning Stickers
Ordered Removed
Stickers warning
that "evolution is a theory, not a fact" placed in biology textbooks
by The Cobb County School Board (Atlanta, GA) in March 2002, were ordered
by a federal judge to be removed. The judge said the stickers violated
the First Amendment by causing schoolchildren to "likely view the message
on the sticker as a union of church and state" since the stickers endorsed
"Christian fundamentalist or creationist" beliefs.
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Textbook Watchdog
Gabler Dies
(Tyler, TX) Mel
Gabler, who has been campaigning against error-riddled textbooks for
more than 40 years, died December 19 after a fall in his home. Gabler,
along with his wife Norma, had been taking on the publishing industry
since 1961, when they found errors in one of their son's textbooks.
In 1973, Gabler and his wife founded the nonprofit, Educational Research
Analysts. The organization has had a major influence on textbook adoptions
in Texas.
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Need Topic Ideas
for TAA Convention Presentations?
Want to present
at the TAA convention this year but aren't sure if you have anything
to offer? You can share your expertise in any of the following areas:
Electronic publishing; contracts and licenses; marketing your work;
managing your royalties; mergers and acquisitions; dealing with reviews;
indexers and ancillary authors; publishing and company information;
copyright and the public domain; ethical issues for authors; website
development; repackaging/product development; textbook selection process;
textbook pricing controversy; academic self-publishing; derivative works
issues; bookstore issues; used textbooks. Contact TAA for details: TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
or click here for more
info.
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Step Two to Becoming
a More Prolific Author
Tara Gray, who will
presenther popular writing workshop, Publish and Flourish: Become More
Prolific, as a 10-hour pre-conference workshop at the TAA convention
in Las Vegas in June, shares the second step in becoming a more prolific
author (Gray will be sharing a step in each News Alert leading up to
the convention): Write daily for 15 to 30 minutes. "Research shows that
scholars who write daily publish far more than those who try to write
in big blocks of time," she says. "The problem with big blocks of time
is that we don't 'find' them very often. In one study by Robert Boice
(Advice to New Faculty), a group of participants who wrote daily wrote
twice as many hours as those who wrote less often in big blocks of time,
and generated ten times as many published articles. The group that wrote
daily was five times as efficient per minute. To get these benefits,
however, you will need to keep records of your minutes spent writing
each day and you will need to share your records with someone each week.
I will talk more about this in the next News Alert."
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Long-time Member
Credits TAA for First Book
Long-time TAA member
Paul A. Krieger credits TAA with the successful publishing of his first
textbook, A Visual Guide to Human Anatomy. In a letter to TAA
he writes: "...none of this may have been possible without the mentoring
I received from other TAA members. I am deeply grateful for all the
tips, encouragement, and advice that I received over the years." An
article about Krieger, a biology professor at Grand Rapids Community
College, and his book appeared in The Grand Rapids Press on August
6, 2004. A reprint of the article will appear in the March issue of
The Academic Author.
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Deadline for
Convention Presentation Proposals Feb. 1
TAA is soliciting
presentation proposals for its 2005 convention at the Imperial Palace
Hotel in Las Vegas, Friday, June 24 and Saturday, June 25, 2005. Deadline
for submissions is February 1. For more information, click
here.
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Register Now
to Attend TAA Convention in Las Vegas
TAA is returning
to Las Vegas this year to hold its annual convention. Attending this
year's convention is no gamble, however; new authors will find solid
ideas for getting started in textbook or academic authoring and veterans
will find challenging sessions too! Register for the 2005 TAA convention,
to be held at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, Friday, June 24
and Saturday, June 25. To register, contact TAA at (727) 563-0020 or
TEXT@tampabay.rr.com Room
rates for TAA convention attendees are $85 per night until May 20.
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TAA Welcomes
Advertising on Website, In Print Newsletter
Full page ads in
the print newsletter are $350, half page ads are $275, quarter page
ads are $200 and 1/8 page ads are $150. A business card sized ad is
$45. Special discounts apply for those who advertise in four or more
issues. If you would like to place an ad in the March issue of The Academic
Author, or on the TAA website, please contact TAA's interim advertising
manager, Kim Pawlak, at kmpawlak@centurytel.net
or (608) 687-3106. Click here for more
information about advertising in the print newsletter or online.
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