February
3, 2005
CCC To Hold Conference
Call Discussion On Marketing And PR
The Copyright Clearance
Center will be holding a free conference call discussion on marketing
and public relations for published authors on Monday, February 7 at
2 p.m. Eastern time (11 a.m. Pacific). Lissa Warren, author of the highly
acclaimed "The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity," and Traci Bisson,
whose business specializes in high visibility campaigns and integrated
marketing strategies for authors, will share their tips for conducting
effective and focused marketing and public relations campaigns that
can help authors sell more books and establish more prominent reputations
in their fields. Space is limited to the first 50 registrants. E-mail
CCC to register: beyondthebook@copyright.com
or call 800-982-3887 ext. 2420.
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TAA President's
Letter Published in Chronicle
TAA President Michael
Sullivan's letter to the editor to the Chronicle of Higher Education,
written in response to an article about the role of the bookstore in
textbook pricing, was published January 14, 2005. In his letter, Sullivan
takes issue with the author's position that bookstores aren't responsible
for the high cost of textbooks, saying the management of bookstores
by large chains increased the markup on new books by eight percent.
Sullivan also attributes the high cost of books to bookstores' sales
of used copies, which they sell for a 50 percent profit, and the sale
of examination copies as used books, and sometimes as new books, with
no royalties paid to authors and no profits to publishers.
Here's Sullivan's
full letter to the editor:
To the Editor:
Michael Granof dismisses
the role of the bookstore in textbook pricing, saying "college bookstores
can hardly be accused of profiteering. The markup on new books is generally
25 percent." While this may be true at Mr. Granof's cooperative bookstore,
it is not the case in general.
According to the
National Association of College Stores, the markup on new textbooks
averages 33 percent. ... It was not always this way. When management
of bookstores by large chains came into being, the markup on new books
increased from 25 percent to 33 percent.
What about used
books? Not every bookstore follows the practice of buying back a text
for 50 percent of the new-text price, but the practice of reselling
this book at 75 percent of the new-text price is fairly common. This
results in a profit margin of least 50 percent for a used-book sale.
... Isn't it price gouging to have a margin of 50 percent or more on
a used textbook?
But the used-book
story gets worse. Publishers freely distribute their textbooks to faculty
members for their examination, in the hope that they will adopt the
book for classroom use. Some faculty members sell these books for cash
to used-book dealers at prices ranging from $10 to $35 per book. These
books are sold as used books, sometimes even as new books. When this
happens, the publisher receives no revenue and the author, the creator
of the intellectual property, receives no royalty. The lost sales are
treated as a cost of doing business that is ultimately reflected in
new-book prices. ...
The Text and Academic
Authors Association asks that college and university administrators,
in cooperation with their faculty members, develop and implement an
ethical-practices statement for faculty members with regard to the sale
of examination copies. We also ask that administrators encourage campus
bookstores to purchase for resale only student editions, to reject books
that are marked "complimentary, not for resale" or "instructor's
edition," and to limit the markup on both new and used texts to 25 percent.
While this may require
administrators to rethink their decision to contract the management
of their bookstores to large chains, we think the benefit to students
is paramount.
Michael Sullivan
President
Text and Academic Authors Association
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Emeritus Professor
of Mathematics
Chicago State University
Chicago
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Article contributors
wanted
TAA is looking for
members willing to contribute articles on various topics for publication
in The Academic Author and website. This is your chance to share
your expertise with other authors. Articles can be 100-500 words. Have
a tip to share? We'd welcome it. We are mostly interested in tips, strategies,
how-to type articles that can help authors in their own work. Here are
just some possible topics:
Negotiating a contract
or royalty rates; Co-author collaboration; Permission fees charged or
negotiated; Making writing more readable; Writing as teaching; Tax tips;
Book titles; Book reps as allies; Electronic texts; Ancillaries; Reprographic
rights; foreign sales; Doing the bibliography; Indexing Good faith obligations;
Journal writing; Journal contracts; Copyrights; Citations; Using a word
processor; CD-Roms; Journal practices; Writing with technology; Collegial
collaboration in writing; Revision contract negotiations; Keeping writing
fresh; The competition; Meeting deadlines; Writers block; Used books
Please send your
name, title, college/university/company affiliation if any, mailing
address, phone and email address with your reply to TEXT@tampabay.rr.com.
Editor reserves the right to edit copy. If copy is edited, a draft will
be e-mailed to the author for review before publication.
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Step Three to
Becoming a More Prolific Author
Tara Gray, who will
present her 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 third step in becoming a more prolific
author (Gray will be sharing a step in each News Alert leading up to
the convention): Keep records of time spent writing daily and share
your records weekly. "Writing daily will greatly increase your productivity
as a writer, but most people cannot sustain the practice without keeping
records daily -- and sharing them with someone weekly. What difference
does keeping records make? In one study, all the participants attended
workshops by Robert Boice who explained the importance of writing daily
and keeping records of minutes written. At the end of the workshop,
the first group of participants did not agree to change their habits,
which resulted in their continuing to write the way they had always
written, which was occasionally, in big blocks of time. The second group
promised to write daily and to keep daily records of their time spent
writing. The second group was able to out-perform the first group by
a factor of four.
The success of this
group can be attributed to the records they kept. Without records, it
is too easy not to write on any given day -- and to convince yourself
that you will write more 'tomorrow,' but 'tomorrow' never comes or at
least, it doesn't come very often. In this same study, a third group
of participants took the same measures as the second group (writing
daily and keeping records), but the third group also held themselves
accountable to someone for writing daily. The third group wrote more
than the first group by a factor of nine. In pages written or revised
per year, the numbers look like this: the first group that wrote in
big blocks of time wrote or revised 17 pages in the year; the group
that wrote daily and kept records wrote or revised 64 pages; and, the
group that held themselves accountable to others for writing daily,
wrote or revised 157 pages."
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TAA Calls For
Nominations to TAA Council
The following positions
on the TAA Council, the association's governing body, are open for nominations:
vice president, president elect; and two council positions. Terms begin
July 1, 2005. An official call for nominations will go out to members
by mail this week. Contact the TAA office if you're interested in nominating
someone for these positions (727) 563-0020.
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TAA President's
Term Ends June 30
Current TAA President
Michael Sullivan's term ends June 30. John Wakefield will take over
as president July 1.
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TAA Would Like
to Hear From You!
Your association
is here for you. If you ever need TAA's help, don't hesitate to call.
TAA's network of veteran authors can help you in every stage of your
textbook or journal article authoring process. Just call or e-mail!
(727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
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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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