June
19, 2005
New book sales
continue to grow despite used book sales
The market for
textbooks and other materials sold into the college market in 2004 grew
3.5 percent to $5.57 billion, despite escalating growth of used textbooks
and returns of unsold books, according to the newly released College
Publishing Market Forecast 2005-2006, the latest strategic market report
from Simba Information, a leading media industry forecast and analysis
firm.
The report also
shows that electronic textbooks are receiving a cool reception on college
campuses. Kathy Mickey, lead Simba analyst in the education market,
stated, "College students, the publishers' buying customers, are indeed
more technologically savvy, but perhaps not in the way publishers envisioned.
They have not rushed to embrace e-textbooks, but they do surf the Web
for deals on textbooks, including buying foreign editions at prices
much below U.S. editions.
"The used textbook
market, unfortunately for publishers, is alive and well on college campuses
and the Internet. In 2004, the market for used books reached $1.3 billion,
up 15.9 percent from 2003, equaling nearly one-third of textbooks used
in college classrooms," Mickey said. "Despite the challenges, the higher
education publishing landscape is not all bleak, it is just not looking
as predictable and stable as it once was," she added. Simba forecasts
industry growth will be in the 3 percent to 4 percent range through
2008.
The newly released
Simba report provides an in-depth assessment of the college textbook
publishing market, including detailed examinations of the industry size
and structure, enrollment trends, the rise of community colleges, for-profit
post-secondary schools, distance learning, funding, custom publishing,
coursepacks, electronic media, and marketing and distribution.
The report also includes
detailed analysis of leading textbook subject areas based on data from
Simba sister company Monument Information Resource. Additional information
can be found at www.simbanet.com.
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Mathcad's Mathsoft
to Power OneKey
Pearson Prentice
Hall has selected Mathcad(R) from Mathsoft(R) Engineering & Education,
Inc. as the solution engine for Hibbeler, Statics & Dynamics OneKey
- a Web-based support system for teaching and learning resources with
more than 3,000 customizable statics and dynamics problems. The Hibbeler
OneKey system is a companion to Prentice Hall's flagship engineering
mechanics texts - the hardback Hibbeler, "Engineering Mechanics, 10/e"
texts or the new paperback Hibbeler, "Principles of Mechanics" books
- specifically designed for use with OneKey. These are the preeminent
and best-selling foundation texts for engineering students, published
globally for more than 30 years. In the Hibbeler OneKey, professors
can quickly edit, customize or individualize any problem in the repository,
then post it online for student assignments. By changing values in a
problem, instructors can guarantee a fresh problem for every class.
OneKey employs Mathcad worksheets to generate detailed, step-by-step
solutions to these problems that faculty can hide or selectively share
with students. The combined capability gives professors an unlimited
supply of new, unique and virtually plagiarism-proof problems and one-click
custom solutions. This fresh content enables instructors to create a
custom course without the traditional worry that classic problems and
solutions are being distributed among friends and incoming students.
To request a trial academic version of Mathcad, visit http://education.mathsoft.com/teaching/trial/
For more information on the Hibbeler textbooks and OneKey, visit www.prenhall.com/hibbelerinfo.
For information on obtaining Mathcad, please visit www.mathcad.com.
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AAP: Higher Ed
Publishing Sales Down, El-Hi Sales Up
According to the
Association of American Publishers, the principal trade association
for the U.S. book publishing industry, higher education publishing sales
were $4.2 million, down 4.4 percent for the year. The net el-hi (elementary/high
school) basal and supplemental K-12 category grew 2.9 percent in April,
with sales of $220.9 million, allowing for a 9.5 percent year to date
growth figure. Publishing sales of university press hardcover books
suffered a 23.0 percent loss in April (sales totaled $8.6 million).
This category has lost 15.9 percent in 2005. Sales in the university
press paperback category lost a more meager 2.6 percent in April (sales
totaled $13.6 million); this category maintains a positive growth figure
of 11.7 percent for the year. Sales in the professional and scholarly
category lost a slight 3.5 percent in April, with sales of $46.4 million;
sales in this category are down 0.4 percent for the year.
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Member Contribution
Important to Future Funding
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. To make a tax-deductible
gift to the TAA Foundation, contact Janet Tucker at TAA headquarters:
(727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
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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".
For rest of article:
Click here
to Members Only section
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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."
For rest of article
and Stream's Power Point file used in presentation: Click
here to Members Only section
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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."
for
rest of article, click here to Members Only section
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Sullivan hands
TAA presidency over to Wakefield
TAA President Michael
Sullivan's three-year term ended June 30, 2005. John Wakefield officially
became TAA president on July 1. In a report to the TAA Council, Sullivan
said TAA has come a long way since he became president in 2001. "We
went from a $50,000 deficit to a $100,000 surplus," he said. "We
went from a single purpose website to a multi-purpose professional website
with members-only features that provide valuable information to members
and allows prospective members to learn more about TAA. We went from
hit and miss issues of The Academic Author to regularly published,
professionally produced newsletters. We have added bi-monthly News Alerts
containing industry and organization news as an added benefit of membership.
We have held 12 workshops that have brought in 267 new members. Most
importantly, we are starting to be recognized as the representative
organization for authors across the country."
Sullivan presented
a gavel to incoming president John Wakefield. TAA Council member Jay
Black thanked Sullivan for serving beyond the two-year term required
by the TAA president. Sullivan took on the extra year when Black indicated
he could not serve. At the same time, John Wakefield agreed to assume
the presidency one year early.
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Author Relations
Committee to revise TAA royalty survey
The TAA Council's
Author Relations Committee will be revising the TAA contract/royalty
survey to make it more comprehensive and extensive. The Committee, made
up of TAA Past President Mike Sullivan and TAA Treasurer Robert Christopherson,
plans to have the survey revision completed by the Council's January
meeting in St. Petersburg for approval. Once approved, the Committee
will send the surveys out to members. Responses to the survey will remain
anonymous. Results will be reported to the membership.
"The results
of the survey will show the membership what authors are getting in contracts
so they can be better informed when they negotiate their contracts,"
said Sullivan.
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Eleven participate
in 1:1 sessions
Eleven TAA Convention
attendees took advantage of free one-on-one sessions with authoring
attorney and agent Michael Lennie of Lennie Literary Agency & Authors'
Attorneys, or authoring attorney Steve Gillen of Greenbaum Doll & McDonald
PLLC, held during the TAA Convention in Las Vegas. Sessions ranged from
30 to 55 minutes.
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Talk Tips With
Texty, McGuffey winners
Six past and present
Texty and McGuffey winners shared their insights into what it takes
to create an award-winning textbook at an informal roundtable lunch
discussion held Saturday, June 25 during the TAA Convention in Las Vegas.
Two award winners shared tip sheets.
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TAA ad structure
changes for fiscal year 2005-2006
TAA announces changes
in its advertising structure for fiscal year 2005-2006, which runs from
July 1 to July 1. TAA will no longer be accepting full page ads for
the print newsletter. The largest ad size will be a half page. Advertisers
who commit to a half page ad for four issues will become a Featured
TAA Sponsor on the TAA home page for three months. Their ad will then
move to one of three places on the TAA website: the TAA Notes page;
the TAA Industry News page or the TAA Member Center for an additional
three months. These pages are the most visited.
The TAA Notes page
and the TAA Industry News page will only contain three ads each. The
Member Center will contain a total of six ads at any one time. TAA is
now offering ad space on the TAA Notes, Industry News and Member Center
pages at the following rates: 3 months - $400; 6 months - $450; 9 months
- $500; 12 months - $525. Advertisers will not have to commit to a year's
worth of print ads to advertise on the TAA Notes, Industry News or Member
Center pages -- only to appear on the home page as a Featured TAA Sponsor.
If you have any
questions about TAA's new advertising structure, please contact Lisa
Thorsell, Advertising Manager, at (608) 687-9525 or lisamt321@yahoo.com
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Goodbye Ron:
Outgoing executive director helped make TAA recognized voice for authors
 |
| Ron Pynn |
Ron Pynn, who served
as TAA's executive director for nine years, resigned July 1 to pursue
other interests, including writing a book and a screen play.
"I have done all
I can for TAA," said Pynn. "It's time to bring in someone new, with
fresh new ideas to keep moving TAA forward. We have established ourselves
and made a presence for authoring and author rights. From our days operating
out of a mobile home in Orange Springs, Florida, we have become a recognized
voice for authors and established ourselves as a recognized organization."
Pynn said he will
remain available to help TAA's transition to a new executive director.
He will also continue to be involved in TAA's successful authoring workshops,
which he developed for TAA based on a workshop being done at Marquette
University by TAA Past President Frank Silverman. Almost 60 workshops
have since been held by TAA at colleges and universities across the
country. Pynn has taught at most of them.
Pynn was also instrumental
in connecting TAA with IFFRO, the International Federation of Reproduction
Rights Organisations (IFFRO), which facilitates the management of the
reproduction and other rights of copyrighted works. TAA's connection
with IFFRO led to the establishment of the Author's Coalition, which
distributes internationally collected reprographic monies to authoring
organizations in the United States. TAA receives the majority of its
operating funds through its share of these reprographic monies.
"Ron has been executive
director of TAA through the worst of times and the best of times, and
has never wavered in his dedication to authoring and to TAA," said TAA
Past President Mike Sullivan. "For many years, he served as executive
director with his salary in arrears and with no guarantee of payment.
He symbolizes what TAA is all about."
Pynn moved to Vermont
on July 1.
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Two authors inducted
into TAA Council of Fellows
Marilyn "Winkie"
Fordney, the author or co-author of more than 50 books in three different
medical career fields, some of which were the first in the field, and
Karen Timberlake, the author 60 textbooks, including three chemistry
texts, one of which leads the market, were inducted into the TAA Council
of Fellows. Both received a specially cast Council of Fellows medal
on a red, white and blue ribbon.
for
rest of article, click here to Members Only section
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Education author
John Wakefield new TAA president
 |
| John Wakefield
became TAA President June 22. He believes TAA needs to do a better
job of serving its newest members, who are looking to TAA for help
in developing as academic authors. |
On June 22, John
Wakefield succeeded Mike Sullivan as TAA president. Wakefield, who is
assistant vice president for academic affairs and a professor of education
at the University of North Alabama, said that during his two-year term,
he plans to work with other TAA officers, the Council, and the new executive
director to continue the growth and development of TAA as an authors'
association.
"This means
addressing the needs of the membership for information, access to professional
services, networking, mentoring, and workshops to develop new skills
or enhance established ones," he said. "In this fast-paced
world, no one can stay an expert for long without support of this kind."
Wakefield says he
is a generalist, not a specialist, having done something of almost everything
in which text and academic authors are involved: "I've written
a textbook for a major publisher, an academic book based on my research,
articles for professional journals, and grant proposals for myself and
others; I've negotiated publishing contracts and licensing agreements;
I've even copyrighted and edited a series of books, published them,
and marketed them to distributors and bookstores. A lot of knowledge
has come from those authoring experiences. It helps me identify with
different segments of the membership, so I can come up with ways to
help meet their needs. That is what I think I am good at — finding
resources to meet needs."
As he outlines in
his first President's Message on page one of this issue of The Academic
Author, Wakefield believes TAA needs to do a better job of serving
its newest members, who are looking to TAA for help in developing as
academic authors. Another challenge will be vitalizing TAA's new Foundation,
he said.
One of TAA's greatest
strengths, said Wakefield, is its financial vitality. "Not too many
years ago, we were struggling to make ends meet," he said. "Ron Pynn
[TAA's past executive director] and Mike Sullivan [TAA's past president]
saw the danger, cut expenses, and simultaneously grew the membership."
Income from other sources grew as well, he said, leaving TAA in a healthy
financial position today. Other strengths include the Council, said
Wakefield, which has proven to represent the interests of the membership
well, and is always searching for ways to improve services. "A third
strength is both our office staff and our information managers," he
said. "Our office staff provides much of the logistic support for our
activities, while our information managers communicate news and other
facts through NewsAlerts, The Academic Author, and the
Web site."
As TAA's president,
Wakefield said he see himself as more as a facilitator than a director.
"We have Council to develop policy, and a new executive director to
carry the policy out and make a few suggestions of his own," he said.
"What is most needed from a president is someone to organize the agenda
for meetings, moderate a group discussion when moderation is needed,
and speak for the association when the association needs a spokesperson.
I donšt overdo speaking, however. Some of the most effective leaders
I have met are also the best listeners. They learn more that way."
Wakefield has served
as TAA vice president and president elect, chair of the TAA Council
Nominations Committee, co-chair of the 2005 TAA Convention, as a member
of the Search Committee for TAA executive director, and as treasurer
and member of the TAA Council and the TAA Foundation. He was awarded
the President's Award for his service to TAA in 2003.
He has written two
books, Educational psychology: Learning to be a problem solver,
published by Houghton Mifflin in 1996, and Creative thinking: Problem-solving
skills and the arts orientation, published by Ablex Corp in 1992,
two book chapters, and several articles and reviews, supplementary instructional
materials and peer-reviewed articles.
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TAA hires new
executive director
 |
| At its annual
meeting in Las Vegas, June 21, the TAA Council approved the Executive
Council's recommendation to hire Richard T. Hull as its new executive
director. He started June 22. |
Richard T. Hull
has been hired as TAA's new executive director. He replaces Ron Pynn,
who served as executive director for nine years. "I'm very excited,
stimulated by the challenge, and eager to get to work," said Hull.
"I'm also honored by the trust that comes with election to such
a post, and I look forward to working with the Executive Committee and
the Council, as well as all the other individuals involved in the organization."
He began June 22.
Hull, who recently
moved to Tallahassee, Florida, was an independent fundraising consultant
for the Center of Inquiry in Amherst, New York and Tampa, Florida. Prior
to that, he was a visiting distinguished professor of philosophy at
the Institute of Medicine and Humanities, a joint program of St. Patrick's
Hospital and the University of Montana. He retired from his position
as professor in the Department of Philosophy at SUNY at Buffalo after
thirty years to become executive director of the Texas Council for the
Humanities in 1997.
The second edition
of his textbook, Ethical Issues in the New Reproductive Technologies,
first published by Wadsworth, is now being published by Prometheus Books.
Hull has also published a number of edited academic texts, including
Presidential Addresses of the American Philosophical Association,
and History and Addresses of Philosophical Societies. He has
also published many articles, chapters, and reviews.
In the last stages
of the hiring process, Hull was asked to prepare a five-year plan for
TAA. In that plan, he outlined several strategies for increasing membership,
including increasing services to members. "To increase membership
substantially, services must be effectively offered to a wider potential
membership, and services must be added that will continue to provide
service to individual initial members that inspire annual renewals,"
he said.
Hull proposes reaching
out to graduate students by providing seminars appropriate for those
beginning graduate study and for those both facing writing dissertations
and seeking academic employment. "For the former, a seminar on
making the professional turn that focuses on difference between writing
for an individual professor and writing for the presentation in print
or at a conference, and presents tips, strategies, and ways of identifying
and improving the student's writing dynamic, might be attractive to
graduate departments and first-year students," he said.
Hull said his first
order of business as TAA's new executive director will be to do a thorough
review of TAA's seminars and workshops to see how they can be restructured
to better serve the professional development needs of members in an
ongoing way; and to call as many first-year members who joined through
the workshops as he can, asking them about their experience and requesting
their suggestions for further presentations.
TAA has many strengths,
said Hull, including its ability to address issues of considerable concern
to authors. "Textbook authors often lack experienced guidance in
seeking and negotiating publishing contracts," he said. "Neophytes
often flounder around in getting their journal publications ready for
publication and placed appropriately. TAA offers guidance that is independent
of the faculty member's institution and that can expose participants
to a wider range of individuals dealing with similar issues of professional
development than can be found in the member's institution."
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TAA workshops
bring in 270 new members
Tara Gray's "Publish
& Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar" workshops, and Ron Pynn's
"Writing a Text or Professional Book" workshop brought in
270 members in fiscal year 2004 -2005. Gray held 12 authoring workshops
in 2004 and 2005, bringing in 267 new TAA members. Pynn's workshop was
held at the International Conference on Information Systems in Washington,
DC in November 2004.
Gray's workshops
were held at Harvard University, the University of Ohio Southern Campus,
New York Chiropractic College, SUNY-Geneseo, University of Nevada Las
Vegas, New Mexico State University, Brigham Young University, Texas
A&M University, Central Michigan University, Northern Illinois University,
Publish on Demand (POD) Network Conference in Montreal, and California
State University Fresno.
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2006 TAA Convention:
New Orleans
The 2006 TAA Convention
will be held in New Orleans July 7 and 8. Chris Harris will serve as
convention chair.
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Free books entice
workshop attendees to become TAA members
Offering her workshop
attendees free books for filling out TAA membership applications raised
the number of workshop attendees who become members from 60 percent
to 90 percent, said Tara Gray, who has presented her popular writing
workshop, "Publish & Flourish: Become A Prolific Scholar"
at 12 colleges and universities across the country.
During the last
three TAA sponsored workshops she held, she offered attendees a free
copy of Bob Diamond's book, Preparing for Promotion and Tenure,
for legibly filling out a TAA membership application. "The TAA
staff had been having a hard time deciphering the writing on the TAA
membership applications that we brought back from the workshops,"
said Gray. "We had some of Diamond's books leftover from a new
member premium program TAA did, so we came up with the idea of offering
them as an incentive to fill out the forms legibly."
The strategy reduced
the average cost of recruiting a member from $50 to $35, she said.
When Diamond's books
run out, TAA plans to purchase 400 of Gray's Publish & Flourish:
Become A Prolific Scholar books published by New Mexico State University's
Teaching Academy, for a net cost of $10 a piece. They will be given
away free to attendees who fill out TAA membership applications during
the workshop.
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Texty, McGuffey
Awards receive record number of nominations in 2005
This year was the
most successful year for TAA's Texty and McGuffey Awards program, said
Janet Tucker, TAA's managing director. TAA received 27 nominations from
15 different publishers for its Textbook Excellence Award, which recognizes
members' textbooks, nominated by their publishers, that are judged superior
in the academic genre by a panel of reviewers, and and its McGuffey
Longevity Award, which recognizes members' textbooks that have gone
into multiple editions. Sixteen of those were winners: 10 received Textys,
six McGuffeys.
"We now have
publishers calling us to ask if they can nominate a text," said
Tucker. The largest obstacle, she says, is getting judges: "We
need five different judges for every genre. With eight genres, that's
40 judges." The Awards process takes a year, beginning with sending
the plaques to winners and sending out press releases on each winner
just after the convention."
Out of the 40 judges
who were recruited in 2004-2005, only one didn't follow through on submitting
their materials, said Tucker. Anyone who would like to be a judge for
the Texty and McGuffey Awards for 2005-2006, should contact Janet Tucker
at (727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
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Check Out TAA's
New Featured Sponsor
Academic Internet
Publishers, Inc. (AIPI) is TAA's newest Featured Sponsor. Look for their
ad on the TAA homepage in July. AIPI is an educational technology company
and publisher. Check out their website at http://www.aipi.com
Click on "Intranet" and enter user ID "author" and password "author"
to learn more about the company's online learning program Cram101.com.
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Add TAA Website
URL to Your E-mail Signature
Help spread the
word about TAA — add TAA's website URL to your e-mail signature:
Member of the Text and Academic Authors Association http://www.taaonline.net
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Sound Off!
TAA is always looking
for columns on issues related to text and academic authoring (plagiarism;
used books; comp copies; contracts; royalties; journal submission guidelines,
etc.) for publication on the TAA website or in The Academic Author.
400-word maximum. Please send your name, title, school, college or university
affiliation (if any), phone number and e-mail address along with your
column to Kim Pawlak, Editor, kmpawlak@centurytel.net
or mail it to S2874 Spruce St., Fountain City, WI 54629 or call (608)
687-3106.
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