July
31, 2006
Marketing your
own text
by Richard Hull
TAA Executive
Director Richard T. Hull |
Thomson Publishing
and Amazon.com have teamed up to help textbook authors help market their
textbooks. The Amazon Associates Program permits web site owners to
earn referral fees and increase sales of their books to customers. An
Amazon Associate who has a website places specially formatted links
on their websites to Amazon's pages that offer the Associate's (or others')
books for sale. Every quarter, Amazon sends a payment to the Associate
of a referral fee "on all qualifying revenue made through their links."
Furthermore, Amazon offers a communications mode where authors registered
with Amazon Connect can communicate directly with their readers by posting
messages. The messages will appear on the Amazon page for the book as
well as on an author profile page, as blog exchanges.
Larry Mitchell has
such a page that introduces potential and actual readers to his motives
and hopes for his work, C4D
9.5: Real-World 3D Animation Production. His message, posted with
a color photo of himself, reads in part: "My hope in writing this first
book was to provide something that would empower you by giving you access
to some of the seemingly confusing areas of 3D animation production.
I didn't want to limit you by only showing you how the software publisher
says you should work, but rather I also wanted to show you the short
cuts and un-documented methods I use to get my work done. So, drop me
a line and let me know if you have found my book helpful (or not so
helpful), and let me know what other areas of digital media production
you'd like to see de-mystified in my future books." The page supports
reader messages and Larry's replies, thus constituting a growing conversation
between him and a community of users. More information about the Associates
program can be obtained from Senior Marketing Manager Wendy Wilms at
wendy.wilms@thomson.com
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TAA launches
new academic workshop series
Dr. Robert
Ginsberg will be presenting a series of academic workshops for
TAA on college and university campuses nationwide. |
TAA has launched a
series of academic workshops entitled "Publishing Workshops for Faculty
Authors" led by distinguished scholar and editor Dr. Robert Ginsberg.
The aim of each workshop is to enlighten faculty members about their opportunities
and challenges, their rights and responsibilities as they engage in publishing.
The workshop format will include hands-on participation, show-and-tell
activity, behind-the-scenes reporting, question-and-answer sessions, and
round-table editing.
The four dimensions
of academic and textbook publishing will be explored: the author, the
teacher, the reader, and the publisher.
The workshop sessions,
depending on whether the program is scheduled for a full day or a day
and a half, will include:
• Why should
you publish? A frank assessment of the academic imperative, "Publish
or Perish"; publishing as an extended form of teaching; publishing as
the pursuit of research; publishing as a contribution to an academic
discipline; publishing as the continued development of a faculty member.
• How to
get your textbook or scholarly book published. Preparing the book;
anatomy of a book: Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Illustrations,
Notes, Bibliography, Appendix, Index; identifying the book's audience
and contribution; searching for the needle of a publisher in the haystack
of publishing; reading the contract; editing; copy-editing; proofreading;
and marketing.
• How to
become published by scholarly journals: Confessions of an editor.
The special function of journals; finding journals appropriate for your
work; the formats of journal publishing: articles, reports, book reviews,
letters, special issues; the discipline of writing for periodicals.
• Writing
as communication: How to cut the crap of academic style. The principles
of good style: clarity, simplicity, directness; recognizing bad style
in the writing of others; recognizing bad style in your writing; editing
yourself to become an effective writer; unclogging your reference system;
using the most moving forms of sentence; learning to love the comma.
• How to
turn a scholarly conference into an edited book. Planning the conference;
landing the contract; editing the chapters; riding herd on your authors:
deadlines and lifelines; going to press.
• Copyright:
Getting it right! A non-technical introduction to what every teacher,
author, and editor should know about rights, fair use, quotation, paraphrase,
permission, translation, copying, public domain, and out of print.
• Everybody
needs an editor! Reflections on the art of editing. Editing as drawing
out the best in a text; the editor as the author's best friend; the
editor as the advocate for readers; the editor as expanding the outreach
of an academic discipline.
Ginsberg studied
at the University of Chicago (B.A., M.A.), University of Pennsylvania
(Ph.D.), University of Paris (Sorbonne), University of Vienna, and at
study programs in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Italy, Yugoslavia, Peru,
Guatemala, Mexico, and China. He has received over 100 grants and awards
for research, teaching, and publishing.
He was the founder
of the Jones and Bartlett Philosophy series of textbooks, the
Social Philosophy Research Institute Book Series, the Value
Inquiry Book Series, and the New Studies in Aesthetics book
series. He also served as executive editor of The Journal of Value
Inquiry. Some 200 volumes have appeared under his general editorship.
One hundred seventy of his own writings have been published in four
languages in nineteen countries on four continents.
Ginsberg has spoken
at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Bologna, Pisa,
Uppsala, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna, Brussels, Puerto Rico, Guadalajara,
Montreal, Toronto, and throughout the United States. He is Professor Emeritus
of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University,
where he taught for 35 years, and Director of the International Center
for the Arts, Humanities, and Value Inquiry, located adjacent to Washington,
D.C.
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Apply for doctoral
level grad student award
All doctoral level
graduate students who are planning for a career in higher education
are eligible to be nominated for the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders
Award, which recognizes graduate students who are committed to developing
academic and civil responsibility in themselves and others, and who
show exemplary promise as future leaders of higher education. The student
must be nominated by a faculty member or administrator. The Awards provide
financial support for graduate students to attend the Association of
American Colleges and Universities' 2007 Annual Meeting to be held in
New Orleans, January 17-20. For more information about the Award, visit
their web
site or contact Suzanne Hyers at (202) 387-3760 (ext. 425) or hyers@aacu.org
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TAA
welcomes new members
TAA welcomes new
members Elizabeth Spike, Randy Lankford and Michael DeMers.
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TAA
thanks...
TAA thanks Richard
Hull for giving a gift membership to Elizabeth Spike.
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TAA
thanks...
TAA thanks W. Jack
Duncan for the $100 donation he made to TAA when he renewed his membership.
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Check
out 2006 TAA Post-Convention site
Download convention
handouts and PowerPoint presentations, view the convention photo gallery
and read more about this year's convention sessions here.
Keep checking back for more content.
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Keep
abreast of what is 'In the News'
TAA Executive Director
Richard Hull offers news and commentary on current text and academic
authoring news with his column, "In the News." Read it here
(members only).
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Looking
for good research web sites?
TAA Vice President
Chris Harris recommends a list, taken from the New York Times Newsroom
Navigator: click
here (members
only).
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Writer's
Block: Working with my ghost(ly) writer, the "slave within"
by Richard T. Hull
I had a lesson handed
to me by my subconscious writer this week, and it was a hard one.
Returned to Tallahassee
from the TAA Convention in Orlando, I sat down to write a report on
the excellent sessions devoted to the digital revolution in academic
writing that were presented on Friday and Saturday. I had, as is my
practice, "given the assignment" to my slave within, the subconscious
level of composition and other cognitive activities that I have described
elsewhere. To my delight, the article was ready to transcribe!
click
for rest of essay in Writer's Block section (members only)
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Popescu joins
TAAF advisory board for minority author survey project
Sorin C. Popescu,
an assistant professor in the Department of Forest Science at Texas
A&M University, has joined the TAA Foundation Advisory Board for the
Foundation's minority author survey project. Popescu joins Dr. La Verne
Gyant, director of the Center for Black Studies at Northern Illinois
University; Don Pepion, director of American Indian Programs and assistant
professor of Native American Studies at New Mexico State University;
Mattie L. Rhodes, clinical associate professor in the School Of Nursing
at the State University of New York at Buffalo; Rosángel Cruz,
Biopsychology, State University of New York at Buffalo; and Irina Weisblatt,
a Community College Business adjunct instructor at Grossmont College,
Southwestern College and Mesa College on the Advisory Board. The Board
will be available to discuss with TAAF ways to encourage minorities
to write textbooks.
Sorin C. Popescu
|
Dr. La Verne
Gyant
|
Don Pepion
|
Mattie L. Rhodes
|
Rosángel
Cruz |
Irina Weisblatt
|
Richard Hull |
|
Resumes/CVs of
Board Members (click to download)
Sorin
C. Popescu
(pdf)
Dr.
La Verne Gyant
(Word doc)
Don
Pepion
(Word
doc)
Mattie
L. Rhodes
(pdf)
Rosángel
Cruz
(Word
doc)
Irina
Weisblatt
(Word
doc)
Richard
Hull
(Word
doc)
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Convention Q&A's:
"How do you get
feedback from students about your book when you are not teaching?" "Can
you share some advice for getting through the first chapter?" Read the
answers to these and other questions posed at the 2006 TAA Convention
in Orlando; click here.
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Renew your membership
online!
TAA has just launched
a new online member form that will allow members to renew online using
a secure server. The form can also be used by new members. Check it
out in the TAA Member Center here.
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