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December
2000
PROFIT
LOSS
Harcourt:
El-hi sales rose 47.5 percent to $388.3 million in the third quarter,
compared to a year earlier.
Harcourt:
College revenue rose 7.0 percent to $128.8 million in the third
quarter, compared to a year earlier.
Harcourt:
STM sales rose 7.9 percent to $194.3 million in the third
quarter, compared to a year earlier.
Houghton
Mifflin: Total sales, buoyed by the new America Heritage Dictionary,.
rose 4.1 percent to $476.5 million in the third quarter, compared
to a year earlier.
Houghton
Mifflin: K-12 sales rose 3.4 percent to $353.7 million in
the third quarter, compared to a year earlier.
Houghton
Mifflin: College sales rose 0.9 percent to $87.9 million in
the third quarter, compared to a year earlier.
McGraw:
Education revenues grew 10.1 percent to $8442 million in the third
quarter, compared to a year earlier, and 13.9 percent to $1.5
billion for the first three quarters.
Thomson:
Earnings fell 17.6 percent to $1.5 billion for the latest quarter,
compared to a year earlier.
Wiley:
Net income grew 22 percent to $33.4 million in the latest six-month
reporting period, compared to a year earlier. Domestic science,
technical, medical profits were up 14 percent; domestic professional
and trade sales, 11 percent; college sales, 10 percent.
WRC Media:
Earnings grew 13.8 percent to $16.1 million in the latest
quarter, coimpared to a year earlier.
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R.I.P.
Charles Rembar
Charles Rembar,
noted First Amendment lawyer and author of The End of Obscenity
in 1968, elaborating on his defense of several literary censorship
cases, including Lady Chatterly's Lover and Fanny Hill, died Oct.
24. He was 85.
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Questia
building buzz with viral marketing
HOUSTON,
Texas, December 1, 2000
-- The new online research company, Questia Media, is taking marketing
cues from the Blair Witch Project movie to stir interest
among college students. Questia, which opens up in January with
access to 50,000 books and journals, is offering a $30 subscription
free to students who e-mail a friend about the service. Ann Brimberry,
marketing director, notes that it was "viral marketing," as the
approach is called, that snowballed Blair Witch into a
commercial success in 1999.
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Guild:
Don't steal author names for domain titles
NEW YORK,
Dec. 1, 2000
-- The Authors Guild filed a complaint against a British company,
Old Barn Studios, which the Guild says has incorporated the names
of authors into its own dot-com domain names. The Guild wants
arbitration to settle the dispute. Letty Cottin Pogrebin, president
of the Guild, said: "For authors, whose names and reputations
are their most valued stock-in-trade, bringing this proceeding
was absolutely necessary. We hope to establish the precedent that
in cyberspace, as in traditional venues of trade, authors' names
belong to them, not the to the first outfit that registers a famous
name as a domain." The complaint is on behalf of authors R. L.
Stine, John Berendt, Charles Frazier, Thomas L. Friedman, Joanna
Lindsey, Louis Sachar, Elizabeth Strout, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
and Billie Letts.
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Wiley offering
abstracts, TOC's for wireless devices
NEW YORK,
Dec. 2, 2000
-- John Wiley unveiled plans for a mobile Internet service, MobileEdition,
to provide tables of contents and abstracts from its online InterScience
journal service to wireless hand-held devices, web-enhanced phones
and other devices. The first available service, set for next week,
is Cancer MobileEdition, which will carry information from Cancer,
the main journal of the American Cancer Society, and Cancer
Cytopathology.
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Author
defends retracted journal article
BOISE,
Idaho, December 2, 2000
-- One of the authors suing the University of Denver for purging
an article from a 1998 law journal characterized the university's
retraction to "losing one of your kids." In an interview with
the Chronicle of Higher Education, William Wines said the
article "had spent a lot of time in gestation." Wines, a legal
environment professor at Boise State University, defended the
article as adhering to usual scholarly practices. The article,
which ran 62 pages, included 229 footnotes to other sources, including
journalists and human-rights groups. Wines denied that the article
was unfair to Boise Cascade, the multi-national timber-products
company whose practices were criticized in the article. Wines
and his co-authors have sued the University of Denver, where the
law journal is published, for an errata that denounced the already-published
article and for asking Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw to purge the article
from their databases.
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Houghton
putting college texts online
BOSTON,
Dec. 2, 2000
-- Houghton Mifflin will launch a line of electronic versions
of its college textbooks for classes next fall with joined e-book
provider netLibrary. College students and teachers will access
the e-books through the web-based platform of netLibrary's recently
acquired MetaText unit. Features include annotation capability.
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Astrophysicist
joins JTAA board
CARBONDALE,
Illinois, December 2, 2000
-- A solar physicist, Kurt Bachmann of the Oklahoma School of
Science and Mathematics, was named to the editorial board of the
forthcoming Journal of Text and Academic Authoring, editor
Donna Besser announced. Bachmann's work is at home in the Astrophysical
Journal and Solar Physics. He is a NASA joint venture
fellow, and his work has appeared in the Proceedings of the National
Conference on Undergraduate. He has presented colloquia at the
University of Alabama Birmingham and at NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center. Research. A first-person article appeared in On
the Market: Surviving the Academic Job Search, edited by Christina
Boufis and Victoria C. Olsen.
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TAA members
eligible for News Prompts
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, December 3, 2000
-- The monthly e-mail news prompt that summarizes recent text
and academic authoring news now goes to 114 TAA members, the association's
editor, John Vivian, said. The service is available free to TAA
members who sign up. "Anyone who sends an email request to TAA
headquarters will receive the prompt," Vivian said. "The prompts
are especially useful to members who can't check in every day
for news on the TAA site."
To act:
TAA News Prompt signup
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McGraw
buying Mayfield college publisher
NEW YORK,
Dec. 4, 2000
-- McGraw-Hill is acquiring privately held Mayfield, a college
publisher based in Mountain View, California. Terms were not announced,
but McGraw said the deal should be wrapped earlier in the new
year. Mayfield publishes about 85 a year.
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Year marked
by more mergers, Harcourt sale
NEW YORK,
December 5, 2000
-- The U.S. textbook industry further consolidated into a few
dominant companies in 2000. In the biggest deal, the venerable
Harcourt publishing house was divvied up between Reed Elsevier
of Europe and Thomson of Canada. With Harcourt's college list,
Thomson leapfrogged ahead of Pearson as the largest U.S. college
publisher. Meanwhile, other large houses, including McGraw-Hill,
continued acquiring small and mid-size competitors. Here are text
and academic ownership changes announced or consummated in 2000:
- Advantage
Learning: Acquired computerActive.
- American
Education: Acquired Dolphin.
- Barnesandnoble.com:
Acquired NotHarvard.com.
- Booktech.com:
Acquired Copytron.
- ETA:
Acquired Pearson's Cuisenaire.
- FamilyEducation:
Acquired MyGradeBook.com.
- Gores
Tech: Acquired Learning Company; Broderbund; MECC; Mindscape;
SkillsBank; Creative Wonders; Learning Services.
- Harcourt:
Acquired Wadsworth's English and communication lists.
- Houghton
Mifflin: Acquired Virtual Learning.
- IDG:
Acquired HungryMinds.com.
- Kaplan:
Acquired Schweser.
- McGraw-Hill:
Acquired Tribune Education; Everyday Learning; Instructional
Fair; Landoll's; NTC/Contemporary; Wright; Creative Publications;
Mayfield.
- netLibray:
Acquired MetaText.
- Network:
Acquired FunBrain.com.
- Pearson:
Acquired FamilyEducation Network; Dorling Kindersly; National
Computer Systems; its Prentice Hall subsidiary acquired Thomson's
Wadsworth foreign language list.
- Reed
Elsevier: Acquired Harcourt K-12 and professional lists;
Saunders; Mosby; Churchill Livingstone; its Lexis-Nexis subsidiary
acquired Press Access.
- Rigby:
Acquired Reach for Reading.
- Riverdeep:
Acquired IBM's Edmark.
- Scholastic:
Acquired Grolier.
- Siboney:
Acquired Teacher Support Software.
- Thomson:
Acquired Harcourt college list; Sylvan's Prometric; Macmillan
vocational; Alliance Press; IDG's Arco division; La Ley; Editoria
Pioneira; Dialog, Primark.
- Torstar:
Acquired Cambridge Physics.
- Wadsworth:
Acquired Harcourt education titles.
- Wolters
Kluwer: Acquired Genesis; Springhouse; Harcourt tax, accounting
list.
- Wiley:
Acquired Capstone.
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Impugned
authors win subpoena for errata detail
BOISE,
Idaho, December 5, 2000
-- The University of Denver was subpoenaed for documents that
may illuminate the sequence of events in the decision to retract
a law journal article to which the Boise Cascade Corporation had
objected. The authors of the article, which criticized Boise Cascade,
are suing the university for issuing the retraction. The authors
have claimed that Boise Cascade bullied the university to retract
the article. University sources have offered inconsistent explanations.
There is agreement, though, that the authors were never folded
into the retraction decision process. In fact, the authors said
they learned about the retraction only five months later and then
the word came not from the journal or the university but from
Boise Cascade.
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Author
survey: Harcourt tactic was no surprise
ST. PETERS,
Missouri, December 5, 2000
-- College authors with Harcourt say they were kept well informed
about the pending sale of the company and so far are hopeful that
their works will survive under the new owner, Thomson of Canada,
according to a sampling by Text and Academic Authors. Kevin Patton
was typical, saying his project is on course with no danger signs
on the horizon.
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Harcourt
authors feel well informed on sale, hopeful
ST. PETERS,
Missouri, December 5, 2000
-- Harcourt author Kevin Patton said it's too early for him to
tell for assess the transfer of his Harcourt books to Thomson
in a major publishing transaction announced last month, but he
doesn't see any big changes so far. Patton said his editors kept
him up to date on Harcourt's plan to sell and the eventual acquisition
by Reed Elsevier of Europe and the Reed's sale of Harcourt's college
list to Thomson of Canada
"The impression
I get is that the sale will not affect my titles directly, at
least in the short term," Patton said. He believes this for two
reasons:
- "First,
it is my understanding that the new owner does not have any
titles that compete or overlap the market for my titles and
that the new owner intends to keep Harcourt's lists and imprints
intact, at least in my area.
- "Second,
I've lived through a number of sales, acquisitions, and reorganizations
and can't see anything major happening really quickly no matter
what because of the sheer size of the transaction."
Another Harcourt
author, Pat McKeague, said the acquisition will be an easy one
for him since he has books with both companies and good relationships
with both companies. "They let me know right away that it was
happening," said McKeague, a math author. "No one actually knows
anything yet, so I don't know anything either. I have been through
this many times before and it always seems to work out."
Harcourt author
Jennie Dusheck said she too has known about the sale from the
beginning. "My editors told me right away," she said. Two weeks
before the sale, she learned from her attorney that Thomson was
the likely buyer. "I was fortunate to be in Orlando for the annual
meeting of the National Association of Biology Teachers when the
sale was announced," said Dusheck. "I could immediately gauge
the reactions of the acquisitions editor, the developmental editor
and the marketing manager." How did they react? "I'll just say
that they all reacted differently."
When she and
her co-author went around the corner to the Thomson booth and
introduced themselves to the science editor, his reaction was
positive. "He was ebullient and reassured us that he was delighted
to have our textbook and that the Thomson sales force would start
selling it right away," she said. "He also said that developmental
editors and others familiar with specific books would probably
stay with those books, but as far as the rest of the staff, it
would take about six months to merge the two companies."
Thomson already
has a long list of biology books, said Dusheck, and "I don't know
where ours will actually fit in when push comes to shove." The
second edition of their book, Asking About Life, just came
out this past summer. No one knows when they will be asked to
start work on their third edition, she said, when just this last
spring, they had had a pretty concrete date in mind. "I find this
apparent retrograde motion unsettling," she said. "But there are,
of course, many interpretations."
Harcourt chemistry
author Toby Block said she isn't aware of any effect regarding
the sale of Harcourt to Thomson. Her editor has asked her to continue
with the preparation of the next edition of her co-authored text
and lab manual. "My understanding is that there will, in fact,
be a further sale of the college books division in a few months,"
she said.
Thomson authors
also report no adverse affects since the acquisition. Business
communication author Mary Ellen Guffey said she hasn't experienced
any problems or changes. Her editor told her that the areas that
will be most affected will be management, marketing, economics
and finance. Each of which, said her editor, will now be the number
one list in each discipline. "She claims that this acquisition
now makes Thomson's market position 'even sweeter' since we will
now be number one in all but two disciplines in which we compete,"
said Guffey.
Guffey said
she has been pleased in nearly all of her relations with Thomson's
imprint, South-Western College Publishing: "My royalties are terrific,
the sales support is enthusiastic, and my editorial support is
very good."
Thomson author
Peter Urone said he wasn't aware of the acquisition. "I am a physics
author and one of my major competitors is published by Saunders
so it will be interesting to see what transpires," he said.
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Greenwood
buys Oryx, will maintain name
WESTPORT,
Connecticut, December 6, 2000
-- Greenwood Press, a major academic and research publisher, acquired
information publisher Oryx. Terms were not announced. Oryx has
650 titles, mostly reference books in business, education and
library special topics, as well as on-line databases. Oryx located
in Phoenix, will be phased into Greenwood's operation in Connecticut,
said Greenwood chief executive Wayne Smith. Smith said the Oryx
brand name will be kept.
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Professors'
group checking Boise Cascade issue
WASHINGTON,
December 7, 2000
-- The American Association of University Professors is examining
the retraction of an already-published article in the Denver
Journal of International Law and Policy. The authors have
asserted that the retraction violated academic freedom. They charge
that the journal, published at the University of Denver Law School,
caved in to objections from Boise Cascade, a global forest-products
company that was portrayed negatively in the article for environmental
and other practices. The AAUP has standards for academic freedom
and is set up to investigate charges of abuses.
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Publishers,
authors issue censorship warning
WASHINGTON,
December 8, 2000
-- The Association of American Publishers dusted off an anti-censorship
statement from last year for re-issuing in the wake of anti-media
political rumblings during the 2000 campaign. The statement, first
drafted by the publishers' Freedom to Read Committee, challenges
the oft-repeated but unsubstantiated claim that media content
inspires violence. In any event, the statement says, government
censorship is more onerous than any evil it can purport to cure.
Six organizations signed on to the AAP statement: American Booksellers
Foundation for Free Expression, American Society of Journalists
and Authors, Association of American University Presses, Authors
Guild, Freedom to Read Foundation, PEN American Center.
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TAA news
site launches biblio service
ST. PETERBSURG,
Florida, December 9, 2000
-- The Text and Academic Authors is launching an ongoing, current
bibliography of significant articles on authoring issues, TAA
Editor John Vivian announced. "This is a service to help members
stay abreast of the major issues facing our craft," Vivian said.
The entries will include the information necessary to order articles
through inter-library loan systems.
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Human
Rights Watch probing Denver retraction
NEW YORK,
December 10, 2000
-- The academic program director at Human Rights Watch confirmed
it is investigating a decision at the University of Denver to
retract a scholarly journal article that linked Boise Cascade
to human rights violations. Saman Zia-Zarifi said the retraction
was out of order. He said scholarly journals are forums for the
exchange of information and ideas: "There is no reason for law
journals not to be forums for strong social commentary." Zia-Zarifi
said Boise Cascade should not have pressured the university to
withdraw the article. A proper Boise Cascade response, he said,
would have been reacting in writing -- not "pulling and killing"
the article.
ARTICLE
TITLE
This is the full title of the article in the Denver Journal
of International Law and Policy: "The Critical Need for Law
Reform to Regulate the Abusive Practices of Transational Corporations:
The Illustrative Case of Boise Cascade Corporation in Mexico's
Costa Grande and Elsewhere."
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Renaissance
buys ESA for foot in college market
VANCOUVER,
Washington, December 11, 2000
-- Learning software company Renaissance bought Minneapolis-based
Engineering Software, which develops test and tutorial software
for college textbooks. The acquisition moves Renaissance beyond
its K-12 base. Renaissance is the operating name for Advantage
Learning.
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Greenwood
looking to buy more publishers
WESTPORT,
Connecticut December 11, 2000
-- The marketing chief at Greenwood Press, Bob Birch, said the
company is in "an acquisition mode." Birch made the comment after
Greenwood announced the acquisition of Oryx, an information publisher
that will be integrated into Greenwood, although its name will
continue to be used. Greenwood is a unit of European mega-publisher
Reed Elsevier.
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Textbook
database has new web address
PRINCETON,
New Jersey, December 11, 2000
--A database that identifies the adopters of thousands of college
textbooks nationwide, Monument Information Resource, has a new
web address for college professors: facultyonline.com.
In exchange for access, people need to provide professional data
about themselves into the MIR database. Text and Academic Authors
members without a college affiliation, need to request a password
through an e-mail link to MIR on the web site.
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TAA calls
for Texty, McGuffey judges
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, December 11, 2000
-- Text and Academic Authors asked seasoned author-members to
sign on as judges for the association's annual Texty and McGuffey
excellence awards. Janet Tucker, awards project coordinator, said
five judges will be selected for college and el-hi entries in
eight ranges of academic disciplines:
- Math and
stats.
- Communication,
education; performing and visual arts.
- Language
and lit.
- Computer
science; engineering.
- Physical
sciences.
- Life sciences.
- Humanities;
social sciences.
- Accounting,
business, econ; managem
The Textys,
to recognize excellence in new works, and the McGuffeys, to recognize
works of enduring significance, will be presented June 9 at the
TAA convention in San Antonio.
How to
volunteer: E-mail to
Janet Tucker
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Houghton:
We're not for sale
NEW YORK,
December 12, 2000
-- The chief executive of Houghton Mifflin, Nader Dareshori, denied
that plans are afoot to sell the company. Dareshori told investors
that despite sluggish sales in recent months, his emphasis is
on increasing shareholder value. "If you want to get the very
best for your shareholders, I don't think the best way to do it
is just to put yourself up for sale," Dareshori said. Rumors that
Houghton would go on the block apparently were precipitated by
the path chosen by Harcourt after some rough sledding. Harcourt
eventually was bought by Reed Elsevier, which kept half and sold
the rest to Thomson.
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Rowman
& Littlefield buys General Hall
LANHAM,
Maryland, December 12, 2000
-- Publisher Rowman & Littlefield, which has feet in both the
tare and academic markets, General Hall, known for its sociology
list. Terms were not announced. The acquisition was Rowman's 16th
in three years.
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Ebrary
signs Taylor & Francis
SUNNYVALE,
California, December 13, 2000
-- The forthcoming ebrary online service signed up the whole list
of British publisher Taylor & Francis. This adds the Routledge,
Garland, Spoon and Psychology Press titles plus a 17,000-title
backlist to ebrary's offerings. ebrray offers free access to materials
but charges for downloading.
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Houghton
plans online college texts for fall
BOSTON,
December 14, 2000
-- For the first time, college students can choose e-editions
or p-editions for Fall 2001 classes if their professors have adopted
certain Houghton Mifflin textbooks. The first online texts will
be in education, political science and business. Spokesperson
Margaret Sherry said more will follow, depending on market reception.
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Houghton
putting 10 textbooks online
BOSTON,
December 14, 2000
-- Houghton Mifflin and e-book provider netLibrary's MetaText
division have combined forces to create electronic versions of
Houghton Mifflin's college texts. The companies plan to have the
first 10 titles available in fall 2001, with future editions depending
on demand for the product, according to Houghton Mifflin spokesperson
Margaret Sherry.
"The first
online texts will be in education, political science and business,
Sherry said. Prices have not yet been set.
The partnership,
said Sherry, will enable Houghton Mifflin to offer their customers
a choice between the print or online version of a textbook. The
online editions will provide users with "functionality," she said,
allowing instructors to build online course syllabi, annotate
text, and communicate online with students. Online editions will
be organized into conceptual units rather than using traditional
page breaks.
The text,
syllabus and other course materials will be accessible via a password
through one site, either Houghton Mifflin's web site or netLibrary's.
MetaText's platform will allow students to search, navigate, annotate,
highlight and bookmark their online texts via their own home page,
which serves as a portal to the text, syllabus, announcements
and any additional reading materials provided by the instructor.
"When a student
is done reading for the night, she would close out of the site,"
said Sherry. "If you imagine a virtual bookshelf, each time a
user is done using a book, they return it to a virtual bookshelf."
As for author
royalties, Sherry said the company is "examining the costs." For
now, she said, authors whose works are used in this new digital
initiative will receive royalties based on a percentage of net
receipts.
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Lennie
now full-time on author representation
SAN DIEGO,
California, December 15, 2000
-- The nation's best-known textbook author attorney, Michael Lennie,
announced he now is devoting his entire practice to author representation.
"Author work over the years has demanded more and more of my time
and energy," Lennie said. " But the bigger factor is, I just so
enjoy representing authors that I no longer want to spend half
my time doing something else." Lennie was operating a general
practice in rural Valley Center, California, when a wronged author
from the Merrill Math team dropped in one day. Lennie won
a $3.2 million settlement for the authors, the largest textbook
settlement in history. Recently he negotiated $700,000 in grants
and advances for a new textbook. Besides litigation for authors
and contract negotiation, Lennie has expanded into agenting. His
former practice, next door to a dairy in bucolic Valley Center,
has relocated to a 25th-floor corner office overlooking the harbor
in downtown San Diego. Lennie is firm on the need for authors
to have a representative. "Overall the big three major textbook
publishers have tightened up their contracts to where an unrepresented
author just doesn't stand a chance," he said. "All the more reason
why we absolutely have to build TAA to a trade organization to
be reckoned with by the publishers."
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PROFIT
LOSS
Harcourt:
Education revenue grew 29.8 percent to $754.7 in the year that
ended October 31. STM revenue grew 6.8 percent to $745.1 million.
College revenue fell 1.3 percent to $361.3 million.
Wiley:
Net income grew 22 percent to $33.4 million in the latest six-month
reporting period, compared to a year earlier. Domestic science,
technical, medical profits were up 14 percent; domestic professional
and trade sales, 11 percent; college sales, 10 percent.
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TAA Council's
January agenda taking form
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, December 16, 2000
-- A request for agenda items for the mid-year meeting of the
TAA Council was issued by Ron Pynn, executive director of Text
and Academic Authors. The Council meets January 20 in St. Petersburg
Beach.
- Elections
(Vice president, treasurer position, June election).
- Nominating
Committee.
- Reports
(TAA office, executive director, web site, newsletter) .
- Authors
Coalition distribution formula.
- Publishing
company venture.
- Membership
recruitment and workshops.
- Grant status.
- 2001 convention
status.
- Council
of Fellows.
- McGuffey
and Texty awards.
- Budget
review.
- Membership
initiatives.
Action:
Send agenda items to Ron
Pynn
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Havas trying
hand-held textbook readers
PARIS,
December 16, 2000
-- French-based publisher Havas Education issued hand-held computers
to pupils at two junior high schools to test digital textbooks.
The experiment, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, will
expand to four schools in March.
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Rowman
& Littlefield buys Madison House
LANHAM,
Maryland, December 16, 2000
-- History publisher Madison House, of Madison, Wisconsin, was
purchased by Rowman & Littlefield, which been on an acquisition
binge. The acquisition was Rowman's 17th in three years. Terms
were not announced. Among Madison assets is a strong Civil War
list. With Madison House, Rowman has 1,000 books.
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Wiley eyes
Harcourt leftovers
NEW YORK,
December 16, 2000
-- If the U.S. Justice Department insists that Reed Elsevier shed
some of its Harcourt acquisition, John Wiley & Sons is in an acquisition
mode, said Wiley President Will Pesce. To investors, Pesce said
he is especially interested in Harcourt college lists and Academic
Press. Reed has agreed to sell most of Harcourt's college program
to Thomson of Canada, but that too is under Justice Department
review. Federal approval of the Reed-Thomson acquisitions is expected
although some fine-tuning may be ordered.
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California
school chief: We catch errors
SACRAMENTO,
California, December 16, 2000
-- The California school book adoption process is sound even though
there may be low-level errors that get through, the interim state
education director said. About science books, which have been
under particular attack, Greg Geeting said the contents are checked
for accuracy by two different panels. Errors identified in that
process, he said, are corrected.
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State leader
defends California adoption process
SACRAMENTO,
California, December 16, 2000
-- The California State Board of Education's interim executive
director, Greg Geeting, denied allegations made by a California
science teacher that the State Board of Education adopted science
instructional materials despite knowledge of specific factual
errors. "I do not know of any credible evidence to support such
an allegation," said Geeting of Leonard Tramiel's assertion that
the adopted programs are still full of significant errors. All
of the science materials adopted by the State Board, said Geeting,
were checked for content accuracy by two different panels, the
Instructional Materials Advisory Panel and the Content Review
Panel. Errors identified in that process, he said, were corrected.
"I am waiting
for anyone to identify for me significant factual errors in any
of the adopted programs that materially affect the teacher's ability
to teach and the student's ability to learn the science content
standards," said Geeting.
During the
adoption process, said Geeting, Tramiel pointed out several errors
in the texts up for adoption. "About half of those errors were
verified and corrected by the publisher," he said. Tramiel has
contacted Geeting several times to discuss additional errors.
Geeting said that although he takes the allegations seriously,
Tramiel "has yet to produce specific information about them."
Said Geeting:
"I certainly leave open the possibility that factual errors were
missed (and thus, not brought to the specific attention of the
State Board), although I would be genuinely surprised to have
significant errors given the number of reviewers who looked at
these submissions. I also leave open the possibility that 'facts'
may change in the future as part of the natural progression of
science. If minor errors are found, we want to ensure that the
information gets to the publisher and corrections are made in
future printings of the programs."
Geeting said
Tramiel has been the only person so far to report finding significant
errors in the state adopted science programs. Geeting said he
has communicated with Tramiel via e-mail several times as well
as in person, and he has indicated that he will be sending more
information about corrections. Tramiel, said Geeting, "suggests
the errors he found previously indicates the possibility (even
the probability) that there are more."
No matter
when they are alerted to significant factual errors in adopted
materials, their plan, said Geeting, is to:
- Make sure
the publisher is aware of the factual errors and to work out
a reasonable means to ensure -- at a minimum -- that future
editions are accurate.
- Work out
a reasonable means to update the existing materials or otherwise
advise teachers of the error if the corrections are material
to the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn course
content.
"In large
part, this is why I have encouraged Mr. Tramiel to provide me
with specific information as to where there are significant errors
in adopted science text he has reviewed," said Geeting.
He and Tramiel
also discussed his ideas for doing more to ensure that texts adopted
by the State Board are as error-free as possible, said Geeting:
"I gave him my commitment to think about these ideas more and
see if they might somehow be incorporated into California's review
processes."
Although each
submission does not undergo a word-for-word review, said Geeting,
"I would respectfully suggest that the evaluation is quite comprehensive:
"Typically, three or four CRP members go through each program,
as do six to 10 IMAP members; and, following that, there is a
public review and consideration by the Curriculum Commission and
State Board. I other words, there are multiple opportunities to
spot inadequacies in content coverage, factual errors, and other
failures to meet the evaluation criteria."
Even if the
science programs had gone through a word-by-word review, said
Geeting, "I couldn't give you a 100 percent assurance that they
were error-free because in all human endeavors the possibility
for error exists. There may very well be minor errors in the submissions,
however, as I said, I would be surprised if there were significant
errors."
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Want cheap
legal advice? Try New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS,
Louisiana, December 16, 2000
-- To counter slipping Text and Academic Authors membership among
math authors, four TAA leaders will be at the giant Joint Math
Conference in early January. The main attraction will be a Peanuts-like
banner, "The Authors' Attorney Is In, 5 Cents Per Hour." Textbook
lawyer Michael Lennie is staffing the TAA booth. Reprints of Lennie's
"In Jure" columns from TAA Report will be available, along
with membership brochures and applications. Math authors were
the biggest component of TAA in the early days when Mike Keedy,
a prominent math author, was setting up the association. The percentage
has declined since Keedy retired. Staffing the TAA booth, besides
Lennie: Michael Sullivan, interim TAA vice president; Ron Pynn,
executive director; John Vivian, former president.
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Teacher:
Book errors are system's fault
SAN FRANCISCO,
California, December 18, 2000
-- A science teacher who has spotted numerous errors in California-adopted
school books was stunned that the state Board of Education executive
director says all "major errors" have been fixed. Leonard Tramiel
said that Gary Geeting must have a loose definition of "major
errors." Tramiel acknowledged that errors he has specifically
pointed out have been fixed but others remain because, he says,
the state has a seriously flawed adoption process.
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TAA willing
to join authors' e-rights brief
TWIN FALLS,
Idaho, December 18, 2000 --
The president of Text and Academic Authors, Peggy Stanfield, authorized
the association to sign on to an authors' rights amicus brief
to the U.S. Supreme Court. The amicus brief would support Jonathan
Tasini and other authors whose works have been recycled by major
publishers on the web without the authors' permission or additional
compensation. The Authors Coalition, to which TAA belongs, is
considering the brief ahead of oral arguments to the Court.
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Amazon.com
gigged for used books
NEW YORK,
December 19, 2000
-- Now that Amazon.com has expanded into selling used books, authors
and publishers have lost some enthusiasm for the upstart online
retailer. The Association of American Publishers and the Authors
Guild issued a public letter, asking Amazon to stop. Noting that
used books earn no revenue for authors and publishers, the letter
said: "If book authors and publishers aren't adequately compensated
for their work, then more and more writers will be compelled to
pursue other creative outlets and professions." The letter said
that Amazon does not appear to have taken any precautions to prevent
sales of review copies or other promotional copies not intended
for resale.
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Insider:
Pearson freezes checks to authors
PARAMUS,
New Jersey, December 20, 2000
-- Pearson Education, the largest U.S. textbook publisher, halted
all payments to authors, including book advances and reviewer
fees, until the end of the year, according to an insider familiar
with the company's accounts payable operation. The source said
the freeze was ordered to make the company's year-end profit-loss
figures look better: "The higher-ups don't like not making their
profit margin to our new owners so decided to cut costs and told
Accounts Payable to withhold all payments to anyone until January,
so it goes on next year's budget," the source said. Pearson Education,
which includes Prentice Hall, Longman and other imprints, was
put together by British media conglomerate Pearson and became
operational last year.
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VarsityBooks
confirms expected delisting
WASHINGTON,
December 20, 2000
-- Investors fled online textbook retailer VarsityBooks.com following
its announcement, long expected, that it anticipated being delisted
by NASDAQ. VarsityBooks stock had failed to maintain a minimum
public float of $5 million over the past 30 trading days. Varsity
had floated its first public offering at $10 in February in hopes
of raising $41 million, but only about a quarter of the shares
found takers.
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Pearson
exec: No freeze on author pay
PARAMUS,
New Jersey, December 22, 2000
-- The royalties vice president at Pearson Education, Ethel Sluzak,
denied a report that manuscript-related payments to authors have
been slowed. "I am unaware of any author-related payments being
held back," said Sluzak, who noted she would be aware of a freeze.
She said she could not speak to whether there had been vendor
freezes beyond her bailiwick. Sluzak said paperwork sometimes
gets hung up in the Pearson structure, which includes Prentice
Hall, Longman and other imprints. She said she would check into
any delays that any specific author has experienced.
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E-books
really here to stay?
TORONTO,
December 22, 2000
-- Canadian futurist Frank Feather looks into his crystal ball
in a new book, Futureconsumer.com, and lays out this timetable
for e-books:
- 2002: E-book
displays surpass printed paper.
- 2003: E-books
penetrate 16-ounce and $100 barriers.
- 2009: E-books
outsell paper books.
- 2010: E-book
penetrate eight-ounce barrier.
- 2010: Sales
pass 1 million.
- 2020: Ninety
percent of titles are e-books.
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Reed arranges
credit for Harcourt deal
NEW YORK,
December 26, 2000
-- To facilitate its acquisition of Harcourt, European publisher
Reed Elsevier arranged a $5.7 million line of credit with Deutsche
Bank and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.
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Kluwer
buys IHS Financial
ENGLEWOOD,
Colorado, Dec. 26, 2000
-- An online tax and business law information service, IHS Financial,
was acquired by Wolters Kluwer of Germany. Terms were not announced.
Kluwer, third largest professional publisher in the United States,
will combine IHS into its CCH unit in Riverwoods, Illinois.
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of page for all news
TOP
TAA NEWS OF 2000
YOUR ASSOCIATION AT WORK
COMPILER: KIM
PAWLAK
Now well into its teenage years, the Text and Academic Authors
Association made significant strides in 2000. Its two major
author services, the annual convention and the newsletter,
received the bulk of association resources. New initiatives
included the first TAA-sponsored royalty audit. Progress continued
toward a new online scholarly journal on academic authoring.
|
1.
LEADERSHIP:
For the second time, nutrition author Peggy Stanfield
took the gavel as TAA president. Stanfield, who first
served as president in 1998, began a two-year term
under new bylaws, which will make her tenure the longest
since that of TAA founder Mike Keedy. Math author
Mike Sullivan stepped in as interim vice president
after Paul Tippens resigned for family reasons. Elected
to the TAA Council were Chris Harris, a photojournalist;
Y.H. Hui, a biochemist; and Frank Silverman, a speech
pathologist.
2.
ROYALTY AUDIT: The first TAA-sponsored royalty
audit found a $23,000 discrepancy in payments to an
author. In an unexpected twist, it turned out that
the author had been overpaid years ago. John Vivian,
royalty audit chair, said the overpayment was an indelible
demonstration of the sloppiness and irregularities
that plague publisher bookkeeping. The audit's goal
was to encourage publishers to improve their accounting
practices, albeit that the association had expected
the short change to have been on the author's end.
3.
JOURNAL CONTRACTS: Former journal editor Gerald
Stone, a TAA past president, began work on contract
guidelines for journal authors. The guidelines will
parallel the TAA guidelines for textbook contracts.
4.
JOURNAL: The editor of the forthcoming Journal
of Text and Academic Authoring, Donna Besser,
began assembling an editorial board for the online
journal. TAA editor John Vivian, meanwhile, built
an online infrastructure for the journal, which
should debut in a few months. On the editorial board:
Kurt Bachmann, astrophysics; Stan Eitzen, sociology;
Lloyd Jassin, law; George Rodman, communication;
Gay Wakefield, public relations.
5.
HEADQUARTERS: Office staffing and procedures
stabilized after several years of moving and overturn,
Ron Pynn, TAA executive director, said in a report.
He credited smooth operations to manager Janet Tucker
and assistant Margaret Painter. The TAA Council
reduced the association's budget by $25,000 in January
to offset less-than-expected income from campus
workshops and from repatriated reprography funds.
Among cuts: The Academic Author newsletter
was trimmed from 12 to six issues a year.
6.
ONLINE PROMPTS: An e-mail message now goes out
monthly to TAA members who ask for a summary of
authoring news highlights in lieu of the print newsletter.
The "news prompts" include links to the online TAA
newsletter for details on stories, So far, 114 members
have signed on, which saves postage and printing
costs for the association.
For
TAA news prompts: Ask
Janet Tucker now
7.
CONVENTION: The New Orleans convention, headed
by convention chair Chris Harris, was hailed a
success -- fancy digs, great food, wonderful program.
More than 100 authors attended. At the convention,
two widely recognized authors, Bill Pasewark Sr.
and Tom Wheelen, were inducted into TAA's prestigious
Council of Fellows. The Council is the highest
honor the association can bestow on an author.
Law author Paul Siegal, from Gallaudet University,
agreed to serve as 2001 program chair. The meeting
will be in San Antonio, Texas.
8.
MEMBERSHIP: An authoring workshop at the University
of North Dakota topped off TAA's membership year
with 125 new members. The workshop continued the
association's growth from a low of 575 in June
1999. A new initiative aimed at restoring math
membership in 2000. Math membership has faltered
since founder Mike Keedy, a mathematician, retired.
9.
ARCHIVES: A year after its inception, the
TAA textbook archive at the University of South
Florida-St. Petersburg library grew to 425 books
provided by TAA members. While the library had
hoped to have a web site for the archive linked
to its library home page by now, the project had
to be put on hold until a new systems librarian
is hired. In the meantime, Kathy Arsenault, in
charge of the collection, provides access to individual
books as requested.
10.
BIBLIO SERVICE: A bibliography to current
articles on authoring issues was added to the
TAA news site. The goal: To help members stay
abreast of the major issues involving textbook
authoring. Entries include the information necessary
to order articles through inter-library loan systems.
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Astronomer:
"Rotate" error not in pupil text
WILLIAMSTOWN,
Massachusetts, Dec. 26, 2000
-- Astronomer Jay M. Pasachoff said that errors in his junior-high
school textbook Science Explorer Astronomy have been overstated
both in Forbes magazine and the TAA web site. Misuse of
the term rotation and revolution for Earth's movement
vis-á-vis the sun occurred only in a teacher manual, which he
didn't write, Pasachoff said. The error was corrected in a second
printing. Pasachoff said other reported errors apparently confused
his book with another Prentice Hall book. He repeated his concern
that publishers don't always show authors the materials associated
with their texts. "I am nonetheless happy that I was able to help
Prentice Hall put out a junior-high astronomy text that is far
more accurate and up to date than any other on the market."
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10-month
el-hi sales surge ahead
WASHINGTON,
December 27, 2000
-- Sales through October continued ahead of a year earlier in
the genres in which most members of Text and Academic Authors
write. The latest compilation by the Association of American Publishers
showed el-hi sales ahead almost 14 percent. University press sales,
however, were off. Here is the genre breakdown, extrapolated from
87 reporting publishers:
| El-hi |
13.8
percent |
| Professional |
9.8
percent |
| College |
3.8
percent |
| University
press (hardcover) |
-1.4
percent |
| University
press (paperback) |
-2.4
percent |
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TAA underspends
fiscal 2000 budget
ST. PETERSBURG,
Florida, December 27, 2000
-- The good news is that Text and Academic Authors' didn't go
as deep into red ink as projected in fiscal 2000, said Michael
Sullivan, the association's treasurer. Sullivan's year-end tally
shows that TAA spent $165,000 -- $13,000 less than budgeted. But
bad news is that the association ate almost $45,000 out of its
reserve, ending the year with only $19,000 in the bank.
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TAA eats
into reserve to meet expenses
ST. PETERBSURG,
Florida, December 27, 2000
-- This is the financial report prepared by Michael Sullivan,
Text and Academic Authors treasurer, for the January meeting of
the TAA Council:
| FISCAL
YEAR: JULY1999 THROUGH JUNE 2000 |
|
ACTUAL |
BUDGET
Revised January 8, 2000 |
| BEGINNING
BALANCE |
$
63,997.22 |
$
63,997.22 |
| INCOME |
| 1. |
Renewals |
$
22,350.00 |
$
25,000 |
|
New memberships |
885.00 |
1,000 |
|
Workshop
fees |
630.00 |
4,000 |
| 2. |
Advertising |
0.00 |
1,000 |
| 3. |
Award
fees |
2,600.00 |
5,000 |
| 4. |
Subscription/book
sales |
102.40 |
200 |
| 5. |
Convention |
7,762.50 |
7,000 |
| 6. |
Miscellaneous |
757.89 |
0 |
| 7. |
Reprography |
83,121.43 |
83,000 |
| 7. |
Interest |
2,142.54 |
1,000 |
|
TOTAL
INCOME |
120,351.76 |
127,200 |
| EXPENSES |
| 1. |
Academic
Author: Staff |
$
30,520.28 |
30,000 |
|
Academic
Author: Copying/Postage |
4,908.23 |
6,000 |
|
Academic
Author: Miscellaneous |
1,983.81 |
4,000 |
| 2. |
Bank
charges |
775.12 |
700 |
| 3. |
Conventions |
9,734.95 |
7,000 |
| 4. |
Dues/subscriptions |
3,157.58 |
2,000 |
| 5. |
Grant-in-Aid |
1,375.77 |
2,000 |
| 6. |
Legal/Accounting |
531.25 |
1,000 |
| 7. |
Membership
promotion |
2,089.47 |
5,000 |
| 8. |
Office |
23,748.57 |
12,000 |
| 9. |
Payroll |
72,519.29 |
70,000 |
| 10. |
Miscellaneous |
93.63 |
0 |
| 11. |
Authoring
promotion |
212.50 |
12,000 |
| 12. |
Equipment |
42.56 |
1,000 |
| 13. |
Awards |
657.33 |
500 |
| 14. |
Executive
director |
3,621.19 |
5,000 |
| 15. |
Council |
7,178.03 |
9,000 |
| 16. |
Royalty
audit |
2,000.00 |
5,000 |
| 17. |
Support
for authoring issues |
0.00 |
1,000 |
| 18. |
Academic
journal |
0.00 |
7,000 |
|
TOTAL
EXPENSES |
165,149.56 |
178,700 |
| FISCAL
YEAR BALANCE (DEFICIT) |
$
(44,797.80) |
$
| |
