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January 2000

2000 TAA LEADERS

PRESIDENT: Karen Morris (law). Monroe Community College (TAA Council June 1995-June 1998, then vice president June 1998-1999, then president June 1999-June 2000)

VICE PRESIDENT: Peggy Stanfield (nutrition and health), College of Southern Idaho (Vice president June 1997-June 1998, president June 1998-June 1999, vice president and present-elect June 1999-June 2000)

SECRETARY: Mary Kay Switzer (mass media), California State Polytechnic University (June 1996-June 1998)

TREASURER: Mike Sullivan: (math), Chicago State University (June 1995-June 1999)

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT: Peggy Stanfield (nutrition and health), College of Southern Idaho (June 1998-June 1999)

COUNCIL MEMBER: Donna Besser (public relations), Carbondale, Illinois (June 1999-June 2002)

COUNCIL MEMBER: Steve Gillen (law), Frost & Jacobs (June 1997-June 2001)

COUNCIL MEMBER: Phil Halloran (math), (June 1999-June 2002)

COUNCIL MEMBER: Dale Layman (anatomy and physiology), Joliet Junior College (June 1998-June 2000)

COUNCIL MEMBER: Paul Rosenzweig: Royalty Review Service (June 1996-June 2000)

COUNCIL MEMBER: Paul Tippens (physics), Southern Polytechnic State University (June 1997-June 2001)

COUNCIL MEMBER: John Vivian (journalism), Winona State University (ex officio as TAA editor, June 1997-)

CONTRACTS COMMITTEE: Bill Pasewark. (business), chair, Lubbock TX.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Ron Pynn (political science), University of North Dakota

OFFICE MANAGER: Janet Tucker, University of South Florida-St. Petersburg

TAA EDITOR: John Vivian: (journalism), Winona State University

NEWSLETTER EDITOR: Kim Pawlak (journalism), Buffalo City WI

NEWSLETTER PRODUCTION EDITOR: Paula Heimbecker (academic secretary), Winona State University

WEB DESIGNER: Matt Del Vecchio (public relations), Winona State University

ADVISER: L. Kathy Heilenman (French), University of Iowa (President 1994-1995)

ADVISER: Mike Keedy (math), Purdue University (TAA founder and president 1985-1991)

ADVISER: Bill Masterton (chemistry), University of Connecticut (President 1991-1992)

ADVISER: Ron Pynn (political science), University of North Dakota (President 1992-1993 and 1996-1997)

ADVISER: Gerald Stone (journalism), Southern Illinois University (President 1995-1996)

ADVISER: John Vivian (journalism), Winona State University (President 1993-1994)

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McGraw offers huge database to profs, students

GUILFORD, Connecticut, January 2, 2000 -- Textbook publisher Dushkin/McGraw-Hill will give a $25 credit for adopters and their students to get into the Northern Light database. The database has 6,000 full-text sources. In all, the site, four years in the making, has 200 million pages.

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Reed cuts costs for Internet development cash

LONDON, January 2, 2000 -- Troubled Reed Elsevier can save itself with a $325 million investment in Internet products this year, chief executive Crispin Davis said. The Internet initiative is crucial for the giant scholarly journal publisher, which has been considered a vulnerable take-over target. Davis said most of the $325 million would be generated internally through layoffs and cost-cutting.

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Profit pressure on at Bertelsmann unit

GÜTERSLOH, Germany, January 2, 2000 -- The German media giant Bertelsmann plans to make its Science+Business Media unit as profitable as the rest of the company, chief executive Juergen Richter said. The core of the unit, acquired from Springer Verlag, had not had profit as a priority when it was under family ownership, Richter said, adding that that will change. The goal: Tripling pre-tax profits.

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Georgia author accepts TAA vice-presidency nod

TWIN FALLS, Idaho, January 2, 2000 -- An award-winning physics author, Paul Tippens, accepted nomination to be Text and Academic Authors vice president and president-elect, nomination chair Peggy Stanfield said. Tippens has served two terms on the TAA Council. He is a veteran member of the Southern Polytechnic State University faculty at Marietta, Georgia. His college textbook Physics (Glencoe McGraw-Hill) won a TAA Texty Award for excellence in 1998. He was program chair for the 1999 TAA national convention in Park City, Utah. In this spring's TAA election, if elected by TAA members, Tippens would become vice president in June. Then, two years later, if elected again, he would assume the presidency for a two-year term.

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HarperCollins: We're innocent on inside swapping

NEW YORK, January 2, 2000 -- HarperCollins denied wrong-doing in selling English-language editions of books to its own subsidiaries at below market rates. A spokesperson was responding to a class-action suit filed by authors Ken Englade, a Western historical fiction author, and Patricia Simpson, a romance writer. The suit addresses a common publishers' provision that allows books to be sold at separate rates for international markets. At some publishers, the books are assigned to other units within the company at low costs that cut into author royalties.

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Authors says HarperCollins self-traded their books

NEW YORK, January 2, 2000 -- The publishing house HarperCollins denied wrong-doing in a class action suit alleging that the company sold books to its own subsidiaries at below-market rates.

HarperCollins spokesperson Lisa Herlig said that although HarperCollins doesn't normally comment on pending litigation, in this case the company would say: "We are vigorously defending the matter and are confident we will prevail."

The suit was filed in the state court on November 8 on behalf of Ken Englade, Patricia Simpson and the thousands of HarperCollins authors could be affected by the outcome of the case. They are asking for an order granting them the right to a royalty review and independent audit of their books.

The plaintiffs claim that HarperCollins breached its contract with authors by selling their books to its own related and affiliated publishing companies "at a considerable discount well below fair market value, thus earning each author less royalties than is mandated in each contract." They say HarperCollins has "systematically violated its contracts with its authors by engaging in self-dealing." According to the suit, HarperCollins "negotiates with itself" in selling its authors' books to its affiliated publishing companies in Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, England, Zimbabwe and Australia, among others. This "self-dealing" the authors say, "causes its authors to be paid less in royalties than they would otherwise be entitled if the books would have been sold for distribution to a non-affiliated company for a fair market price."

The suit asks the court to allow a class action, to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction to keep HarperCollins from continuing to sell books to its subsidiaries at below-market value, and award plaintiffs and the class compensatory and punitive damages.

Englade, who has published five Western historical books with HarperCollins, and Simpson, who has published 10 romance novels with the company, would not comment on the case.

Textbook authors could be affected by the outcome of the suit if they had Scott Foresman titles before the company was sold by HarperCollins to Addison Wesley Longman, said an industry insider. The sale to Addison Wesley Longman, now part of Pearson Education, occurred only a few years back, so those TAA members who had Scott Foresman titles could share in the eventual settlement.

Jerome Noll, of Lax and Noll, who represents Englade and Simpson, said other authors interested in joining the suit should contact him: (212) 818-9150.

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McGraw sells five printing plants

NEW YORK, January 3, 2000 -- Media conglomerate McGraw-Hill sold five printing plants to Cunningham Graphics of Jersey City, New Jersey. The plants: Dallas, Texas; Erlanger, Kentucky; Heightstown, New Jersey; Inglewood, California; and Orlando, Florida.

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New newsletter issue sent to TAA members

WINONA, Minnesota, January 3, 2000 -- The first Academic Author of the millennium was mailed to Text and Academic Authors members. The newsletter features Marty Triola, who writes math books, in the Notable Author section.

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Math titles bring TAA E-List to 30

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio, January 4, 1999 -- A Case Western Reserve University author, Daniel Solow, posted two advanced college math titles on the E-List for Books sponsored by Text and Academic Authors. The six-week-old list, intended to help TAA members sell works to which they own rights, now has 30 titles.

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Distance-learning programs propagate

WASHINGTON, January 5, 2000 -- The number of distance-education programs in the United States grew 72 percent to 1,190 from 1995 to 1998, the U.S. Department of Education said. About 1.6 million students are enrolled, according to the department.

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TAA leaders share personal, association goals

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 1, 2000 -- As Text and Academic Authors enters the new millennium, here are some resolutions from the leadership:

Karen Morris, President: "I plan for TAA to continue to assist authors in all aspects of their writing endeavors and to help new authors begin their writing careers. I plan for the organization to be THE source for information and advice on changes in the writing field prompted by technology and other marketplace forces. I plan that the benefits of the organization will be so clear and helpful that membership will swell."

Lee Mountain, TAA Council Member: "Tie into the class-action hopes and aspirations of all textbook authors who have books with copyrights that start with the numbers '19' -- we need revisions that start with the numbers '20.'"

Mike Sullivan, Treasurer: "To do my best to secure additional members for TAA. To maintain and improve the fiscal integrity of TAA."

Dale Layman, TAA Council Member: "To gain a higher national and international profile and recognition as an organization of the highest merit. I would like to see us gain a reputation as a socially and educationally pro-active body, in general, that expands our horizons to larger issues beyond those of just text authors."

Paul Rosenzweig, TAA Council Member: "As my term as a member of the TAA Council approaches I hope that TAA continues to prosper and to grow. We also have to stabilize the funding resources that TAA relies on to operate."

Paul Tippens, TAA Council Member: "In the spirit of a new beginning for the millennium and in recognition of the charitable mood of the holiday season, I resolve to do what I can to help one of the most neglected and abused groups of people on this earth -- the 'creators' and 'achievers' of the world. These hardworking, resourceful people have been relentlessly attacked for years by those who would seek to use their efforts and to benefit from their genius with no thought of compensation. Please join me in this effort; find a rich person, and give them a 'hug.'"

Ron Pynn, Executive Director: "To increase membership."

Janet Tucker, Office Manager: "Continue working on improving member services and providing more and better assistance to members."

Margaret Painter, Office Assistant: "To become more proficient with the computer."

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Thomson acts on Marriage for attribution lapse

BELMONT, California, January 7, 2000 -- A first-edition marriage textbook criticized for unflattering references on Islam family life is being revised to eliminate offensive passages that lack attribution, the Wadsworth publishing house confirmed. The Council on American-Islamic Relations had objected to the references. In remaining copies of the first run, Wadsworth is taping over the offending passages and issuing errata sheets. One quote to which the Islam group objected, however, is retained because, said a Wadsworth spokesperson, it is tightly credited to a source. The authors of the book, Marriage in the Family: A Brief Introduction, David Knox and Caroline Schacht of East Carolina University, stand by their original text.

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Text drops Islam references: "Inadequately cited"

BELMONT, California, January 7, 2000 -- A Washington-based Islamic advocacy group persuaded Wadsworth Publishing to obliterate certain passages in a college textbook published by its subsidiary Thomson Learning. The passages were criticized as offensive to Islamics.

The textbook, Marriage in the Family: A Brief Introduction, by David Knox and Caroline Schacht, sociology professors at East Carolina University, had included passages that the Council on American-Islamic Relations said were not factual. Ibraham Hooper, CAIR's national communications director, said after a member of the Muslim community reported the assertions to the Washington office, the Council contacted the publisher by letter in late October stating why the passages were offensive and inaccurate.

Hooper called the statements in the book "ridiculous," including one which read: "In the presence of others, a wife must not speak to her husband or stare at him."

"The statements weren't worthy of reply," said Hooper. "They were so defamatory that we didn't even want to get into the argument of whether they were right or wrong." Their problem with the passages, said Hooper, was the fact that they stated them as facts with no citations to back them up. "It was deeply offensive to have someone claim this as a fact," he said.

Thomson spokesperson Kristen McCarthy said the company agreed that the passage was not adequately cited. "There was no agreement whether the passage was right or wrong. The authors stand behind the intent of their writing." Schacht, one of the co-authors, declined to comment on the matter.

Wadsworth has ceased distribution of the textbook, taking all undistributed books and placing a sticker over offensive passages. An errata sheet containing changes to the text will be circulated for books that have already been distributed. New editions will not contain the excised passage and will contain a new ISBN.

The offensive passages, stated as fact, were:

  • "Modern-day cross-cultural examples of gender roles include subservient Hindu and Muslim women."
  • "At meals, a woman eats only after the men have been served."
  • "A wife walking with her husband is expected to follow a few steps behind him."

One quote to which CAIR objected was retained: "In Islam, the most male oriented of the modern religions, a woman is nothing but a vehicle for producing sons." The quote was attributed by the authors to Joseph Campbell, author of The Price of Honor.

In a letter to Wadsworth, Hooper wrote: "I will not dignify these outrageous and unsourced allegations with a point-by-point rebuttal. The fact that this anti-Muslim propaganda is targeted at impressionable students only makes the situation more disturbing."

In a CAIR press release on the decision, CAIR Board Chairman Omar Ahmad said: "Wadsworth has taken a courageous step in support of academic integrity. This action will ensure that objective information about Islam is presented to students."

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NetPaper executive on TAA program

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, January 7, 2000 -- An executive of the new custom book service NetPaper.com, John Baack, has agreed to serve on a panel of self-publishing at the Text and Academic Authors national convention. Baack, whose been in publishing 35 years, is NetPaper's publishing relations director.

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TAA news site reports record 629 stories

WINONA, Minnesota, January 7, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors' on-line newsletter carried 629 news items in 1999, a 21.6 percent increase, editor John Vivian said in a report to the TAA Council. Vivian reported increased emphasis on academic journals. Also, he said, Kim Pawlak had generated original coverage unavailable elsewhere. Comments on the Academic Author, the print newsletter that summarizes on-line content, has been uniformly favorable, he said.

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College, el-hi sales remain on roll

WASHINGTON, January 7, 2000 -- The book genres in which most text and academic authors write all experienced sales increases through the first 10 months of 1999, compared to a year earlier, according to a sample by the Association of American Publishers. The data, below, were drawn from 99 publishers.

TEXTBOOK AND ACADEMIC BOOK SALES
THROUGH OCTOBER 1999
From Association of American Publishers compilations
STM and business 16.0 percent
College 9.4 percent
University press (hardback) 8.8 percent
El-hi adoptions 5.6 percent
University press (paperback) 2.8 percent

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VarsityBooks.com going for college borrowers

WASHINGTON, January 8, 2000 -- The battle for on-line textbook sales escalated with a VarsityBooks.com announcement that its has entered a partnership the college loan program Sallie Mae. At a special web site, Sallie Mae borrowers can tap into book discounts. Coupons for other deals can be printed from the site.

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Membership push on slow track

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The Text and Academic Authors membership drive has had a slow response, Ron Pynn, executive director, told the association's governing board. Two new membership brochures and a mailing to universities to sponsor TAA campus workshops have not generated the expected response, he said. Membership, meanwhile, has settled at less than 600.

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New TAA recruiting brochures in mail

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors Executive Director Ron Pynn told the association's governing council that membership continues to be his top priority. Pynn said the outcome of several membership initiatives of the past six months, however, have been disappointing.

In early December 1999, headquarters mailed 1,000 new membership brochures to faculty at random in a test mailing, said Pynn. Only one new member joined.

Also in early December 1999, he said, headquarters mailed a new workshop brochure to 100 colleges and universities, targeting 350 provosts, deans and faculty development officers. It resulted in one phone inquiry.

Pynn sent a request to all TAA members to send in their tips for successful authoring for a compilation of authoring tips. Fifty members responded. Once the monograph was completed, it was included as an incentive to potential new members and renewing members. Only one former member rejoined.

In September, TAA launched a membership campaign called Member-Sponsor-A-Member Campaign in which members were asked to submit the names of potential new members in return for a chance to win a free hotel room at the New Orleans convention in June 2000. For every new member who joined, the sponsoring member's name would be entered into the drawing for the free hotel stay. Twelve members responded, supplying 40 names. No person joined as a result of the solicitations.

The TAA Book List, an on-line listing of members' books which have either been self-published or had gone out of print and the rights reverted back to the author, was launched in November. There are now 32 books on the list.

In November, headquarters mailed a request to all members to host a breakfast on their campuses so that TAA could talk about starting campus chapters. Only one member responded.

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TAA invites write-ins for governing board

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The Text and Academic Authors Nominating Committee recommended four members for upcoming vacancies on the TAA Council positions. Committee chair Peggy Stanfield said the ballot will include these candidates for the Council: visual communication author Chris Harris, medical terminology author Y.H. Hui, and speech pathology author Frank Silverman. Physics author Paul Tippens was the ballot recommendation of the committee for vice president and president-elect. Stanfield, a nutrition author, is on the ballot for president as the current vice president and president-elect. Elections are in April. The two-year terms start in June.

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Shipboard TAA convention remains possibility

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors Treasurer Mike Sullivan, who not only writes textbooks but has a travel agency on the side, was asked by the TAA Council to find out the cost of having the 2001 convention aboard a cruise ship. Because shipboard facilities are limited, the usual program of two full days would have to be cut -- as much as half on a minimum three-day, four-night voyage, Sullivan said. Estimated member costs for a cruise, said Sullivan: $150 per person per day. The Council asked Sullivan to scout out San Antonio, Texas, as an alternate.

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PROFIT LOSS

Harcourt General: Corporate sales rose 14 percent to $686.3 million in the latest quarter, compared to a year earlier.

Harcourt Worldwide STM: Up 32.4 percent to $697.6 million.

Harcourt Professional Services Group: Up 19.4 percent to $497.6 million.

Harcourt Education Group: Up 3.2 percent to $581.5 million.

Harcourt Higher-Ed Group: Up 3.2 percent to $354.8 million.

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TAA adjusts budget to address shortfall

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The Text and Academic Authors Council reduced the association's budget by $25,000 to offset less-than-expected income from camus workshops and from repatriated reprography funds. Treasurer Michael Sullivan likened the adjustments to a mid-course correction. Cut were the authoring promotion line, $18,000; office equipment expenses, $4,000; and Academic Author, $3,000. A budget line item was added for gteh forcoming Journal of Academic Authoring $3,000. The current budget is now $177,700.

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TAA leaders vote to keep focused

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The TAA Council, which sets Text and Academic Authors policy, rejected a proposal to widen its scope beyond text and academic authoring to include educators in general. Council member Dale Layman had proposed the broader scope. He also proposed a new international thrust, but fellow Council members felt it would dilute the association's effectiveness at this point.

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TAA authorizes prototype authoring journal

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The Text and Academic Authors Council, the association's governing board, approved eliminating two of the 13 print editions of its monthly newsletter, The Academic Author, to pay for the start-up costs for a TAA-run on-line Scolarly journal. Cutting back two issues of The Academic Author, said TAA editor John Vivian, would free $3,000, the estimated cost of paying for an editor for the next six months and for a web designer to create the site. The journal, tentatively called the Journal of Text and Academic Authoring, would help TAA "live up to its full name" -- Text and Academic Authors, said Vivian. A committee, with author Donna Besser in charge, plans unveil a prototype for the site in June.

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Academic Press OKs 4,000 articles for web

NEW YORK, January 8, 2000 -- Scholarly journal publisher Academic Press, a Harcourt company, agreed for MediaDNA to offer 4,000 journal articles on the web. The articles will be at MediaDNA's site (KnowledgeStor.com).

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Pynn: National office staff stable, efficient

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors' new on-site executive director, Ron Pynn, told the TAA Council, said he is extremely pleased with the staff's ability to run the office. "The office is as stable and efficient as its ever been," said Pynn, whose TAA membership goes back to 1986. "Anybody who communicates with headquarters gets an almost immediate response." The headquarters staff, at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg, includes office manager Janet Tucker and assistant Margaret Painter. Said Pynn: "Mailings continue to go out in an efficient fashion thanks to the hard work of Janet and Margaret."

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Adam.com widens outlets with licensing

NEW YORK, January 8, 2000 -- The on-line web company Adam.com licensed its Medical Encyclopedia to Albertsons/Sav-On Drugs for one year. Other new licenses are with HealthCentral.com and the federal government.

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TAA membership losses offset increases

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors gained 75 new members in the past six months, said headquarters office manager Janet Tucker. Twenty people joined by attending a workshop at Lamar University in Texas. Twenty-five were added through gift memberships. Nine joined after being mailed invitations. One joined after receiving a copy of the new TAA brochure. Twenty joined through visits to the TAA web site. Renewals, said Tucker, have gone down. TAA had 750 members in June. It now has 562. This is the result, said Tucker, of workshop participants not renewing their memberships. Other renewals, however, she said, have been constant. Excluding the workshop non-renewals, said Tucker, TAA has had a net gain of 40 members. Both web site memberships and gift memberships have gone up in the last six months, she said.

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TAA holds dues at $60

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- After a discussion about whether dues adversely affect membership, the Text and Academic Authors Council voted to keep dues at $60 with a special first-year $30 rate. Janet Tucker, office manager, told the Council that experiments with dues over the years had found no correlation between dues and new membership and retention.

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TAA experimenting with regional, campus chapters

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The TAA Council authorized experiments to establish regional chapters. TAA Council member Chris Harris, of Middle Tennessee State University, and author lawyer Michael Lennie, of San Diego, California, offered to be the first to form chapters in their areas. Both said they will keep the Council informed of their progress. Lennie, who proposed the chapters concept, said the TAA national office would nurture chapters. He foresees chapters involving more members directly in authoring issues and strengthening the association overall. Some other national author organizations, including the National Writers Union, have regional organizations. Others, like the Authors Guild, are operate with a centralized structure, much as has TAA.

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Books24x7.com bolsters tech titles

NORWOOD, Massachusetts, January 8, 2000 -- On-line reference site Books24x7.com will bring its total number of titles to 800 through a new licensing agreement. The agreement covers life-long learning publications from Delmar, computer, engineering and oteher technical titles from Morgan Kaufmann, and web and graphics titles from Peachpit Press. The subscription-based 24x7 site already carries content from McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, O'Reilly, Sybex and Wiley.

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TAA widens net for out-of-print publishing partners

ST.PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The TAA Council, the governing board of Text and Academic Authors, asked Council member Steve Gillen to check on new possibilities to help authors connect with author-friendly publishers to resurrect out-of-print titles. Gillen's assignment is also create a list of publishers that are interested in forming non-exclusive collaborative agreements with TAA. Proposals from Alliance Press of Carrollton, Texas, and Teacher Channel of Jacksonville, Florida, were discussed as starting points for out-of-print titles.

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American Education acquires Dolphin software

GIBBSBORO, New Jersey, January 8, 2000 -- The educational software company Dolphin was acquired by American Education Corp. for $1.8 million. Dolphin chief executive Jeff Butler said the company will remain in New Jersey but shift its emphasis to content for American Education. Dolphin already provides content for McGraw-Hill, Oxford University, and Press Pearson Education.

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Speech pathology author on TAA ballot

TWIN FALLS, Idaho, January 8, 2000 -- Prolific textbook author Frank Silverman of Greenfield, Wisconsin, agreed to run for a seat on Text and Academic Authors governing board, nominations chair Peggy Stanfield announced. Silverman, who writes in speech pathology, is a veteran TAA Council member and also a former association president. He is known widely for his campus authoring workshops, many sponsored by TAA. Several Silverman books have been on authoring. Stanfield said the ballot is still taking shape. Earlier, she announced that Paul Tippens of Southern Poly would be running for vice president and president-elect.

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TAA considers authors' suit against HarperCollins

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The Text and Academic Authors Council appointed a committee to look into a class action suit brought against HarperCollins that alleges self-dealing has hurt author royalties. The committee, made up of TAA President Karen Morris, herself a lawyer, Michael Lennie, also a lawyer, and John Vivian, a masscom author, are to contact the plaintiffs' counsel to gain more information about the suit and perhaps draft a position letter.

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Royalty auditor: No author has been bounced

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The former president of Royalty Review Service, Paul Rosenzweig, said authors have no reason to fear publisher retribution for seeking an outside audit of publishers' books. "We've done 300 audits in nine years and no author has been bounced," said Rosenzweig. He said that a TAA-sponsored royalty audit will be conducted soon on behalf of one of several applicants.

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Music change stymies Norway repro-agency

OSLO, Norway, January 8, 2000 -- In a change of governments, the Norwegian Ministry of Education withdrew as a negotiator on reprographic fees with the Kopinor collection agency. The result: Kopinor collections from schools for photocopying music may be off 50 percent until negotiations can be concluded with local and regional authorities. Some local schools are dragging their feet and some have refused to cooperate with a survey that's used to calculate charges, Kopinor said. Kopinor collections for reproduction of U.S. works in Norway is the largest single source of revenue for several U.S. author groups, including Text and Academic Authors.

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TAA to CCC: Get your facts straight

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- The Text and Academic Authors Council, TAA's governing board, asked President Karen Morris to write to the Copyright Clearance Center to clear up a misrepresentation by a CCC executive at an international conference. At the October IFRRO meeting in Amsterdam, the No. 2 person at CCC, Dan Gervais, said an offer for Morris to serve on the CCC board had been turned down. In fact, no such offer was ever made to Morris specifically, although at a TAA convention last June, the CCC's Kristen Giordano offered a seat to any author selected by TAA. The TAA Council decided to turn Giordano down. The reason: Accepting the offer would not solve the problem of CCC's lack of elected, equal author representation on its board of directors. "It would allow CCC to choose the authors, instead of allowing authors to choose their own representatives," said Morris. She said it should be up to the Authors Coalition, which represents many author groups, to choose author representatives for the CCC board.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: An offer by the Copyright Clearance Center to create a joint Text and Academic Authors-CCC Recruiting brochure was turned down by the TAA Council. "This is a proposal we would consider once the issue of author representation has been resolved," said TAA president Karen Morris."

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE
CCC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Publishers and users Authors
1.Robert D. Bovenschulte
American Chemical Society		 1 Janice Hopkins Tanne
2. Richard S. Rudick
John Wiley & Sons		 2.Grace W. Weinstein
3.Pieter S.H. Bolman
Academic Press		 3. Richard Weisgrau
American Society of Media Photographers
4. Ina A. Brown-Woodson
AT&T Labs
5. Stanley N. Katz
Princeton University
6. Elizabeth St. J. Loker
Washington Post
7. M. Stuart Lynn
University of California
8. Michael D. Majcher
Xerox Corporation
9.Barbara A. Munder
McGraw-Hill
10.Ronald H. Schlosser
Thomson Financial Services
11.Sanford G. Thatcher
Pennsylvania State University Press
12.Paul Warren
Warren Publishing
13.Russell C. White
Elsevier Science

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Tiptina's diversion planned at New Orleans convention

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors 2000 convention participants are invited to a Friday night party at Tiptina's, a famous New Orleans restaurant a short distance from La Pavillion Hotel. Convention program chair Chris Harris, an New Orleans hand, said a 20-plus item buffet of hot and cold hors d'ourves and top-notch live jazz, will cost only $35 apiece. Convention dates: June 22-24.

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TAA hopes members shift on-line

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors editor John Vivian asked for a poll to see how many TAA members would prefer to drop their mailed issues of the Academic Author and rely instead on the more comprehensive on-line newsletter. The print newsletter, Vivian said, is "very costly," about $40,000 a year. Some of those funds could be diverted to other important member services. "Now is the time to find out how rapidly we can phase down the print newsletter," said Vivian. The TAA Council approved Vivian's recommendation to reduce the number of Academic Author issues this year from 13 to 11 and save roughly $3,000.

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Reed orders major central-staff reduction

LONDON, January 9, 2000 -- Academic and technical publisher Reed Elsevier will cut 64 central staff members in Amsterdam, London and New York, the financially challenged company announced. That's about 40 percent.

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TAA seeks multiple out-of-print titles outlets

ST.PETERSBURG, Florida, January 8, 2000 -- Text and Academic Authors Council member Steve Gillen was appointed to investigate what other authoring organizations are doing to help authors connect with author-friendly publishers. Gillen's assigmment, from the TAA Council, is also create a list of publishers that are interested in forming non-exclusive collaborative agreements with TAA.

Gillen will report back to the Council in February. TAA President Karen Morris asked the Council to respond to Gillen's report and be prepared to make a decision at the June Council meeting.

The decision came after a presentation by Alton Peacock, who representing Alliance Press of Carrollton, Texas. Peacock called for an Alliance-TAA collaboration for TAA authors. The corroboration would be non-exclusive, Peacock said. The Council, however, felt it was better to investigate the practices of several publishers with which TAA could then give a "stamp of approval" if they were found to be author-friendly.

Council member Paul Tippens said, as an author, he would like to know that TAA has its stamp of approval on certain publishers.

Mike Sullivan, TAA's treasurer, said he is interested in the opportunity that collaborations would give TAA to try to get authors with out-of print-books back in print.

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Mississippi plans 2000 el-hi adoptions

JACKSON, Mississippi, January 11, 2000 -- The Mississippi Education Department said it will ask for adoption proposals in July for el-hi textbooks in these fields:

  • Agriculture (Grades 9-12).
  • Cooperative ed (9-12).
  • Driver ed (9-12).
  • Health, safety and phys ed (K-12 and special ed).
  • Marketing ed (9-12).
  • Math (K-12 and special ed).

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Norway: Copying of foreign works grows

OSLO, Norway, January 11, 2000 -- The Norwegian reprograpphic agency, Kopinor, from which Text and Academic Authors received $80,000 this year, reported new data used in calculating collections:

  • Public: 323,000 employees, 1998; up from 244,000, 1994.
  • Public sector photocopying: 116 pages per employee, 1998, down from 133, 1994.
  • Foreign material: 13.6 percent, 1998; 11.6 percent, 1994, and 9.1 percent, 1991.

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North Carolina editor leaves for Cambridge

SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 20, 2000 -- The editor at the University of North Carolina Press, Lewis Bateman, who built a highly regarded list over 22 years, resigned for a position at Cambridge University Press. Bateman said it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. AT North Carolina, he specialized in the classic, history and political science.

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Sociology society castigated over book mailing

HAMPTON, Virginia, January 11, 2000 -- A Hampton University sociologist, Steven Rosenthal, took the American Sociological Society to task for renting its member list to Transaction Publishers to distribute free copies of a eugenics book he called racist. To say the least, the book, Race, Evolution and Behavior by J. Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario, has been controversial. It was an abridged version that was distributed free this fall. In an e-mail listserv, Rosenthal urged that Transaction be barred from exhibiting books at ASA conventions.

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Oxford English Dictionary going on-line

LONDON, January 11, 2000 -- The Oxford English Dictionary, will go on-line in March with the equivalent of the 20-volume 40,000-page print edition, Oxford University Press announced. Chief executive John Simpson said the site will include 1,000 new articles and quarterly updates. Citations, he said, would be updated continuously. Users will be issued one-year licenses, he said. Industry observers concluded that the new Oxford web initiative may mean that the OED third edition, scheduled for 2010, may be scuttled.

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French e-reader to debut in March

PARIS, January 12, 2000 -- A startup e-book company, Cytale, announced it will unveil a French e-reader at the Salon du Livre book fair in March. The device can store 30 500-page books, Cytale said. One-thousand titles will be available at the start, the company said.

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Several societies sold lists for eugenics title

WASHINGTON, January 12, 2000 -- At least three learned societies leased out their mailing lists to Transaction Publishers to distribute a mini-edition of a controversial book that argues race is a factor in human intelligence, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Administrators of the societies, in anthropology, sociology and psychology, said they had understood Transaction Publishers wanted to mail an advertisement to members -- not 30,000 copies of a 108-page mini-version of J. Philippe Rushton's Race, Evolution and Behavior. The American Sociological Society called Transaction use of the list "unauthorized."

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College site offers BigWord texts

AURORA, Colorado, January 12, 2000 -- The web site @theU selected Bigwords.com as its textbook merchant.

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Kaplan buys Schweser, to drop Temte name

IOWA CITY, Iowa, January 13, 2000 -- The Schweser Study program, which specializes in products for financial counselors, mostly exam preps, was purchased by Kaplan, another educational and career services company. Terms were not announced. Kaplan chief executive Jonathan Grayer said the name Temte, used for some Schweser products, will be dropped. Schweser executives are expected to stay in place in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and in Iowa City.

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Transaction: Book or ad, what's difference?

WASHINGTON, January 14, 2000 -- The editorial director at Transaction Publications, Irv Horowitz, said the fuss over a free mailing of J. Philippe Rushton's Race, Evolution and Behavior misses the point. "It's about free speech," Horowitz said to critics who call the eugenics book racist. He said most learned societies that rented out member lists for the Transaction mailing of a 108-page abridged version of the book had earlier carried advertisements for the original 1995 book. Rhetorically, Horowitz asked: A mailing with a sample from a book and a mailing with an ad -- what's the difference?

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Harper authors: Inside deals profited News Corp.

NEW YORK, January 15, 2000 -- A law suit against HarperCollins on behalf of thousands of authors is aimed squarely at News Corp., the giant Australian-based conglomerate that owns Harper. The suit, filed in a state court, charges that intra-company book transfers for sales abroad resulted in lesser royalties for authors. Here's part of the argument:

"In essence, HarperCollins and its parent company News Corp. sit on both sides of the bargaining table with News Corp.'s affiliated publishing companies in negotiations for the sale of HarperCollins' books, thereby enabling News Corp. and all its related entities to manipulate negotiations in any way that serve their, and ultimately News Corp.'s, corporate interests.

"It is in both HarperCollins and News Corp.'s corporate interest that its affiliated entities pay less than the fair market price for the right to sell and/or distribute HarperCollins' books outside the United States.

"Thus, because of News Corp.'s vertical integration, News Corp. will keep most of those revenues within the News Corp. empire in the form of cost savings and increased profits to the News Corp. distribution entities and, thus, the corporate bottom line, of both News Corp. and its affiliated publishing entities, to the detriment of plaintiffs and the Class."

HARPER UNITS IN SUIT

The authors claim self-dealing involving these News Corp. entities and perhaps others:

  • HarperCollins (Canada)
  • HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand)
  • HarperCollins Publishers (Hong Kong)
  • HarperCollins Publishers (England)
  • HarperCollins Publishers (Zimbabwe)
  • HarperCollins Publishers (Australia)

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Customizable textbook-geared study guides coming

PRINCETON, New Jersey, January 16, 2000 -- A series of on-line study guides geared to major textbooks is being put together by Final-exam.com. Publisher Jack Goodman said access will cost $11.95. Five guides will be on line this spring, 20 more in the fall, Goodman said. Professors who recommend the guides to students will be able to add their own content, he said.

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98 percent of students buy texts on campus

NEW YORK, January 16, 2000 -- College students rely heavily on the web for research, but still prefer campus stores, not the web, for buying textbooks, a study by Yankelovich Partners found. Ninety-eight percent buy their textbooks at a bricks-and-mortar campus store, according to the survey of 2,000-plus students nationwide. On-line research instead of trips to the library made sense for 93 percent as more efficient.

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Two book execs caught in AOL merger

NEW YORK, January 17, 2000 -- Two book industry executives have been put in awkward positions by the $183 billion merger proposed by America Online and Tim Warner. Thomas Middelhoff of German-based Bertelsmann and Marjorie Scardino of Britain-based Pearson both are on the AOL board, which, if the merger goes through, would be calling shots at competitor Time Warner Books. Middelhoff has been pondering resigning from the AOL board, according to news reports. For Scardino, conflicts involve Pearson trade brand Penguin Putnam.

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Next TAA newsletter features prolific math author

WINONA, Minnesota, January 17, 2000 -- The February issue of the Academic Author, the TAA newsletter, will feature a profile of math author Mike Sullivan, said editor Kim Pawlak. Sullivan talks about writing, which in retirement from Chicago State University remains a full-time occupation. Several Sullivan books are in eighth and ninth editions.

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Norwegian reprography mostly of texts, nonfiction

OSLO, Norway, January 18, 2000 -- Text and non-fiction books continue to be the largest genre of books photocopied in Norway, the country's reprographic collection agency, Kopinor, said. A 1998 survey found 37.3 percent of Norwegian collections are for texts and non-fiction works. Those collections are the basis of Norwegian repatriation programs to the United States, much of which is channeled to TAA. Lesser genres in Norwegian collections: Song books, 22.1 percent; fiction books, 6.2 percent; newspapers, 5.7 percent.

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Education, reference books continue sales pace

WASHINGTON, January 18, 2000 -- A hot scientific, technical, medical and business segment of the U.S. book industry remained hot, very hot, through November. The Association of American Publishers reported sales were up 18 percent through November, compared to a year earlier. The data were drawn from 94 publishers.

TEXTBOOK AND ACADEMIC BOOK SALES
THROUGH NOVEMBER 1999
From Association of American Publishers compilations
STM and business 18.0 percent
College 10.7percent
University press (hardback) 6.6 percent
University press (paperback) 5.0 percent
El-hi adoptions 4.9 percent

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Publishers cautioned on e-book pricing

BOULDER, Colorado, January 19, 2000 -- An executive with an e-book supplier to libraries, Woody Palasek, cautioned publishers against excessive markups on books they make available for e-readers. Everybody knows e-books are cheaper to produce and expect prices to be less, said Palasek executive vice president of net-Library Inc. He also said publishers have less opportunity on-line to manipulate sales: "Internet sales are not controlled by the publisher but by the consumer."

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Scholars: Bertelsmann indeed had Nazi ties

GÜTERSLOH, Germany, January 19, 2000 -- The German media giant Bertelsmann, which started with a few religious titles, was the biggest publisher for the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, a team of historians reported. The independent study, funded by Bertelsmann after news revelations about its role in Nazism, found no evidence that Bertelsmann had ever tried to hide its past. The historians noted that Bertelsmann chief executive Heinrich Mohn contributed funds to the SS.

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Pearson's U.S. stake gaining market, profits

LONDON, January 19, 2000 -- British conglomerate Pearson said its U.S. textbook subsidiaries are gaining strong market share, assuring that the company will meet sales and profit projections for the last half of its fiscal year. Pearson also said that important new revenue will be coming from high-profit web spin-offs from textbooks and educational products.

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Author scrapping 60,000 copies of own work

LONDON, Ontario, January 19, 2000 -- The author of Race, Evolution and Behavior J. Philippe Rushton, said he probably will shred 60,000 remaining copies of a promotional, abridged version of the book. Rushton had produced the version and, according to the publisher, Transaction Publications, had used its name in the copyright and order form without permission. Transaction said its role was supposed to be only logistical, such as providing a mailing list. Rushton said the printing and distribution project was financed by the Pioneer Fund, which has supported his eugenics work. Pioneer Fund will finance a new version without the Transaction references, he said.

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Publishers adopt standard book-tracking format

WASHINGTON, January 19, 2000 -- A new system to standardize book promotional and bibliographic material was unveiled by the Association of American Publishers. The system is called ONIX, an abbreviation of sorts for the whole contrived name -- Online Information eXchange. The system is compatible with an emerging European book reference format. Goal: To help publishers, wholesalers and retailers talk the same language.

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Microsoft exec: Days of paper books numbered

SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 20, 2000 -- By the year 2020, half of all books will be read in electronic form, according to a crystal-balling Microsoft executive. Dick Brass, a vice president, further predicted that paper will no longer be used for books by 2050.

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Veteran Cornell Press editor resigns

SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 20, 2000 -- The editor at Cornell University Press, Peter Agree, resigned without explanation after 18 years, surprising colleagues and authors. It was known he had turned down other job offers to stay at Cornell. His list includes titles in agriculture, anthropology, law and U.S. history and politics.

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Teacher Channel gathering instructional materials

JACKSONVILLE, Florida, January 24, 2000 -- The new Teacher Channel web continued add instructional assistance material for teachers for its forthcoming web site, said Doug Matthews, president. He invited TAA members to contribute syllabuses, lecture outlines and other material, which would be sold through the site. TAA members would receive a 50 percent royalty, he said.

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TeacherChannel aims at teachers new to subject

JACKSONVILLE, Florida, January 25, 1999 -- A web site is going up to offer a comprehensive series of K-12 teacher preparation materials for "just in time" delivery. The site, called the Teacher Channel, partnership of Water Press and the National Association of Laboratory Schools, plans to have the materials, called Experts Systems for Teachers: The Great Books of Teacher Preparation, available by spring.

Teacher Channel was begun by Doug Matthews, whose wife Carol Matthews, a high school biology teacher, couldn't find a comprehensive compilation of course materials for her own class. She decided to write her own. That got Matthews thinking about creating a web site where teachers could get comprehensive, all-inclusive, "turn-key" course materials in downloadable form from the web. "Course materials like this now exist in only a few teachers' hands, in bits and pieces, and not in a compiled, downloadable form," said Matthews.

Carol Matthews' course materials, Marine Biology & Oceanography Experiments and Activities, and Freshwater Biology Experiments and Activities, geared toward upper-level high school or entry-level college courses in marine biology or oceanography, are now available at Teacher Channel.

Matthews is compiling course materials in multiple subjects, at all grade levels, K-12, college, university, post-graduate, professional and continuing education. "The materials will be designed to work well in all educational settings: public, private, home schooling and distance education," said Matthews. The project is now in the "talent search" phase. Matthews is looking for veteran teachers who are not only experts in their fields of study, but who also have their materials in almost publishable form.

The materials will be designed to have everything necessary for a new teacher or a teacher who is teaching out of his or her field "to get up to speed quickly with an unfamiliar subject," said Matthews: A syllabus, daily lesson plans, daily lecture notes, worksheets, homework, labs, quizzes and tests. All the materials will be available in English and in translations to major languages.

All the materials will undergo an evaluation by an academic publishing review board to ensure that the materials cover nationally recognized guidelines and standards for the subject and are accredited, said Matthews. All board members would be experts in the subject they review, he said.

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Besser findings figure into new text

CHICAGO, January 25, 2000 -- The publisher-editor of a new advertising book, Bruce Bendinger, said he heeded the advice of scholar Donna Besser's findings on effective texts in designing the book. Bendinger said Advertising and the Business of Brands relates to students with everyday accounts -- like four job profiles from a student perspective at the start of every chapter. The presentation, consistent with Besser's findings in a series of Text and Academic Authors-sponsored studies, includes short sentences and frequent breaks.


PERSONALIZING AUTHORS.
A new textbook, Advertising and the Business of Brands features a photograph and biography of every chapter's author. The book, edited by Bruce Bendinger, has 13 co-authors. Each gets equal play with idea of personalizing the book with students, said Bendinger.

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TAA scholarly funding contributes to ad text

CHICAGO, January 24, 2000 -- Lessons from studies sponsored partly by Text and Academic Authors were used in producing a new advertising textbook that one manuscript reviewer has called "the most significant improvement in an advertising text in a quarter of a century," Bruce Bendinger, of publisher Creative Communications, likes to quote that reviewer. But what makes Advertising and the Business of Brands different? In part, said Bendinger, it consciously heeds advice that flowed from scholarship on textbooks by Donna Besser beginning in 1997.

The Besser studies, underwritten in part with TAA grants, identified student complaints about long blocks of text, no subdivision breaks, dated material, long sentences and confusing paragraphs. She found that students preferred texts that relate interestingly to everyday life, texts that were well organized, that clearly told what chapter covered what, that had logically ordered headings and subheadings, that had illustrations, and that were easier to read.

Said Bendinger. "A good textbook makes it easy for the students to connect with the material. If you can make the material easy and a create a positive connection to it, than the teacher can build on that and develop a good course. If that connection isn't there, then the teacher ends up begging the kids to read a book they hate. One of the things that instructors like about our books is that they don't have to worry about their students reading it. It's clear from page one, word one, that we're presenting good material."

The book relates to everyday life with a vocational approach, based on real-world jobs, said Bendinger. Each chapter starts with job profiles from a student perspective. In addition to its 12 chapters, it has an introduction and an end section called "You & Your Career," which deals with developing skills, writing résumés and getting internships -- everything needed to get a first job in advertising. "It says to the student, 'You did the first 12 chapters in one semester, but this last section may take you two years,'" said Bendinger. "It adds value to the text, but isn't necessarily part of the course, so students are motivated not to sell it for a pitcher of beer 15 minutes after the final is over, which happens to most textbooks."

Although each writer brings expertise to each chapter, the design of the book is Bendinger's. "We developed a different organizational model to explain the material that we feel is far superior," said Bendinger. "Conceptually it has a much better architecture. Stylistically, it's much better writing. There are two ways to teach something: Drop long-winded abstract ideas on the reader and then tie them all together, or start by telling a story and then from the story build the concepts, which is what we did."

When choosing authors for the book, Bendinger looked for three criteria:

  • What they could add in terms of expertise.
  • Whether he knew the author (because he said the process was tough if dealing with a stranger).
  • Whether it was a good time in the person's career and schedule to get involved in writing a book.

Bendinger said that managing the writing of a co-authored books with some many contributors has trying moments. "The theory is great -- you get focus and some specialization on the individual chapters, a number of people can be part of a big book, but in practice, it's sort of a nightmare: a wide range of writing habits and attention to deadlines, lack of shared vision and overlap and underlap," said Bendinger. "However, the advantages still hold and it turned out to be a pretty interesting text."

Wadrip lists five things that he says make the textbook good:

  • Terrific examples.
  • Riveting stories.
  • A competitive price.
  • Expert authors who can make the content of each chapter better than traditional books in the field.
  • Web page and supplemental materials.

The book is unusual in the attention given to the 12 co-authors. Portrait photographs and biographies grace the start of their chapters. Bendinger says the contributors deserve the credit. The book is theirs, he said.

The authors say Bendinger is too modest. Jon Wardrip, an advertising professor at the University of South Carolina, said that with so many authors, 12 in all, the book really needed to have one overall orchestra leader -- someone who was both firm, but encouraging. Bendinger acted as the 13th author, editing each chapter and tying them all together to give the book one voice. "The book is more a tribute to Bendinger's tenacity than anything else," said Wardrip.

The authors were satisfied with their co-authoring experience. Alice Kendrick, an advertising professor at Southern Methodist University, said she enjoyed writing the marketing research chapter. "Although it wasn't easy, it allowed me to pull together a lot of different ideas, exercises and examples that I had been collecting over the years," said Kendrick, who is also the co-author of Successful Advertising Research Methods. "It was my opportunity to give a single chapter my best shot as opposed to writing an omnibus text."

Wardrip, who was called in for a marketing services chapter after the death of co-author Tom Jordan of San Jose State University, liked the fact that he only had to do one chapter and not worry about what followed. "It freed you of worrying about whether everything else you wrote was consistent," he said. Also: "It also forced me to update myself in areas I didn't have a lot of experience in and to keep an eye out for visual elements I could use."

One advantage of having several authors, said Wadrip, was the sense of obligation it created: "You had not only a co-author but a bunch of people to keep up with. To some extent, the sense of responsibility got us to meet deadlines."

Kendrick said she kept in contact with the other authors of the book through "prolific" e-mail correspondence. "While I was not the initiator of a lot of that correspondence, I certainly listened in to it," she said. "As a lot of tough questions were asked, I learned a lot about what the scope of the book was. It allowed us to continue to develop the scope of the book and the tone of what we are contributing. Any time you can have your ear to the ground so to speak, and just get a feel for how others are progressing, you learn a lot."

The 656-page, $50, black-and-white soft cover text comes with comes with class notes and lecture materials, test banks, video support, and a web site (adbuzz.com), an on-line "study hall" with readings, study tips, message boards, and Quicktime videos for each chapter. It underwent class testing during the editorial phase of the project.

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Pearson to put royalty checks in mail earlier

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 26, 2000 -- After an informal survey by Text and Academic Authors found that many Pearson Education authors are not happy with when their royalty checks arrive, Pearson announced it would begin mailing all royalty statements and checks a full week in advance of the stated contract date. Said Pearson spokesperson Wendy Spiegel: "We hope this will be of help to our authors." Text and Academic Authors queried members in November about when they received their last royalty checks. Many, some with Pearson, some with other publishers, reported receiving their checks one day to one week after the date agreed upon in their contract. This pattern gives publishes extra interest-earning float on millions of dollars.

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Authors: Publishers dally on royalty checks

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, January 26, 2000 -- A Text and Academic Authors sampling of authors found many who write for giants like Pearson and McGraw-Hill are unhappy with when their royalty checks arrive.

Many authors reported receiving their royalty checks one day to one week after the date agreed upon in their contract. Many said their checks aren't mailed until the last day of the month in which they are supposed to receive them, resulting, say, in checks arriving in November when their contract states royalty payments were to be paid in October.

Although this doesn't violate any contractual provisions since the check is mailed within the month that is specified in the contract, and most contracts specify only the month the royalties are to be paid, not a specific date, it irks authors who say publishers do this on purpose to receive the most interest on the moneys.

One author said that his last royalty payment was mailed September 30 and arrived on October 5. "This is a typical example of what we have experienced," he said. "The publisher doesn't mail checks until March 31 and September 30 (this authors' contractual date for royalty payments) of each year."

Other authors who receive royalty checks via automatic electronic deposit say they receive their checks within the month they are supposed to, but their royalty statements follow up to a week later. One author said she received her royalty payment by September 30, but she said: "I have not yet (today is October 5) received my royalty statement." Another author said his money is now wire-transferred on the last day of the quarter: "Before this, the check was mailed on the last day of the quarter and received four to six days later."

An author with Pearson Education, which took over Simon & Schsuter textbooks last year, said: "Simon & Schuster seems to believe that their only legal obligation was to have the check postmarked by the end of the reporting month. They did not interpret the contract to mean that the report and accompanying funds had, by contract, to be in the hands of the author within the months of March and September. I disagree with that interpretation. I think that both the report and the money need to be in my hands on or before the end of the stated months."

Her solution? She charges the company interest when her royalty check arrives later than her contracted date. "My checks have at times arrived three to five days late. Once someone 'forgot' to accomplish the wire transfer. Another time the wire transfer was to be sent on a Friday, but it required two authorization signatures. The two people who needed to sign it weren't in the office that day, or so I was told, so they waited until Monday to send it. What a way to run a business! I complained loudly and charged the company interest, which they paid."

Pearson Education issued the following statement in reply to TAA's inquiries about its royalty payment practices: "Pearson Education understands the problems caused for its authors by the unpredictability of mail delivery and has now instituted a policy of mailing all future royalty statements and checks a full week in advance of the stated contract date. We hope this will be of help to our authors."

Before this statement was issued, authors gave their views on how the problem could be solved:

  • Putting a specific provision in the contract that calls for payment on a specific date.
  • Having adequately staffed royalty divisions with long-term employees so that authors have the same royalty contact.

Since contract language regarding royalty payment periods differ from publisher to publisher, and are further complicated by mergers, authors within one publishing house will have many different contractual royalty payment periods, said Paul Rosenzweig, former president of Royalty Review Service. Pearson Education divisions Addison Wesley Longman, Simon & Schuster and Prentice-Hall contracts says the following:

  • Addison Wesley Longman (1989): "We agree to report to you on the sale of the work semiannually; on or before April 1, for the period ending the preceding December 31, and on or before October 1, for the period ending the preceding June 30."
  • Simon & Schuster (1998): "The Publisher shall render royalty statements and make accounting and royalty and other payments to the Author (a) in September for the preceding period January 1 to June 30, and (b) in March for the preceding period July 1 to December 31."
  • Prentice-Hall (1991): "The Publisher will report on the sale of the work in March and September of each year for the six-month period ending the prior December 31 and June 30, respectively."

Rosenzweig said Pearson Education's royalty systems have been complicated by the purchase of the Simon & Schuster education subsidiaries: "That payments from Pearson this spring and fall many have been erratically 'close enough for government work' in adherence to contract-specified payment dates, could be viewed as a byproduct of putting the entity together while trying to 'close the books' just as the royalty cycles began."

If dates become permanently different from the contract specifications, said Rosenzweig, "then there may be cause for complaint, but I would rather see the facts on a case-by-case basis for now." Rosenzweig, who has experience with Pearson's royalty operations, said the company does have "teething problems" and "the baby isn't toilet-trained yet."

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TAA president applauds Pearson royalty move

ROCHESTER, New York, January 30, 2000 -- The president of Text and Academic Authors praised textbook publisher Pearson for a policy change to mail royalty checks to authors so they arrive in the month that they're contractually promised. Karen Morris, a law author, noted that Pearson and many other publishers were found in a TAA member survey to be putting checks in the mail, in some cases, on the last day of the month they were due. "Through TAA's leadership, Pearson Education has committed to pay authors on a timely basis," Morris said. "Now that the issue of delayed royalty payments has been exposed, I anticipate other publishers will follow Pearson's lead."

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