 |
June
1999
- Profit
Loss
- R.I.P.
Kenneth S. Davis
- Journal
article on child-adult sex draws critics
- Wisconsin
Press plans layoffs
- TAA
newsletter features geneticist
- West
suffers law book setback
- Paladin
withdraws Hit Man from market
- Pearson-WIley
deal rough for math co-authors
- West
to fight stock discrimination suit
- Copyright
fee increase looming
- E-book
companies pondering universal format
- Kluwer
buys Bureau of Business Practice
- Teachers
score well in literacy study
- Journal
chief: Room for both web, print journals
- Still
can't bad-mouth veggies in Texas
- History
journal tries shorter essays
- Report:
News Corp. eyeing Murrow, Avon
- Vanderbilt
wants TV archive on-line
- Peer-reviewers
can respond on-line
- TAA
Council considers budget hike
- Reed
Elsevier can't get books straight
- Harcourt
setting up own college
- TAA
inducts six to Council of Fellows
- Profit
Loss
- Psychology
group promises article probe
- Taylor
& Francis picks up Europa
- Publisher
group moves to Hill
- Physicist:
Future to bypass e-journals
- Holocaust
publisher fined in France
- Houghton
pleased with text divisions
- Journal
editor challenges on-line reviewing
- Congressional
detractor: Psych group backs off
- McGraw:
We're addressing used-book problem
- Contract
study: Simon & Schuster at top
- Pearson
picks up Macmillan Reference
- Insurance
company made final "Hit Man" call
- Macmillan
Reference to Pearson's Gale
- Pearson
pleased at royalty statement finding
- New
TAA officers assume office
- TAA
Fellow nominations due October 1
- TAA
moves last Orange Spring connection
- TAA
holds medals until Fellows can attend
- TAA
budget tops $200,000 for first time
- TAA
to revise Fellows nomination form
- Academic
Author team receives bonuses
- St.
Pete campus to have rep on TAA board
- TAA
considers founding academic journal
- Survey:
Author-publisher relations deteriorating
- Speaker:
Video, computers together work for learning
- 54
authors attend TAA convention
- Next
Norway collections to TAA about $85,000
- TAA
grants deadline in January
- CCC
considers author-elected board members
- CCC
seeks authors for rights distributions
- TAA
Fellows selection group to grow
- Auditor
calculates TAA member needs
- Profit
Loss
- R.I.P.
David F. Hawke
- AAP
to Congress: Wait on distance-learning copyright changes
- Report:
Pearson unloading Lazard
- Iran
to be represented at Frankfurt
- TAA
Council sets January date
- Call
issued for new TAA brochure
- Next
TAA convention in New Orleans
- TAA
gift memberships coming in
- Experienced,
new authors join TAA authoring, contracts workshops
- Cruise,
anybody? TAA thinking about it
- New
firm joins on-line text sellers
- Publisher
exec cancels TAA for House hearing
- Publishers'
exec goes to Hill, not TAA
- MediaFarm
organizes for school market
- Outgoing
president: 20th century good to TAA
- Campus
stores seek answers for e-times
- Royalty
reviewer: Future up in air for authors
- AUTHOR:
Electronic Age here for elementary schools
- Attorney
to authors: Don't try copyrighting bare facts
- Attorney:
Feds overwhelmed with mergers
- Tennessee
author to chair TAA's 2000 meeting
- Profit
Loss
- Speaker:
Techno-reliance challenges human thoughtSpeaker: Techno-reliance
challenges human thought
- U.S.
House wants nannyware
- Rocket
e-book price drops to $399
- Library
budgets expected to grow
- Academic
Library merging with Yankee
- Tippens:
E-book potential unsure
- Texty-winning
authors accept plaques
- Five
veteran authors pick up TAA McGuffeys
- TAA
inducts first class of Fellows
- "The
TAA Story" inspires epic poem
- Panel
generates author contract advice
- Veteran
authors: Don't underrate second editions
- 1999
Keedy award to "author's author"
- Do
parents read to kids? Only half
- Author:
Mergers narrow author options
- Journal
editor wary of speed for speed's sake
- TAA
calls on Coalition for CCC representation
- TAA
past-president honored for growth, outreach
- Journal
reviewer quits to protest prices
- University
press leader: Web isn't free
- AAUP:
Faculty should control on-line content
- Advantage
Learning gets California nod
- Heritage
College turns to varsity.com for text sales
- Tribune
Education buys Academic Software
- Elsevier:
Journals priced competitively
PROFIT
LOSS
Educational
Insights: Sales rose 21 percent to $39.2 million in the latest
year.
Taylor & Francis:
Sales rose 34 percent to $66.3 million, but profits declined 1.3
percent to $7.5 million.
Thomson: Profits
grew 12 percent to $279 million in the latest quarter.
Wolters Kluwer:
Operational profits rose 19 percent to $346 million in the latest
year.
top
of page for all news
R.I.P.
Kenneth S. Davis
Kenneth S.
Davis, biographer of President Franklin Roosevelt, died in Manhattan,
Kansas. He was 86.
top
of page for all news
Journal
article on child-adult sex draws critics
WASHINGTON,
June 1, 1999
-- A 1998 research article in Psychological Bulletin, which
found children are not always damaged by child-adult sex, got
notice. A resolution was introduced in Congress, criticizing the
American Psychological Association for publishing the article.
The sponsors:
- Tom DeLay,
Republican, Texas.
- Joe Pitts,
Republican, Pennsylvania.
- Matt Salmon,
Republican, Arizona.
- Dave Werlson,
Republican, Florida.
Also critical:
the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council. The APA
and the article's authors say the critics wrongly inferred that
child-adult sex was condoned. Rather. the article reported that
two-thirds of college men and more than one-quarter of the women
reported neutral or positive reactions to their sex with adults
when they were under 18.
CITATION
Bruce Rind (Temple University), Philip Tromovitch (University
of Pennsylvania), and Robert Bauserman (University of Michigan).
"A Meta-Analystic
Examination of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples."
Psychological
Bulletin (July 1998).
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of page for all news
Wisconsin
Press plans layoffs
MADISON,
Wisconsin, June 1, 1999
-- To reduce costs, the University of Wisconsin Press plans to
lay off five of its 25 employees. Graduate Dean Virginia Hinshaw,
who is responsible for the Press, sad the layoffs will help address
a $1 million deficit. Also, the Press plans to leave subject areas
in which it had been expanding: American Indians, Chicano studies,
criminology, folklore, and rhetoric. Books under contract will
be produced, Hinshaw said.
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of page for all news
TAA newsletter
features geneticist
WINONA,
Minnesota, June 2, 1999
-- The monthly Text and Academic Authors' newsletter The Academic
Author, was mailed to members the first week in June, production
editor Paula Wiczek said. The issue includes a profile by Kim
Pawlak, newsletter editor, of award-winning genetics author Thomas
Mertens.
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of page for all news
West suffers
law book setback
WASHINGTON,
June 2, 1999
-- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law publisher West cannot
copyright its elaborated versions of court opinions. West justified
its copyright case by arguing that notations, pagination, summaries,
corrections and other changes distinguished West law books from
the public-domain government on which they are based. The decision
will allow competitors, including CD-ROM publishers, to scan West
books as a step in their own production. The decision could hurt
West competitively and probably result in price cuts for law books.
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of page for all news
Paladin
withdraws Hit Man from market
BOULDER,
Colo., June 2, 1999
-- Paladin Press will delist the controversial title Hit Man
from its catalog and not print any more copies, the company announced.
The book was the target of a civil suit by two families who said
the book was a how-to for contract murders that a killer used
in a double slaying ion Maryland. The contract murderer, James
Perry, went to jail in 1995, and the victim's families then went
after Paladin.
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of page for all news
Pearson-WIley
deal rough for math co-authors
NEW YORK,
June 3, 1999
--,Linda Sheffield, whose textbook was sold to John Wiley & Sons,
said when her secretary tried to order a desk copy of her book,
Teaching and Learning Elementary and Middle School Mathematics,
previously published by Merrill, she was told the book had been
sold and was no longer available. Sheffield sent an e-mail to
her new editor, Brad Potthoff, at Wiley, bringing it to his attention.
Potthoff said he is working with Merrill to get to the bottom
of the matter. "Please be assured that it is our intent to make
the transition as smooth as possible," he told Sheffield.
Sheffield
said she and co-author Douglas Cruikshank are working with people
from both Wiley and Merrill to solve the problem. "I guess we
won't really know how well it works until we see if fall orders
have fallen," she said. "I'm very concerned about all the business
that we might be losing with the new edition as Merrill tells
people who have already placed their orders for fall that the
book is no longer available. Our bookstore requires all fall orders
be placed by April 1, and I am sure that there are several others
that do the same. If these are all being told that the book is
not available, then it is likely that many have already ordered
some other book."
Instead of
being told the book is not available, Sheffield said, they had
hoped that there would be a big push to advertise the new fourth
edition and all the materials that go along with it.
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of page for all news
West to
fight stock discrimination suit
ST. PAUL,
Minnesota, May 2, 1999
-- The giant law publisher West, now part of Thomson International,
will challenge a suit by women employees who charge they were
denied opportunities for company stock. The suit is without merit,
a spokesperson said. For starters, West will challenge the women's
request to the court that the case be considered a class-action
suit not only on their behalf but for all West women employees.
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of page for all news
Copyright
fee increase looming
WASHNGTON,
June 4, 1999
--.Authors who register their own copyright with the Library of
Congress can save a little money by filing their forms before
a fee increase July 1. The Copyright Office announced an increase
from $20 to $30 in July. For articles, a bundle within the same
year goes also from $20 to $30.
Details:
Copyright Office web
site and forms
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of page for all news
E-book
companies pondering universal format
NEW YORK,
June 5, 1999
-- The e-book industry circulated a draft of a universal standard
for digitizing printed works. The Open eBook Authoring Group said
the 1.0 Specification would hasten content to e-book users because
printed works will need to be formatted only once for all e-book
systems.
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of page for all news
Kluwer
buys Bureau of Business Practice
WATERFORD,
Connecticut, June 6, 1999
-- A diversified professional newsletter publisher, the Bureau
of Business Practice, was acquired by Dutch publishing giant Wolters
Kluwer. Terms were not released. Bureau products, more than 100
in all, will go to Kluwer's Aspen unit. The acquisition will strengthen
Aspen in the law of employment, safety, credit, and collections.
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of page for all news
Teachers
score well in literacy study
PRINCETON,
New Jersey, June 7, 1999
-- A study of 26,000 U.S. school teachers found them more literate
than typical Americans and generally are in league with other
professionals. Educational Testing Service, the survey sponsor,
Teachers did best in a category called "prose literacy." They
were in the fourth highest level of a five-level scale. About
20 percent of the nation's adult scored at that level. Teachers
also did well in document skills and math proficiency.
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of page for all news
Journal
chief: Room for both web, print journals
ROCKVILLE,
Maryland, June 10, 1999
-- The publications director for the Federation of American Societies
for Experimental Biology, says the growth of on-line journals
is inevitable: Almost everyone's got to be there in the future,
Ed Rekas says.
"Right now there's a competition between the print and the on-line
journal," said Rekas, who publishes the FASEB
Journal and the Journal
of Leukocyte Biology. "Depending on the type
of material they are reading, the reader could prefer to have
a print version of a journal versus an on-line one. Obviously
hard copy print is still easier to read than the text on a monitor,
although certainly someone can print out an on-line article. It's
a generational thing -- older readers still prefer print, while
the under 30 reader is probably more comfortable with on-line
access."
But, said Rekas, who knows what technology will be like in
the future: "I've only been publishing biomedical literature on-line
for about four years now and already things have happened that
one might not have imagined three years ago. It's a pretty fast-moving
area."
Rekas
said there are several advantages to an on-line journal, including:
- Accessibility
"No longer does the researcher need to access the library directly,"
he said. Oftentimes, an institution will have a site license
that allows the researchers easier access. Researchers can even,
in some cases, link to the full-text of references without leaving
their computer. "These certainly aid in productivity," he said.
- Speed.
Readers can get access to the information much faster .This
is especially helpful to people in accessible areas like overseas,
Rekas said. "We attempt to publish the journal on-line as soon
as it goes into the mail in the U.S.," he said. "It could be
a savings in time of a few weeks before readers would otherwise
get the information."
- Size.
On-line journals give publishers the ability to add supplemental
information. "Some publishers are adding data that is animated
-- pictures of medical procedures, models of molecules moving
in space," said Rekas. "These kinds of things actually illustrate
the point the author is trying to get across in pictures rather
than in text."
There are also
disadvantages to on-line journals, Rekas said, including:
- Cost.
It costs money to prepare the files, post them and maintain
them on-line. "Too many people think it's free," Rekas said.
"It's not free, it costs money to do this."
- Whether
on-line availability will reduce the number of print subscriptions
people sign up for. "It will take several years to assess, for
example, if members might give up their personal copy subscriptions
and rely on an institutional subscription for their information
since both are available on-line," he said.
- Whether
an archive can be created. "Libraries are not reducing their
print subscriptions," said Rekas. "When offered a choice between
print, on-line, or both, they take the print subscription first
and, if economical, would then opt to take print and on-line.
Only in some rare instances would they pay double for them.
The electronic world is now looking into how to create an on-line
environment that would give assurance to librarians regarding
its prominence. That's probably something not too long down
the road."
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of page for all news
Still can't
bad-mouth veggies in Texas
AUSTIN,
Texas, June 11, 1999
-The state House voted 80-57 to keep the so-called Veggie Libel
Law that prohibits false statements about perishable products.
The law, which was discredited in a cattle-growers suit against
talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, remains on the books, but support
is waning. The House margin that passed the bill in 1995 was 124-13.
Opponents see the bill as a First Amendment issue because it unduly
discourages dialogue.
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of page for all news
History
journal tries shorter essays
PASADENA,
California, June 11, 1999
-- The spring edition of the journal Rethinking History
carries a new Miniatures section with three essays of 1,500 words
max. Co-editor Robert Rosenstone, of the California Institute
of Technology, said scholarship doesn't, by definition, require
a 10,000-word exposition. Will the idea catch on? Rosenstone said
readers have suggested 70-plus ideas for the new section.
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of page for all news
Report:
News Corp. eyeing Murrow, Avon
LOS ANGELES,
June 11, 1999
-- Australian-based News Corp., which shed its textbook list several
years ago, is on an acquisition prowl to expand its trade book
list. The Hollyood Reporter identified Heart houses William
Murrow and Avon as targets.
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of page for all news
Vanderbilt
wants TV archive on-line
NASHVILLE,
Tennessee, June 12, 1999
-- The television news archive at Vanderbilt University will be
available on-line to scholars if the networks give copyright permission.
John Lynch, associate archive director, said using web technology
will allow more scholars to use the archive, which contains 30,000
newscasts. Now, tapes are either mailed or scholars trek to Vanderbilt.
The television networks object that the on-line feature would
represent re-transmissions to which they are entitled a copyright
fee, Lynch said. Stay tuned.
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of page for all news
Peer-reviewers
can respond on-line
CHAMPAIGN,-URBANA,
Illinois, June 13, 1999
-- A University of Illinois team has developed technology so scholarly
peer-reviewers can make spontaneous comments on-line as they read
papers. The innovation, by professor James Levin and graduate
student James Buell, allows reviewers to see each other's comments.
The result said Levin, is more a collaborative exchange among
reviewers and authors. An author can modify a paper on-line in
response to reviewers.
Details:
Sample papers
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TAA Council
considers budget hike
NAPLES,
Florida, June 14, 1999
-- A$197,700 budget will be proposed to Text and Academic Authors
governing board, which convenes June 24 in Park City, Utah. The
association treasurer, Mike Sullivan, said the proposal runs 3.7
percent ahead of the Council-approved budget for the current fiscal
year. No major shifts in spending are proposed, Sullivan said.
He predicted income of $85,000 from the Authors Coalition, mostly
repatriated reprography money from Norway, and $25,000 from dues.
The major expenditures: Payroll, $70,000; newsletter, $43,000;
and authoring promotion, $30,000.
1999-2000
TAA BUDGET
DRAFT
DRAFT DRAFT
|
| ESTIMATED
BEGINNING BALANCE |
$90,000 |
|
| ESTIMATED
INCOME |
| 1. |
DUES:
Renewals (416 @ $60) |
$
25,000 |
|
|
DUES:
New |
1,000 |
|
|
DUES:
Workshop |
8,000 |
|
| 2. |
ADVERTISING |
1,000 |
|
| 3. |
AWARD
FEES |
4,000 |
|
| 4. |
SUBSCRIPTIONS
/ BOOK SALES |
200 |
|
| 5. |
CONVENTION |
7,000 |
|
| 6. |
MISCELLANEOUS |
0 |
|
| 7. |
AUTHORS
COALITION: Reproduction rights |
85,000 |
|
|
AUTHORS
COALITION: Grant |
5,000 |
|
| 8. |
INTEREST |
1,000 |
|
|
TOTAL |
|
138,200 |
ESTIMATED
EXPENSES
|
| 1. |
ACADEMIC
AUTHOR: 12 issues (staff) |
$
30,000 |
|
|
ACADEMIC
AUTHOR: Copying / Postage |
8,000 |
|
|
ACADEMIC
AUTHOR: Miscellaneous |
5,000 |
|
| 2. |
BANK
CHARGES |
700 |
|
| 3. |
CONVENTION |
7,000 |
|
| 4. |
DUES
/ SUBSCRIPTIONS |
2,000 |
|
| 5. |
GRANT-IN-AID |
2,000 |
|
| 6. |
LEGAL
/ ACCOUNTING |
1,000 |
|
| 7. |
MEMBERSHIP
PROMOTION |
5,000 |
|
| 8. |
OFFICE |
16,000 |
|
| 9. |
PAYROLL |
70,000 |
|
| 10. |
MISCELLANEOUS |
500 |
|
| 11. |
AUTHORING
PROMOTION |
30,000 |
|
| 12. |
EQUIPMENT |
5,000 |
|
| 13. |
AWARDS |
500 |
|
| 14. |
`EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR |
5,000 |
|
| 15. |
COUNCIL |
9.000 |
|
| 16. |
AUTHORING
ISSUES LEGAL SUPPORT |
1,000 |
|
|
TOTAL |
|
197,700 |
|
PROJECTED
SURPLUS (DEFICIT) |
|
(59,500) |
|
ENDING
BALANCE |
$
30,500 |
|
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Reed Elsevier
can't get books straight
AMSTERDAM,
June 14, 1999
-- Strange things are going on the counting room at the Anglo-Dutch
publishing house Reed Elsevier -- and government security regulators
are on guard. In March, Reed projected flat earnings. In May,
news accounts said earnings would fall, which Reed denied. In
May, Reed confirmed a decline could be expected. Stock exchanges
in Amsterdam and London launched an investigation. For Reed there
is the risk of de-listing. What's going on? A London insider said
he doubted any shenanigans. Rather, he said, "There's vacuum in
management."
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Harcourt
setting up own college
CAMBRIDGE,
Massachusetts, June 14, 1999
-- Textbook publisher Harcourt has seen the future, which goes
beyond books to offering on-line college degree programs. Robert
Antonucci, in charge of establishing the Harcourt university,
said the company's interactive software, web sites and other educational
aids make the step into offering curriculums logical. Four deans
supervising part-time faculty will launch the program in September
2000. An early goal, said Antonucci, is a Massachusetts license
and then accreditation from the New England Association of Schools
and Colleges.
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TAA inducts
six to Council of Fellows
ROCHESTER,
New York, June 15, 1999
-- Six veteran authors, all Text and Academic Authors members,
will be inducted into the TAA Council of Fellow, the association's
president-elect, Karen Morris, announced. The authors will be
inducted at the TAA convention in Park City, Utah. The inductees:
- Everette
Dennis, of Fordham University, who has more than 30 books
and 200 articles to his credit.
- Mike
Keedy, a retired math author who founded TAA.
- Lee
Mountain, of Houston University, who has written more than
200 textbooks, software programs and educational games for el-hi
and college.
- Frank
Silverman, of Marquette University, who has written 22 books
in speech pathology and also authoring.
- Karl
Smith, of Santa Rosa Junior College in California, who has
written 33 math textbooks.
- Mike
Sullivan a retired math author, who has written 59 textbooks,
six of which are in fifth or higher editions.
top
of page for all news
PROFIT
LOSS
A.D.A.M.
Software:
Sales fell 24 percent to $5.2 m9llion in the latest fical year.
Houghton
Miffline: El-hi sales grew 32.4 percent to $52 m9llion in
the latest quarter.
Houghton
Miffline: College sales fell 3.2 percent to $19.9 m9llion
in the latest quarter.
McGraw-Hill:
Educational and professional sles rose 3 percent to $1.6 billion
in 1998. Profits rose 7.7 percent.
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Psychology
group promises article probe
WASHINGTON,
June 16, 1999
-- The chief executive of the American Psychological Association,
publisher of the Psychological Bulletin, promised an independent
review of a controversial article on adult-child sex. Raymond
Fowler said the "scientific quality of the article" will be examined.
Also, Fowler said, the investigation will alert editors to "fully
consider the social policy implications of articles on controversial
topics." He said the thesis of the article, that adult-child sex
doesn't necessarily create problems in later life, was not consistent
with APA positions and hardly represented an endorsement of pedophilia.
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Taylor
& Francis picks up Europa
LONDON,
June 16, 1999
-- The academic publisher Taylor & Francis, bought the reference
house Europa Publications for $19.6 million. The acquisition gives
Taylor & Francis the International Who's Who and other
titles. Over the past two years, Taylor & Francis also acquired
academic publishers Routledge and Garland.
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Publisher
group moves to Hill
WASHINGTON,
June 16, 1999
-- To get nearer the action, the Association of American Publishers
moved its office to Capitol Hill. President Pat Schroeder said
the move will facilitate AAP's lobbying activity.
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Physicist:
Future to bypass e-journals
LOS
ALAMOS, New Mexico, June 10, 1999 -- On-line journals
should be replaced by a comprehensive global research repository,
said Paul Ginsparg, a physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory,
who in 1991 created an automated on-line repository so authors
could self-archive their articles.
"Peer
review should be layered on top as a set of independent, added-value
overlays," Ginsparg said. "This is how we can move to a true knowledge
network for science, and away from the artificial partitioning
of our research database that only made sense in the print medium."
The archive,
created to facilitate research communication for physicists, has
grown to include 105,000 submissions and serves more than 35,000
users worldwide from more than 70 countries. In some fields of
physics, the archives have already supplanted traditional research
journals as conveyers of both topical and archival research information,
he said. Authors, he said, can use the archive to self-archive
articles either before or after publication with no unnecessary
intermediaries.
The archives,
located at http://xxx.lanl.gov,
are not an on-line journal, he said: "I have no interest in 'electronic
publishing' per se, since it connotes the notion of carrying over
all of the inadequacies of print publishing to the electronic
world."
On-line
access, he said, will obviously become the norm, that much is
inevitable. "The only question is when, not whether," he said.
"The more interesting question is how much better the on-line
medium will be than what the currently very myopic publishing
entities have in mind."
Ginsparg
said the current model of funding publishing companies through
research libraries is unlikely to survive in the electronic realm.
"It is premised on a paper medium that was difficult to produce,
difficult to distribute, difficult to archive, and difficult to
duplicate," he said. The electronic medium, he said, shares none
of these features, but instead provides a more efficient and cost-effective
method of disseminating information.
Details: "Winners
and Losers in the Global Research Village"
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Holocaust
publisher fined in France
LYONS,
France, June 17, 1999
-- Publisher Jean Plantin was fined US$2,000 and issued a six-month
prison term for publishing books and articles that argue that
Holocaust data are unreliable and probably overstated. The prison
term was suspended. The action was under a government order that
bans works denying the Holocaust. Among Plantin's titles were
several by Lyons scholar Paul Rassinier.
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Houghton
pleased with text divisions
NEW YORK,
June 17, 1999
-- Despite heavy expenditures to switch K-12 products to interactive
formats, Houghton Mifflin did relatively well in the latest quarter.
The company said sales totaled $84.3 million, up 17.7 percent.
The loss was $37 million, about the same as a year earlier.
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Journal
editor challenges on-line reviewing
CAMBRIDGE,
Massachusetts, June 17, 1999
-- A former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine,
said on-line publishing of medical research would be fraught with
problems. Arnold Relman said peer review should come before dissemination.
Relman responded to a National Instate of Health proposal to hasten
the exchange of research information by putting peer-review on
line. The institute's director, Harold Varmus, said on-line review
would bypass print journals that not only are slow but expensive
for researchers to publish in and for libraries to subscribe to.
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Congressional
detractor: Psych group backs off
WASHINGTON,
June 16, 1999
-- The American Psychological Association has as much as admitted
that an article on adult-child sex was "junk science," said Rep.
Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania Republican, who had castigated the article.
Pitts based his conclusion on an APA decision to examine the quality
of research for the article. Authors Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch
and Robert Bauserman concluded in the Psychological Bulletin
article that adult-child sex isn't always damaging to the child.
The conclusion came from a survey of college students.
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McGraw:
We're addressing used-book problem
NEW YORK,
June 17, 1999
-- The publishing house McGraw-Hill said it is solving some of
the used-book dent that has been hurting textbook profitability
in recent years. CD-ROMs and web sites tied to books are making
a difference because colleges are increasing wired. Three of four
students are web-enabled, the company said. Overall, McGraw-Hill
is optimistic. Enrollments have reversed recent declines. The
growth rate: 5 percent-plus from 1998 to 2000.
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of page for all news
Contract
study: Simon & Schuster at top
NEW YORK,
June 18, 1999
-- Book publisher Simon & Schuster scored a perfect 9 in a study
on royalty statements by the Association of Authors' Representatives,
a trade group of agents. Trade publishers Dutton and Viking Penguin
also received 9s.
ROYALTY
STATEMENT RANKINGS
SELECTED TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS
|
|
Current
sales |
Cum
sales by units |
Cum
sales by type |
Dollars
held in reserve |
Researc
release date |
How
many returns |
Sub-
rights payers |
Publi-
cation date |
Timely
first state-
ment |
| Simon
& Schuster |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Addison
Wesley Longman |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Wiley |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Harcourt
Brace |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Houghton
Mifflin |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Little
Brown |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| St.
Martin's |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Data
from AAR. ©Association of Authors' Representatives, Inc. |
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Pearson
picks up Macmillan Reference
LONDON,
June 18, 1999
-- Pearson bought Macmillan Library Reference USA for $86 million,
Pearson announced. The deal includes Scriber's Reference, Thorndike
Press and G.K. Hull, all of which Macmillan had acquired before
the sale. The deal is subject to U.S. Justice Department anti-trust
approval.
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Insurance
company made final "Hit Man" call
BOULDER,
COLORADO, June 19, 1999
-- The publisher of the book, Hit Man: A Technical Manual
for Independent Contractors, announced a legal settlement
with the families of three people who were slain by somebody who
followed the book's how-to advice on contract murders. The terms:
$5 million and dropping the title from the Paladin list.
The owner
of Paladin Press, Peter Lund, said it was his insurance company's
decision to settle. "We are extremely disappointed with this development,"
said Lund, who had argued strongly that the First Amendment protects
all expression. "Paladin had no say in the insurance company's
decision, and, as we were dependent upon the insurance carrier's
financial support, we had to go along." Lund said he didn't know
the exact reason for the insurance company's decision to settle,
but he said either it was afraid of a large settlement, or afraid
that he would join forces with the plaintiffs and sue them.
Part
of the settlement terms were to drop the Hit Man book.
Lund said the author had requested that Paladin drop the book
early on, but he didn't feel it was appropriate to do so at the
time: "We felt that to cease publication while still in litigation
might be misconstrued at trial." He said they would have dropped
it now whether or not the plaintiffs had requested it because
the author asked them to. "She (the author) wanted to keep her
head below the parapet," Lund said.
Since
the settlement, Paladin has added a warning to its web site which
reads: "Warning: Paladin Press does not intend for any of the
information contained in its books and videos to be used for criminal
purposes. In specific cases, involving such misuse, Paladin will
cooperate with law enforcement investigations." Lund said that
in his view of the political climate he thought the warning would
be of some help to them to "ward off ambulance chasers."
Howard
Seigal, lawyer for the families, expressed complete satisfaction
with the outcome. "It was a long hard fight," he said. "The family
needed closure. It was time to go home." Seigal said the families
set out to do something, which was to make a point: The First
Amendment does not protect the media from aiding and abetting
criminals. "In that way it was satisfying," he said. "Probably
the most satisfying part of the case."
A three-judge
federal appeals panel had ruled in November 1997 that Paladin
was liable in the triple murder of Mildred Horn, her 8-year-old
quadriplegic son, Trevor, and the son's nurse, Janice Saunders.
The killer, James Edward Perry, had purchased Hit Man in
January 1993, and a few months later used what he'd learned in
the book to kill the victims. Perry had been hired by Mildred's
ex-husband Lawrence who wanted the victims killed to collect a
$1.7 million malpractice settlement his son had won. Investigators
found Hit Man among Perry's possessions, and Perry said
the book helped him plan the murders. In October 1994 he was sentenced
to life.
After
Perry's conviction, the victim's families sued Paladin in Maryland
federal district court. Paladin won. The families appealed to
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the panel of judges
voted unanimously to send the case back to district court for
trial.
How will
this settlement affect the rest of Paladin's list of books and
videos? Said Lund: "We will now be forced to take a hard look
at them and judge which ones could become a potential liability
and thus a threat to the existence of our company."
Will
this precedent stop with Paladin? He said: "Are other companies
that publish and sell books that contain information on crime,
criminal techniques, military tactics, firearms, and a host of
other topics in danger of copycat lawsuits? It is impossible to
say at this point. Only time will tell how much damage this lawsuit
has done to the First Amendment."
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of page for all news
Macmillan
Reference to Pearson's Gale
LONDON,
June 20, 1999
-- Pearson's Detroit-based Gale Group will become the home for
the Macmillan Reference company that Pearson has acquired for
$86 million. Pearson said some cost-cutting opportunities are
expected.
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Pearson
pleased at royalty statement finding
NEW YORK,
June 21, 1999
-- Pearson Education is pleased with the ranking of its royalty
statements in a comparative study by the professional book agents'
association. The Association of Authors' Representatives survey
found that Pearson's Addison Wesley Longman royalty statements
to authors have seven of the nine items that agents say should
be included. "We were pleased to hear that we were rated so high,"
said Pearson Ed spokesperson Maggie Rohr. Simon & Schuster, which
was bought by Pearson after the AAR survey, scored nine out of
nine. How will Pearson integrate the two publishing houses' contracts
into one, seeing that S&S scored higher? "We're still in the process
of reviewing the integration of contracts," Rohr said. "Our intent
is to move forward with the best of both worlds."
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New TAA
officers assume office
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 23, 1999
-- New officers for Text and Academic Authors were empaneled ahead
of the association's annual convention. Karen Morris, a law author
from Rochester, New York, succeeded Peggy Stanfield as president.
Stanfield herself became vice president and president-elect to
facilitate a change to two-year terms. Other TAA leaders: Mary
Kay Switzer, who was re-elected secretary; Mike Sullivan, who
was re-elected treasurer; and Donna Besser and Phil Halloran,
who were elected to the Council for the first time; and Steve
Gillen, who was re-elected to the Council.
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TAA Fellow
nominations due October 1
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic pushed up the Council of Fellows nomination
schedule to allow time for honorees to be notified and make plans
to attend the convention. Nominations will now go out September
1. The deadline for nominations will be October 31. Winners will
be announced at the January TAA Council meeting.
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TAA moves
last Orange Spring connection
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The last connection of Text and Academic Authors to its roots
in rural Orange Springs, Florida, will be cut when the new fiscal
year begins June 30. A bank account at the Sun Trust branch in
Ocala, the nearest city to Orange Springs, will be transferred
to St. Petersburg. The transfer consolidates TAA finances in proximity
to the new headquarters at the University of South Florida-St.
Petersburg. TAA was founded in Orange Springs in 1987 by math
author Mike Keedy.
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TAA holds
medals until Fellows can attend
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors governing board decided to require
future Council of Fellows honorees to be present at a TAA convention
to receive their medallion. Until they are able to attend a convention,
honorees will be known as Fellows-designate. Council member John
Vivian said the new requirement will keep the spirit on the Council
not only being a personal distinction but also one which enriches
fellow TAA members at annual meeting.
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TAA budget
tops $200,000 for first time
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 23, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors' governing board tweaked a 1999-2000
budget proposal from Treasurer Mike Sullivan and approved a record
$202,700 spending program for the coming fiscal year. The biggest
item is payroll, $100,000, for the University of South Florida
headquarters staff and the web site-newsletter staff. Payroll
will jump 56 percent to cover the cost of a new half-time executive
director and to improve TAA's news and information services to
members. The Academic Author budget itself is pegged at
$42,000, including payroll. Thirty-thousand dollars was designated
to promote authoring, mostly through campus workshops nationwide.
| ESTIMATED
BEGINNING BALANCE |
$85,000 |
|
| ESTIMATED
INCOME |
| 1. |
DUES:
Renewals (416 @ $60) |
$
25,000 |
|
|
DUES:
New |
1,000 |
|
|
DUES:
Workshop |
8,000 |
|
| 2. |
ADVERTISING |
1,000 |
|
| 3. |
AWARD
FEES |
4,000 |
|
| 4. |
SUBSCRIPTIONS
/ BOOK SALES |
200 |
|
| 5. |
CONVENTION |
7,000 |
|
| 6. |
MISCELLANEOUS |
0 |
|
| 7. |
AUTHORS
COALITION: Reproduction rights |
85,000 |
|
|
AUTHORS
COALITION: Grant |
5,000 |
|
| 8. |
INTEREST |
1,000 |
|
|
TOTAL |
|
138,200 |
| ESTIMATED
EXPENSES |
| 1. |
ACADEMIC
AUTHOR: 12 issues (staff) |
$
30,000 |
|
|
ACADEMIC
AUTHOR: Copying / Postage |
8,000 |
|
|
ACADEMIC
AUTHOR: Miscellaneous |
5,000 |
|
| 2. |
BANK
CHARGES |
700 |
|
| 3. |
CONVENTION |
7,000 |
|
| 4. |
DUES
/ SUBSCRIPTIONS |
2,000 |
|
| 5. |
GRANT-IN-AID |
2,000 |
|
| 6. |
LEGAL
/ ACCOUNTING |
1,000 |
|
| 7. |
MEMBERSHIP
PROMOTION |
5,000 |
|
| 8. |
OFFICE |
16,000 |
|
| 9. |
PAYROLL |
70,000 |
|
| 10. |
MISCELLANEOUS |
500 |
|
| 11. |
AUTHORING
PROMOTION |
30,000 |
|
| 12. |
EQUIPMENT |
5,000 |
|
| 13. |
AWARDS |
500 |
|
| 14. |
`EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR |
5,000 |
|
| 15. |
COUNCIL |
9.000 |
|
| 15. |
ROYALTY
AUDIT |
5,000 |
|
| 17. |
AUTHORING
ISSUES LEGAL SUPPORT |
1,000 |
|
|
TOTAL |
|
202,700 |
|
PROJECTED
SURPLUS (DEFICIT) |
|
(64,500) |
|
ENDING
BALANCE |
$
20,500 |
|
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TAA to
revise Fellows nomination form
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors governing Council voted to revise
the Council of Fellows nomination form for next year to include
more specific information about what is required of nominees.
This year's judges said they simply did not have enough information
to make a determination based on some nominees' submission materials.
Next year's nomination form will call for a broader base of biographical
materials to accompany submissions.
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Academic
Author team receives bonuses
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors governing council approved $400
bonus to the managing editor and the desk editor of the association's
Academic Author newsletter. The bonuses go to Kim Pawlak
and Paula Wiczek, have produced the monthly newsletter on schedule
since it was relocated to Winona, Minn., two years ago.
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St. Pete
campus to have rep on TAA board
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors governing council voted to amend
its bylaws to permit an ex-officio member onto the TAA Council
from the organization's host university, which is now the University
of South Florida-St. Petersburg. The member, who will serve as
a liaison between TAA and the host institution, will be an ex-officio
member with non-voting status. The new Council member will be
appointed by TAA's president upon recommendation by the Council.
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TAA considers
founding academic journal
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 23, 1999
-- A committee will explore the feasibility and value of a new
on-line scholarly journal sponsored by the Text and Academic Authors.
John Vivian, TAA editor, told the TAA Council that the association
is producing at least four first-class scholarly pieces a year.
"The current web site and newsletter aren't sufficient vehicles
for these," Vivian said. He suggested a new, separate journal.
Named to the committee were Donna Besser, a Council member; Kathy
Heilenman, a former president and bibliographer; Karen Morris,
president; Ron Pynn, executive director; Mike Sullivan, treasurer;
and John Wakefield, textbook scholar. Vivian will chair.
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Survey:
Author-publisher relations deteriorating
PARK
CITY, Utah, June 24, 1999
-- A preliminary analysis of the latest Text and Academic Authors
member survey found that many textbook authors feel their relationships
with publishers are going either no where or down hill, the TAA
Contracts and Publisher Relations Committee reported at the association's
annual convention. Pending a complete analysis, the committee
declined to release most of the data from the quantitative questions
on the survey. On the trend of author-publisher relations over
the last five years, however, the committee said only 10 respondents
saw an improvement. Twenty-six saw a deterioration. Thirty-nine
saw no change.
The survey
was the latest by TAA on authoring issues. Seven-hundred questionnaires
were mailed in April. Fifty-nine members responded. A second mailing
in May yielded 29 more responses. By the time of the TAA convention,
when the committee made its preliminary report, a half-dozen more
questionnaires had been returned and more were expected to trickle
in, the committee reported.
The response
rate to the 25-question survey easily exceeded previous TAA surveys
on authoring issues.
The committee
said the findings are important for TAA: "Every business needs
to find out what customers think. So do professional organizations
like TAA. Our customers, if you will, the members, poured their
hearts and brains out in responding to this survey."
The survey
generated 1,500 comments about author-publisher relations. With
so many comments to sort through, the committee came up with three
criteria, in order of the importance, by which to select comments
to include in the report:
- Comments
to help authors and publishers produce better textbooks.
- Comments
to help authors and publishers understand and improve author-publisher
relations.
- Comments
that represent significant comments to improve authoring and
publishing relations.
At convention
time, the committee had recorded comments from questionnaires
only in these categories:
- Authors
with incomes of more than $100,000.
- Authors
who derive more than 50 percent of their annual income from
textbook royalties.
- Authors
of more than 10 books.
The committee
declined to release percentage data from many quantitative questions
pending a full analysis of the questionnaires.
Here
are some of the typical comments:
How
would you rate your author-publisher relations?
- "Good
level of trust."
- "Plenty
of freedom to try new things (of course, our books are doing
well)."
What
do you enjoy about relations with your publisher?
- "Working
together to be successful."
- "Direct,
instant communication."
What
do you dislike about relations with your publisher?"
- "When
they attempt to cut corners, condense the schedule, and publish
competing titles the same year."
- "Tendency
to set unrealistic workloads and timetables, underestimate academic
demands on my time."
- "Contract
negotiations."
- "Publisher's
constant attempts to grab more rights in contracts and more
profits at the expense of quality books and author royalties."
- "Publisher's
almost complete disregard about the value of author's time."
In
the last five years, have you experienced a trend in author-publisher
relations?
- Ten
answered improving.
- Thirty-nine
answered no change.
- Twenty-six
answered deteriorating.
Is
the relationship improving or deteriorating? Please give representative
examples:
- "Too
much turnover of editors."
- "More
respect for authors."
- "More
responsive to requests."
- "Cut
in royalties for new authors.
- "More
demands from 'marketing' on content/format."
- Author
relations is now at the low end of the publishers' priority
lists. Their list is too big -- too many competing books by
same publisher. People with good editorial skills are being
replaced by people who have come up through sales. Turnover
is very high."
Have
there been unpleasant incidents while authoring your books?
- "Production
cycles too compressed.
- "Previous
editor a lying, low life. Terrific editor now."
What
are some successful techniques, procedures, approaches, etc.,
you use or have heard about to improve and/or maintain favorable
author-publisher relations?
- "Work
closely with your editor and be polite and reasonable. If you
get nowhere, move up the chain and don't stop short of CEO."
- Simple
friendliness, mutual respect, dependability and willingness
to work my *** off."
- "I
have given up -- it's strictly business now."
- "Invite
publisher personnel into author's home. Occasionally pay for
their meals. Play golf and poker with publisher personnel. Call
on schools and sales reps. Room with sales reps. Write a poem
to commemorate the completion of a book. Send the editor a gift
when the book is completed."
- "Get
a good publishing lawyer."
What
are the advantages of working with your publisher?
- "Size
and resources."
- "High
advances. Terrific production team."
What
are the disadvantages of working with this publisher?
- "Sometimes
they seem too big. The lessons from history are often lost."
- "My
concerns about students are not always listened to."
- "Poor
marketing effort."
What
can authors do to improve relations with publishers?
- "Be
certain of your value to the publisher. You probably have more
leverage than you realize. Publishers respond to reason and
strength."
- "Inform
the mass media, public, educational community, legislators and
potential authors about practices of publishers that deleteriously
affect the quality of textbooks and the quality of education."
- "Understand
that profit drives the entire industry and much more of the
editorial process than one might guess."
- "In
1999, nothing."
- "Get
a good lawyer -- try to sound reasonable."
What
can publishers do to improve relations with authors?
- "Understand
that profit is not the first priority of many authors."
- They
don't care -- it isn't a priority."
- "Stop
insisting on unfavorable contracts: e.g. copyrights, royalties
-- and listen to author's expertise."
- "Treat
authors with respect because without them there would not be
a publication."
- "Realize
that authors are the lifeblood of a publishing company."
Have
you ever had major disagreements with your publisher? Forty-one
said they had, 32 said they hadn't. Some of those disagreements
were:
- "Control
of rights."
- "Royalty
system abysmal."
- "Editorial
control by author; unreasonable and often changing timelimes
for revisions; inept editing from subcontractors."
- "Royalty
rates on electronic products and derivatives."
Would
you author another book with this publisher?
- "Yes,
because I'm locked in with them."
- "No.
Royalties have been cut and I am in a better competitive position
to find another publisher."
- "I
would seek alternative publishers. Unfortunately, there are
less and less publishers."
- Depends
on how buy-outs affect the company."
Do
you use an attorney or agent to negotiate contracts with your
publisher?"
- "No,
I guess."
- "No.
Have been quite successful under the circumstances, negotiating
on my own and my concern that an attorney or agent might unduly
antagonize publisher."
- "When
I drop my attorney's name into a conversation, the president
of the company backs off a bit on contract position. Same when
mentioning TAA."
- "Yes,
to write clauses on rights relative to digital products and
derivatives."
Has
using an attorney or agent affected your relations with the publisher?
- "Publisher
knows someone is watching."
- "More
respect and I can negotiate better."
Have
you ever had your publisher's royalty records audited?
- "Just
started an audit. They have grown so large and sales have grown
so complex I'm not sure they are able to track everything accurately."
What
were the results of the audit?
How
did the audit affect your relations with the publisher?
- They
complain bitterly, but the statements aren't any more accurate,
so the audits continue."
- "I'm
more suspicious, less trusting, less respectful."
- "It
demonstrated that I was alert, savvy, willing to 'give and take'
but hold the line on issues I cared about. Set the stage for
negotiating on unexpected problems during the publication process."
In
the last five years, have you noticed any change in the publisher's
willingness to negotiate contracts?
- "Negotiating
room has tightened."
- "They
are less likely to make changes in their standard contract."
- "Both
publisher and author perplexed by how to compensate electronic/digital
products."
What
do you enjoy most about authoring a textbook?
- "Creating
and presenting material useful to students and instructors."
- "It
makes me keep up to date and continually learn new things."
- "Authoring
textbooks gives a common person like me, rather than a celebrity,
a chance to favorably affect the lives of thousands of students."
What
do you dislike about authoring a textbook?
- "Unrealistic
schedules and pressure to take over more and more of what was
originally the publisher's job."
What
advice would you give to new authors about author-publisher relations?
- "Keep
your day job and be willing to go back to it rather than accept
a bad contract. Remember that this is a business and they expect
to negotiate but would like to avoid one by seeming to be inflexible.
Know your own value."
- "Be
reliable, friendly, respectful, timely; willing to do more and
better work than is asked or expected of you; willing to tolerate
more tedium and hard work than lesser authors do.
- "New
authors are usually all to grateful to find any publisher. Shop
your manuscript. I had 55 rejection letters on my first book
proposal but got great advice from lots of reviewers in the
process and ended up with a proposal that two major publishers
competed for."
- "Make
sure to go over TAA's literature and contracts before signing
on."
- "Retain
as many rights as possible in contracts and pursue them. Keep
on top of things. Don't assume the publisher knows what it's
doing or will take care of you or your book."
- "Get
a very good lawyer or agent."
The
last question in the survey allowed respondents to record any
comment, suggestions, observations, predictions or conclusions
they had about author-publisher relations:
- "The
fewer publishers there are, the less variety we will see for
teaches selecting books and the harder it will be for a new
'creative' voice to break through as an author."
- "Author
experience with book revisions, especially since this clause
makes revisions a life-long process for the author and with
little or no understanding of the cost basis for royalty reductions
if revisions are made by others."
- "TAA
is a great organization. Mike Keedy had vision!"
- "Because
publishers are not educators and have long-range goals different
from competent authors, publishers are on a collision course
with competent authors. The trend is likely to deteriorate at
an accelerated pace because of the decrease of competition between
publishers. The consequences, however imperceptible, are that
publishers will contract with mediocre authors and textbooks
will deteriorate."
- "To
be successful as author-educators and be adequately rewarded
for their efforts and experience, authors should be thinking
about other outlets for their work, such as self-publishing,
distance learning, or publishing with 'learning-oriented' rather
than 'increased profits' publishers."
- "This
is a wonderful process if you enjoy ideas, words and having
a voice in the larger world. If those are not inviting, go into
some other field. Writing can be very hard work, and if you
find it unpleasant take up selling magazine subscriptions, knitting
socks or photographing cheesecake."
Speaker:
Video, computers together work for learning
PARK
CITY, Utah, June 26, 1999 -- Media professor Mary Kay
Switzer told text and academic authors during a presentation at
the TAA convention that multimedia can enhance learning and that
all students at all levels can benefit from this type of learning.
Using the historical development of film as analogy, she said
that textbook authors can use multimedia to move from "talkies"
to "interactive virtual reality."
"Most
people have access to a television," she said. "Seventy percent
of the population has access to computers and 40 percent use them
at home. Bringing technology together and using the benefits of
video to produce multimedia textbooks may give us an advantage
to technology development."
Although
she is mindful of the glories and limitations of multimedia, Switzer
said, she is inspired by the interaction of children with multimedia.
She presented several examples of how television and the technological
devices used in creating multimedia can enhance learning. She
showed how Nickelodeon uses such technology in their children's
educational show, Blues Clues, to teach problem solving.
AVID, she said, is the state-of-the-art format to use when developing
this type of multimedia product.
For more
information about AVID, contact
Mary Kay Switzer.
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54 authors
attend TAA convention
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors Council, disappointed at Park
City convention attendance, decided that continued annual conventions
nonetheless are a valuable benefit to members. Fifty-four authors
attended. Convention numbers vary substantially year to year.
It was noted that any organization that has 10 percent of its
members at a national convention is doing well -- and TAA is approaching
that percentage. Jay Black, a former convention program chair,
said conventions have innumerable spin-off benefits, including
dialogue that spreads from the convention to members nationwide
through the TAA web site and newsletter.
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Next Norway
collections to TAA about $85,000
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors continues to receive foreign reprographic
moneys from the Norwegian agency Kopinor, said Ron Pynn, TAA executive
director. He said TAA will soon receive moneys for 1998, perhaps
$85,000, and expects TAA will continue to receive moneys in 1999.
Pynn said his goal is to set up a database of TAA members by the
genres in which they write, for a more precise measure on how
much TAA deserves from the complex U.S. distribution formula.
TAA now uses an extrapolation model to establish its share.
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TAA grants
deadline in January
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors Council decided to make four
grants-in-aid awards at $500 each available for next year to help
fund TAA members' research projects. In previous years, TAA offered
five grants at $400 each. Applications are due January 15. Awards
will be announced March 1. Recipients will receive the award at
the June convention and will be required to present their research
findings at the following June convention. This year's grants-in-aid
committee members: Karen Morris, president; Mary Kay Switzer,
treasurer; and Jay Black, Council member.
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CCC considers
author-elected board members
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors' chief complaint against the Copyright
Clearance Center is that author groups are excluded in the process
of distributing CCC's royalty collections to authors. Ron Pynn,
TAA executive director, told a CCC official at the association's
annual convention that TAA long has favored equal author representation
on the CCC board of directors, which now has nine publishers,
six authors and three users -- all chosen by the publisher-dominated
CCC board itself.. None of the authors, he said, are elected by
authors. Kristen Giordano, of CCC, responded the CCC is willing
to work with TAA to select an author to represent the organization.
"We are trying to find a quality person to represent authors,"
said Giordano. Pynn said: "We will do that for you."
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CCC seeks
authors for rights distributions
PARK
CITY, Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The manager of author and creator relations for the Copyright
Clearance Center told an audience of text and academic authors
that the CCC's sole goal and objective is putting money into the
hands of rights-holders. "We are the middleman between the user
and the rights-holder," said Kristen Giordano in a presentation
at the Text and Academic Authors convention.
The CCC
now has a database of 1.75 million titles and represents thousands
of publishers, authors and creators, Giordano said. The center
licenses more than 9,600 U.S. corporations and subsidiaries and
more than 3,500 universities, copy shops, bookstores and document
dealers. Of the $60 million collected last year, $50 million was
distributed to rights-holders, she said.
Giordano
asked TAA to help find more authors whose rights have reverted
back to them. "Every author should contact the CCC when their
rights revert," she said. "We are trying to find trade/author
organizations we can work with to find these authors."
For two
years, said Giordano, the CCC has been trying to increase author
relations because they're aren't as strong as they should be.
Her department, she said, is dedicated to addressing the needs
of authors and creators. Their duties are to:
- Facilitate
copyright compliance.
- Maximize
returns of royalties to rightsholders.
- Represent
all rights-holders.
- Expand
royalty opportunities for rightsholders.
Giordano
said the center can help authors by:
- Protecting
intellectual property.
- Encouraging
legal access to their works.
- Working
to return royalties directly to authors.
- Working
in conjunction with author trade organizations to best meet
authors' needs.
Giordano
said while the Copyright Clearance Center now pays author royalties
to publishers which then pay their authors, CCC is working to
encourage publishers to allow the CCC to pay authors directly.
She said a key initiative over the next six to eight months is
to get publishers to agree to do this. "Some want the opportunity
to unload this function," she said. "Some have said they would
be more than happy to let the CCC do it." For now, they want to
encourage publishers to notify authors when money comes to them
from the CCC. "It is extremely important for authors to hold the
rights to their work," Giordano said. If they did, then CCC could
pay them directly and give them a list detailing the usage of
their works. "We now work with people who own their rights," she
said. "In the future, it could be just authors the CCC deals with."
Since CCC cannot negotiate contracts with an author's publisher,
she said, it's important for authors to hold onto their rights
and keep track of their contracts.
The CCC
has four royalty generating services:
- CCC
Photocopy Generating Use. Services paper and on-line rights.
- Media
Image Resource Alliance. Licenses on-line stock photography.
- Non-title
specific distributions. Foreign funds from Spain, the Netherlands
and Germany that brought in $2.5 million in royalty collections
last year.
- Split
payments. Payments on author royalties on behalf of publishers.
In the
last 18 months, the Copyright Clearance Center has paid $865,000
in repatriated foreign reprography moneys directly to 4,500 authors,
including 1,500 academic and textbook authors. The range of dollars
varied widely. Some authors, Giordano said, have gotten as much
as $17,000 based on the usage of their material, while others
have gotten as little as $20. A survey of those attending Giordano's
presentation found only one person in the group of 40-plus had
received funds from CCC. Through his publisher, he received $10.
Giordano
noted that the CCC now distributes only payments that are $20
or more. It costs $22 to cut each check, she said. The $20 and
under funds are pooled and put into the following year's pool
for distribution.
Authors
who would like to register their name and works with the CCC,
should contact:
-
Kristin Giordano
- Manager,
Author and Creator Relations
-
Copyright Clearance Center
- 222
Rosewood Drive
- Danvers
MA 01923. 978-750-8400.
To
register on-line: Copyright
Clearance Center
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TAA Fellows
selection group to grow
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors will invite as many as two Council
of Fellows honorees to serve on future Fellows nomination committee,
the TAA Council decided. On next year's committee do far are President-elect
Peggy Stanfield, Fellow Mike Sullivan and President Karen Morris
will serve on next year's committee. To volunteer to serve, please
contact Karen Morris at (716) 256-0160, or TAA headquarters at
(727) 563-0020.
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Auditor
calculates TAA member needs
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- To make the budget approved by Text and Academic Authors governing
board, the association will need to grow by 400 members, said
TAA Council member Paul Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig, a royalty auditor,
based the goal on the record $202,700 association budget for the
coming fiscal year. Janet Tucker, office manager at TAA headquarters,
said membership had reached 727 in June, a 3.3 percent increase
from January. Tucker said TAA workshops attracted 123 new members
from the University of South Florida, the University of Tennessee,
Cal Poly Pomona and the University of North Alabama, but attrition
had been high.
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PROFIT
LOSS
Educational
Insights: Sales
rose 21 percent to $39.2 million in the latest year.
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R.I.P.
David F. Hawke
David F. Hawke
(history), Lehman College, who specialized in the American Revolution,
died June 20 at Madison, Connecticut. He was 75.
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AAP to
Congress: Wait on distance-learning copyright changes
WASHINGTON,
June 24, 1999
-- The Association of American Publishers favors a wait-to-see
approach to copyright revision to cover distance learning, AAP
President Pat Schroeder told Congress. She said even the House
courts and copyright subcommittee acknowledges that distance learning
is in its infancy and in flux. Wait, she said, "until we all get
a better feel for how technological protections and copyright
management information will be deployed."
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Report:
Pearson unloading Lazard
LONDON,
June 24, 1999
-- Publishing giant Pearson is selling its 50 percent strake in
Lazard Partners as it continues narrowing it focus on its core
publishing business, according to press reports.
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Iran to
be represented at Frankfurt
FRANKFURT,
Germany, June 24, 1999
-- Two Iranian publishers were invited to display their wares
at the important Frankfurt Book Fair after 10 years of exclusion.
Book Fair executives made the decision now that the Iranian government
has withdrawn support from a death bounty on novelist Salman Rushdie.
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TAA Council
sets January date
PARK CITY,
Utah, May 24, 1999
-- The TAA Council, the governing board of Text and Academic Authors,
set January 8, a Saturday, for its next semiannual meeting. The
site, St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, is near the association headquarters
at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.
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Call issued
for new TAA brochure
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- A member of the Text and Academic Authors governing board,
Dale Layman, recommended a new TAA brochure as part of an invigorated
membership recruiting program. Layman, an anatomy author, said
the current brochure needs updating. He recommended sending 50
copies to every association member to distribute among colleagues
at their schools and professional societies. Executive Director
Ron Pynn said a revised brochure would be in the works soon. The
TAA Council discussed renting a booth at major academic meetings
to recruit members but rejected the idea as too costly. Panels
on text and academic authoring at scholarly conventions in the
past have given TAA important visibility and attracted members,
it was noted.
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Next TAA
convention in New Orleans
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors will return to the Big Easy, New
Orleans, for its June 2000 convention, the TAA Council decided.
Le Pavillion Hotel, site of the association's 1993 convention,
was chosen. Mike Sullivan, who scouted hotels in Washington, San
Antonio and New Orleans, said the Pavillion recently received
recognition as a Preferred Hotel. Yes, tuxedoed waiters still
serve peanut-butter sandwiches on silver trays at 11 nightly.
Rooms will be $99. Dates: June 21-24, with the TAA Council meeting
and workshops ahead of the actual Friday-Saturday convention.
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TAA gift
memberships coming in
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Gift memberships in Text and Academic Authors have increased
in recent months, reported TAA office manager Janet Tucker. Members
have purchased 33 gift memberships since January, she said. Another
factor in the association's growth has been the continuing workshop
series at campuses around the country. Tucker said 123 new members
can be traced to the workshops:
- University
of South Florida, Tampa, 25.
- University
of Tennessee, 11.
- Cal Poly
Pomona, 30.
- University
of North Alabama, 27.
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Experienced,
new authors join TAA authoring, contracts workshops
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Authoring lawyer Steve Gillen told Text and Academic workshop
participants to identify contract issues to negotiate but be willing
to back off some issues for a final agreement. "If you don't ask,
you won't receive," Gillen said. He suggested using the TAA Contract
Guidelines to find clauses that serve authors well.
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Cruise,
anybody? TAA thinking about it
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- A sea cruise should be considered for the 2001 TAA convention,
the year after New Orleans, the TAA Council decided. The proposal
originated with Ron Pynn, executive director, and a committee
was appointed to explore the feasibility. Mike Sullivan, who arranges
convention sites, said possible ports of departure for a three-day
or four-day meeting include Baja California and the eastern and
western Caribbean.
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New firm
joins on-line text sellers
LEXINGTON,
Kentucky, June 25, 1999
-- A Lexington firm, Ecampus, announced it twill sell textbooks
and cost materials on-line to college students. Among services:
Used-book buybacks.
Contact:
http://www.ecampus.com
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Publisher
exec cancels TAA for House hearing
WASHINGTON,
June 25, 1999
-- The president of the Association of American Publishes, Pat
Schroeder, canceled her keynotre address at Text and Academic
Authors convention to testify before Congress on distance learning.
"Please accept my deepest apologies," Schroeder said in a message.
"Congress controls the schedule, not AAP." Underscoring the importance
of her tetsimomy, Schroeder said: "I hope that you and the TAA
members will agree that my presence at the hearing to protect
copyrighted material is very important because authors aren't
paiud if copyright is destroyed in this rush to new techology."
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Publishers'
exec goes to Hill, not TAA
WASHINGTON,
June 25, 1999
-- This is the text of a message to the Text and Academic Authors
convention program chair from the president of the Association
of American Publishers, cancelling her keynote address at the
TAA national convention:
|
June
24, 1999 |
|
| To: |
Paul
Tippens |
|
Text
& Academic Authors Association (TAA) |
|
| From: |
Pat
Schroeder, President & CEO |
|
| Re: |
TAA
Annual Conference |
Again,
please accept my deepest apologies for not being there with
you and other TAA members., As you know, the House Judiciary
Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property rescheduled
their hearing on distance education for tomorrow afternoon.
This is the most important issue before Congress this year
for our association, It is mandatory testimony and, as you
know, Congress controls the schedule, not AAP. I have attached
a copy of my statement, which I hope you will share with TAA
members. I hope that you and the TAA members will agree that
my presence at the hearing to protect copyrighted material
is very important because authors aren't paid if copyright
is destroyed in this rush to new technology.
Again, I will be pleased to speak to the members via teleconference
and to answer a few questions about the publishing industry
on Friday morning if this is logistically possible. Think
about it -- I can provide you with the latest news about what
happened during the hearings, but I'm so jealous you're in
those beautiful mountains and I'm on the banks of the Potomac. |
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MediaFarm
organizes for school market
DALLAS,
June 25, 1999
-- A software marketer, Media Farm, created a subsidiary, SchoolSoft,
to provide schools with custom classroom media kits, site licenses
and other services. Schoolsoft also will sell computers to schools.
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Outgoing
president: 20th century good to TAA
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- The Text and Academic Authors convention at Park City was the
association's last annual meeting of the 20th century, outgoing
President Peggy Stanfield said. Stanfield told members that the
century had been good to TAA. "We moved forward from a trailer
house in Orange Springs to the University of South Florida in
one decade. Along the way we improved communication through our
web site and regular newsletters. We have become a nationally
recognized voice for authors engaged in the serious business of
educating our youth. We have promoted authors' interest and spoken
out to protect their rights in all mediums of expression." Stanfeld's
term expired with the start of the Park City convention.
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Campus
stores seek answers for e-times
PARK
CITY, Utah, June 24, 1999
-- The chief staff officer of the National Association of College
Stores told Text and Academic Authors members that he was pleased
to be presenting to authors on behalf of bookstores for two reasons:
First, said Brian Cartier, he's a great admirer of authors and
writers. Second, he said, authors are the content providers, and
to him, that's extremely important.
"Publishers
are starting to view themselves as publishing content," Cartier
said. "That is leading to change and that's good news for authors
because they provide the content." Cartier, who has been with
NACS for a year, and is new to the bookselling arena, said he
has been following the changes that have occurred in the past
year closely.
Everywhere
he goes, Cartier said, he is dealing with change. The change in
the last five years has been more than in the past 25 years, he
said, and the change in the past year has been more than the change
in the past five years. "For all of those people who want things
to be like they were 10 years ago: It can't be," he said. "It
isn't, and it won't be. Get over it. Change can present new opportunities."
His presentation, "Managing Permanent Whitewater," related to
the difficulty and challenge of whitewater rafting: "The higher
the level, the more difficulty keeping the raft afloat." This
is true of the publishing / bookselling / authoring industry today,
he said, which presents challenges but also opportunities.
"Authors
create the commodity we sell," Cartier said. For NACS member-stores,
books are a $5 billion industry with 60 to 80 percent of bookstore
sales being books. For NACS bookstores, he said, books are the
bread and butter. Margins are eroding, but store manager still
pay a lot of attention to that side of the business.
The college
market is growing, he said, noting that enrollment is increasing
and there has been a larger emphasis on adult and life-long learning.
"That has caught the attention of a lot of people," he said. Bookstores
used to be free of competition. On-line book stores like VarsityBooks.com
and BigWords.com were "a wake up call" for booksellers, he said:
"Our members realized they had competition. The industry has been
discovered and the change has been dramatic. That is impacting
us. Because of the e-commerce model, they are getting a larger
influx of capital." On-line stores have a market value of $8.5
billion, he said, while stores have a market value of $5.5 billion.
Cartier
said the NACS research department has put together a chronological
listing that lays out the changes that have taken place in the
past year. It shows that tremendous changes are taking place in
the publishing industry, he said, and authors are part of that
change as far as author-publisher relationships and the interest
in self-publishing. Self-publishing, he said, should worry publishers.
Some
of these changes, like electronic commerce, electronic content
and electronic books, are a new phenomenon for the bookstore industry,
Cartier said. "Many publishers now have the capability for e-content
delivery," he said. "My greatest concern is e-content delivery,
licensing and the bypassing of bookstores in the process."
Other
changes that affect the bookstore industry include digitalization,
publishing on demand and mergers, acquisitions and transactions.
"Publishers are a major concern to us," said Cartier. "We are
trying to have dialogue and improve relations with them. It is
my goal to visit all major publishers this year. After listening
to the mergers panel this morning, if I wait until later this
year, maybe I'll only have one or two to visit rather than the
seven out there now!"
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Royalty
reviewer: Future up in air for authors
PARK
CITY, Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Authors will face several concerns in the new millennium, said
Paul Rosenzweig of Royalty Review Service. One is the influx of
on-line booksellers like Amazon.com, he said, which could be a
good and bad thing for authors. The bad news: They are buying
books at a lower price and authors are earning less royalties.
The good news: Foreign students are now buying books on-line at
domestic prices and authors are getting higher royalties for those
books.
Another
concern facing authors, Rosenzweig said, is the way publishers
deal with electronic rights. "There will have to be a big change
in how publishers look at electronic rights," said Rosenzweig.
"Publishers want every scrap of these rights whether they will
exercise them or not." The problem with that, he said, is that
publishers want those rights at a higher return. Publishers now
want to offer the same or a lower rate than the royalties authors
are receiving for regular books, he said, and authors are being
offered a smaller percentage of a smaller base. "If the publisher
keeps the rights, however, you are no worse off than if the book
was published as a hardcover if they're paying you the same royalty
as the hard cover," he said.
The problem
with electronic rights royalties, he said, is how much information
an author will receive about these sales, which are usually reported
under subrights. "Statements tell as little as possible for as
long as they can get away with it," he said. "When you see subrights
on your statements, ask to see the sublicensing contract." When
an agencies like Rosenzweig's conducts a contract review, they
are not allowed to pursue sublicensing deals back to the original
transactions by the sublicensee. "As more things go into subrights,
the less we can review on publisher's statements," he said.
When
publishers merge there is a complete jumble, said Rosenzweig.
"Because there is no uniformity between publishers' back room
operations, every time you or your advisers change the publishing
boilerplate as far as calculation of royalties, you are increasing
the probability of error," he said. "As more electronic products
become available, there will be more problems with their system
of royalty reporting because publishers have no concept, no built-in
system, to meld electronic information into their royalty databases.
Whatever changes come in electronic retailing, as of now, publishers
cannot handle it."
What
should authors be watching out for? Find out what is happening
with foreign sales. Keep an eye on royalty statements for tracking
of foreign royalties, advances, etc., said Rosenzweig. "When we
get to pure electronic content, what is their accountability going
to be? Publishers have no way of doing that."
Rosenzweig
says authors cannot simply take their royalty check and put their
statement away. They need to find out what is on the statement
and what is not, and what information their contract is calling
for. "Keep track of what is happening to your royalties," he said.
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AUTHOR: Electronic
Age here for elementary schools
PARK
CITY, Utah, June 25, 1999 -- Although electronic instructional
materials for high school and college courses are still in its
infancy, said el-hi education author Lee Mountain, in elementary
education they're almost already. "We have wonderful instructional
materials in elementary education," she said. "Words, plus the
CD-ROM features of art, animation and sound, deliver literacy
instruction more effectively than words alone."
Mountain
said it's sometimes hard to convey a message using written words.
"Written words don't give you animation, audio or the interactivity
that is the main part of every interactive program," she said.
"These problems are being solved by this new medium, which can
provide what text writing can't. This is the cutting edge."
During
a presentation at the Text and Academic Authors convention, Mountain
showed a CD-ROM she currently has in production with Otto Publishing.
She gave these tips to authors wanting to develop CD-ROM:
- The
student must be an a character in the story.
- When
doing the plot, have a beginning, where the mission is assigned;
a middle, written in a non-linear fashion; and an end, where
the mission is accomplished.
- Settings
should be varied and the style should be "edu-taining". Her
CD-ROM is an adventure with a literacy twist, using wordplay
as a vehicle for instruction.
- It
will take as much as 10 times longer to produce a CD-ROM than
a traditional textbook.
- There
must be words on paper before anything else can be developed.
- An
electronic version requires a three-person team minimum: the
writer, the graphic artist and the programmer.
Elementary
electronic instructional materials are not being published by
large publishers like McGraw-Hill, Harcourt or Houghton-Mifflin
either, Mountain said, but by smaller publishers most people have
never heard of. "As these traditional textbook companies move
into interactive learning, they regard it as a supplementary activity,"
she said. "There are no purely electronic basal series that large
publishers are trying to get on the adoption list."
Mountain teaches
reading at the University of Houston.
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Attorney
to authors: Don't try copyrighting bare facts
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 24, 1999
-- Publishing lawyer Steve Gillen said copyright law has changed
in the United States and the lack of a copyright symbol doesn't
necessarily mean it can be picked up without permission. Everything
has a copyright the moment it is created, said Steve Gillen. The
fair use doctrine, however, allows authors to rely on other sources
fro underlying facts and ideas and titles and short phrases.
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Attorney:
Feds overwhelmed with mergers
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- The government anti-trust division has been asleep when it
comes to book-industry merger, authoring lawyer Michael lennie
told text and academic authors as their annual meeting: "They
are literally overwhelmed with mergers and have only a fixed number
of attorneys to deal with them." But, said Lennie, there is good
news: "Authoring organizations are getting through to the Justice
Department and with your assistance we can do more." The mega-mergers
have another upside, Lennie said: Upstart small publishers are
filling niches the big players are vacating. "A monopoly on the
top side raises opportunities on the bottom side," he said.
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Tennessee
author to chair TAA's 2000 meeting
PARK CITY,
June 25, 1999
-- A visual communication author, Chris Harris, accepted an invitation
to be program chair for the next Text and Academic Authors' national
convention. Harris, of Middle Tennessee State University, invited
program suggestions. The convention will be at Le Pavillion Hotel
the weekend after Father's Day in June. The dates: June 23-24,
a Friday and Saturday, with workshops and the TAA Council meeting
on June 21 and 22.
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PROFIT
LOSS
Educational
Insights:
Sales rose 21 percent to $39.2 million in the latest year.
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Speaker:
Techno-reliance challenges human thought
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Anatomy author Dale Layman told text and academic authors at
their annual meeting that human values and ethics are on a collision
course with technology. "Computer knowledge is doubling while
human intelligence is receding," Layman said in a mystical multimedia
presentation. People now rely more and more on technology, causing
what he calls "unthinking computerization." Worst of it, he said,
"We are now turning to computers tohelp us write textbooks."
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U.S.
House wants nannyware
WASHINGTON,
June 25, 1999
-- The U.S. House approved a plan to require schools and libraries
to block pupil access to obscenity and child-porn sites on the
web as c condition for federal funding. At stake nationwide is
$1.7 billion a year that goes to 25,000 school districts and libraries.
Senate approval would be needed for the new requirement to go
into effect.
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Rocket
e-book price drops to $399
NEW YORK,
June 25, 1999
-- On-line retailer barnesandnoble.com reduced the price of NuvoMedia
Rocket e-books to $399, down $100, Barnes and Noble also 700 books
and magazines that can be downloaded to Rocketbooks from the internet.
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Library
budgets expected to grow
WASHINGTON,
June 25, 1999
-- Three out of five libraries expected their budgets to increase
over the coming five years, a survey says. Most of the other libraries
foresee see level budgets. The American Library Association and
the Association of American Publishers conducted the survey
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Academic
Library merging with Yankee
CONTOOCOOK,
New Hampshire, June 25, 1999 --
Yanke Book Pubklishing and Academic Librray Services will merge
and together become a new subsidiary of Baker & Taylor. The new
name: YBP Services. Transaction details were not announced. The
new unit, which will have headquarters in Contoocook, strengthens
Baker & Taylor as a library supplier in both the United States
and Britain.
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Tippens:
E-book potential unsure
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- New technology gives authors new opportunities but, right now,
e-books may not be among them. Engineering technology professor
Scott Tippens told authors that one of the first electronic books
on the market, Nuvomedia's paperback-size RocketBook, is too small
to be used for textbooks." Tippens said he likes the EverybookDedicated
Reader, which will have two full-color high resolution 8-1/2 by
11-inch screens when it is released later this year.
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Texty-winning
authors accept plaques
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Five textbook authors were presented Texty awards at Text and
Academic Authors annual banquet for recent books that merited
being honored for excellence. President Karen Morris presented
plaques to:
- Edward
J. Tarbuck and Frederick K. Lutgens, for Earth: An Introduction
to Physical Geology (Prentice Hall).
- Sallie
A. Marston and Paul L. Knox: Human Geography: Places
and Regions in Global Context. (McGraw-Hill).
- Jennie
Dusheck and Allan Tobin: Asking About Life, first
edition (Saunders College {Harcourt Brace}.
- William
Stallings: Cryptography and Network Security (Prentice
Hall).
- Laura
H. Chapman: Adventures in Art (Davis).
- Michael
Sullivan: College Algebra (Prentice Hall).
Judges, all
veteran authors, considered publisher-nominated works with 1998
and 1999 copyrights.
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Five veteran
authors pick up TAA McGuffeys
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Five textbook authors and co-authors ehose works have proven
themselves of of enduring value were presented McGuffey longevity
awards from Text and Academic Authors at the assocaition's annual
banquet. TAA President Karen Morris presented plaques to:
- Thomas
L. Wheelen and J. David Hunger: Strategic Management
and Business Policy (Addison Wesley Longman).
- Dorothy
V. Seyler: Read, Reason, Write (McGraw-Hill).
- Lee
Mountain: Uncle Sam and the Flag, (Oddo).
- Mary
Ellen Guffey: Business English (South Western).
- Ibe
Mizrah and Michael Sullivan: Finite Mathematics: An Applied
Approach, (John Wiley).
Judges, all
TAA members, made the selection from publisher-nominated works
that had been on the marlket 15 years or more.
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TAA inducts
first class of Fellows
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- The first class of authors inducted into the TAA Council of
Fellow received medallions to hang around their necks at the annual
Text and Academic Authors Association banquet. The firstinductees,
all honored for significant contributions to authoring, were:
- Everette
Dennis, of Fordham University.
- Mike
Keedy, a retired math author and TAA founder.
- Lee
Mountain, of Houston University.
- Frank
Silverman, of Marquette University.
- Karl
Smith, of Santa Rosa Junior College in California.
- Mike
Sullivan a retired math author.
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"The TAA
Story" inspires epic poem
PARK CITY,
June 25, 1999
-- A veteran of Text and Academic Authors since the founding,
Ron Pynn, unleashed an epic poem on the association's history
at the annual membership banquet. Pynn, TAA executive director,
started with the line: "Once there was a man named Keedy, not
unexpected, through 196 lines. Sample verse:
When
all was said and done,
our first president was Masterton.
He was a Connecticut yankee
to whom we must say thank ye.
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Panel generates
author contract advice
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors President Karen Morris and authors'
attorney Michael Lennie, in a presentation at TAA's convention,
role-played how to negotiate changes for three contract clauses:
electronic rights, out-print and competing text.
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Veteran
authors: Don't underrate second editions
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 26, 1999
-- Four authors, all with multiple editions, cautioned fellow
authors against under-rating the demands of doing follow-up editions.
Author Robert Christopherson said check line by line to identify
dated material. Also, he said, check what was left on "the cutting-room
floor" from the first edition for the revision. Stan Eitzen, who
has seven books in multiple editions, called text-authoring "a
never-ending process".Pamela Sharpe agreed: Approach the subsequent
edition as if for the first time, she said. "Keep files, read,
think, and listen to reviewers, Eitzen said. Advised physics author
Richard Childers: "If you're going into a second edition, immediately
make an appointment with an attorney to go over your contract.
It will save you time and grief."
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1999 Keedy
award to "author's author"
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Text and Academic Authors past President Frank Silverman was
awarded the M.L. Keedy Award during TAA's annual banquet the last
night of the association's convention. "No one is more dedicated
to the organization or gave more time on behalf of authors than
Frank Silverman," said TAA Executive Director Ron Pynn. He called
Silverman's book, Authoring a Text or Professional Book,
the basis for successful authoring workshops that Silverman has
delivered on more than a dozen campuses in the last two years
on behalf of TAA. "Now Silverman has established a new workshop
on self-publishing that looks most promising," Pynn said. Of winning
the award, Silverman said: ". It is particularly meaningful to
me that Mike Keedy's name is attached to it since it was he who
got me involved with TAA and encouraged me to develop both the
authoring workshop and to write my textbook authoring book." Keedy
founded TAA in 1987.
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Do parents
read to kids? Only half
NEW YORK
June 25, 1999
-- Almost half of U.S. parents never or seldom read to their children,
a Yankelovich survey found. The results were surprising, especially
considering that the survey found 98 percent of all Americans
believe reading to kids is important to their early development.
Barnes & Noble commissioned the survey.
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Author:
Mergers narrow author options
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Physics author Rudy Jones offered chilling but telling figures
on corporate mergers among textbook companies. Speaking at the
TAA convention, Jones said that in 1995 he and co-author had 16
well-known publishers in physics to whom to pitch their book idea.
Now, there are nine. "Of those nine, only four do more than support
introductory courses. Only four publishers have offerings at the
junior-senior level, and two of these just merged!"
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Journal
editor wary of speed for speed's sake
BOSTON,
June 25, 1999
-- The editor of the New England Journal of Medicine accused
on-line journals with quick turn-around schedules for articles
of grand-standing. Most articles can wait, said Jerome Kassirer.
He said a Medscape General Medicine that was on-line within
39 days wasn't worth an expeditious treatment. He used the word
"gimmick." At the same time, Kassirer said his New England
Journal of Medicine was on-line in April with an article nine
weeks ahead of its usual printed edition.
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TAA calls
on Coalition for CCC representation
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- A Text and Academic Authors leadership committee decided against
a Copyright Clearance Center offer for the association to select
a member for the CCC's governing board. Although TAA has long
campaigned for author-elected representation on the CCC board
of directors, the TAA committee concluded that representation
should be broad-based -- not just from one author group, or from
author groups that CCC chooses, or from author groups that have
CCC's favor at the moment. The committee recommended to Karen
Morris, TAA president, that the Authors Coalition, which represents
15 author groups, including TAA, would be the appropriate organization
to choose author members for the CCC board. Ever since publishers
founded the Copyright Clearance Center, its publisher-dominated
board has itself selected authors for the board, never more than
a token minority, sometimes as few as one author on the 18-member
board, occasionally none, and. never more than five. TAA has complained
that the self-perpetuating CCC board lacks true author representation
-- a serious matter, in TAA's view, because the board sets policies
for distributing millions of dollars in copyright collections
to authors. The TAA ad-hoc leadership committee, meeting at the
association's annual convention, expressed concern that any individual
author organization that went along with a CCC offer to choose
author representatives to the CCC board could undermine the fragile
development of a unified U.S. authors' voice. The move toward
author unity is best embodied in the Authors Coalition, committee
members said.
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TAA past-president
honored for growth, outreach
PARK CITY,
Utah, June 25, 1999
-- Veteran Text and Academic Authors leader Peggy Stanfield was
awarded the Outgoing President's Award during the association's
annual banquet. Executive Director Ron Pynn said Stanfield's term
was marked by membership growth and reaching out to authors internationally,
most notably through her support of British authors' Declaration
of the Rights of Academic Authors as a model for U.S. authors.
"She was dedicated and directly involved in the affairs of the
association," Pynn said. "She sought to be proactive on issues
that mattered to TAA and authors around the country." Stanfield
expressed appreciation: "Those things that were accomplished were
possible only with your help, hard work, loyalty and support and
I am truly grateful. I count my year as president of TAA and your
friendship among my many blessings."
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Journal
reviewer quits to protest prices
TALLAHASSEE,
Florida, June 28, 1999
-- Physicist Mark Riley, of the Florida State University faculty,
resigned as a volunteer review for the journal Nuclear Physics
A to protest the journal's high library subscription rate
-- $7,234 a year. Riley said he hoped to bring attention to excessive
journal rates throughout the journal industry. Most cost less
than Nucleart Physics A, but some, including sister journal
Nuclear Physics B, also published by Elsevier Science,
is $11,267. Riley said prices are so high that Florida State has
dropped titles to stay within a $3 million journal budget.
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University
press leader: Web isn't free
WASHINGTON,
June 28, 1999
-- The executive director of the American Association of University
Presses said that dotcom publishing isn't the cost-free alternative
to ink and paper that was originally thought. Significant outlays
must be made for software, training, hardware and other necessities,
Peter Givler wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
He sees books being around a while. "The conventions that govern
books are stable and well understood, and books and journals are
easy to use and to archive," he said. Books do well at some thing's,
on-line materials at others, Givler said.
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AAUP: Faculty
should control on-line content
WASHINGTON,
June 28, 1999
-- The American Association of University Professors adopted a
policy statement that faculty should have academic control of
distance-learning to assure their quality. This includes even
deciding whether to do it. The AAUP statement, adopted at the
association's annual convention, also said individual faculty
should determine if their materials are used again. The creators
of these materials should also control when they're withdrawn,
the statement said.
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Advantage
Learning gets California nod
WISCONSIN
RAPIDS, Wisconsin, June 29, 1999
-- Advanced Learning Systems announced that three K-12 reading
and writing software programs made the California state adoption
list: Accelerated Reader, STAR Reading and Perfect Copy.
Academic Learning already has 43,000 school customers nationwide.
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Heritage
College turns to varsity.com for text sales
TOPPENISH,
Washington, June 29, 1999
-- The 1,000 students at Heritage College won't be tromping to
the campus store for textbooks anymore. They will buy on-line
from varsity.com, an on-line textbook distributor. The college
and varsity.com entered an arrangement that avoids the middle-man
hassles for the college to run a bookstore -- and the college
gets 6 to 8 percent commission on the on-line sales. Will the
college keep its store open? Yes, mugs and t-shirts will still
be available. An assistant vice president, Mike Sloan, said the
deal saves administrative time dealing with a couple dozen publishers
for 10,000 or so textbook orders in a typical year.
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Tribune
Education buys Academic Software
SAN ANTONIO,
Texas, June 30, 1999
-- Privately held Academic Software, which specializes in campus
intranets, was purchased by Tribune Education. Academic Software,
of San Antonio, will become part of the new Tribune Interactive
unit. Terms were not announced.
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Elsevier:
Journals priced competitively
NEW YORK,
June 30, 1999
-- Journal publisher Elsevier Science sees its products priced
for the marketplace. John Tagler, a company spokesperson, said
Elsevier journals are in line with competitors. His comments followed
the publicized resignation of a volunteer editor of Nuclear Physics
A to protest subscription rates. To libraries, the journal is
$7,234 a year.
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