Special
Convention Update
February
21, 2005
Return
to Current Convention News
Preparing
for the Next Edition
Karen Morris, a
professor of law at Monroe Community College and co-author of Hotel,
Restaurant, and Travel Law, now in its sixth edition, will lead a panel
presentation on preparing for the next edition at the 2005 TAA convention
in Las Vegas. "Publishing a successful textbook is only the beginning,"
says Morris. "Writing subsequent editions is, like the first, an expansive
task. Preparatory work undertaken in the years between the completion
of the current edition and writing the next can significantly lighten
the load." The panel of multiple edition authors will offer advice and
tips on how to use the interim period to facilitate the process of producing
the next edition.
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Text
Development, Licensing, Copyright Issues
Three textbook publishing
experts from the Copyright Clearance Center will present a panel discussion
on text development, licensing and related copyright issues at the 2005
TAA convention in Las Vegas. The panelists include: Ted Buchholz, a
senior CCC executive and former CEO of Harcourt; Diane Feldman, an author's
editor who works exclusively with academic authors on manuscript development
and editing; Dru Zuretti, a long-time CCC staffer who conducts copyright
awareness courses on campuses across the U.S.; and a representative
of a leading online courseware company. The presentation will be based
on CCC's popular Beyond the Book conferences for authors on the business
of writing and publishing.
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TAA Convention
Registration Forms Now Available Online
Click here
to download convention and workshop registration PDF forms.
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Step Five to
Becoming a Prolific Scholar
Tara Gray, who will
present her popular writing workshop, "Publish and Flourish: Become
a Prolific Scholar" as a 10-hour pre-conference workshop at the TAA
convention in Las Vegas in June, shares the fourth step in becoming
a more prolific scholar (Gray will be sharing a step in each News Alert
leading up to the convention): Post your thesis on the wall and write
to it.
"When you sit down
to write, take a stab at describing what you're going to write about.
Start with something simple, your topic, just a word or a phrase even.
Then develop it into a sentence. Don't try to write the perfect sentence.
Just jot down something quickly. Know that this is a working thesis.
You can (and should) change it at any time. Ideally, you want a sentence
that is short and memorable and tells your reader what is at stake or
what problem you are trying to solve. Remember, you're not trying to
prove the point -- you have the rest of the paper to do that -- you
are just asserting it. Post your thesis on the wall and write to it.
Never, ever lose sight of it. Work back and forth between your thesis
and the rest of your paper -- revising first one and then the other.
Think of this as the purpose step: you are checking to see if everything
in your paper aligns with your purpose. Imagine your paper were a team
of horses and a cart and you were the driver. The cart would be the
purpose and each horse could represent a section of your paper. Each
leg of each horse could represent a paragraph. It is terribly important
that all the horses (and all the sections and all the paragraphs) are
pulling together in the direction that the cart is supposed to go. If
one horse or another is going off in another direction, it's time to
pull the whole cart over to the side of the road and have a chat with
the horse."
To register for
Gray's pre-convention workshop, click to download a registration form
here.
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TAA Seeks PI
for Potential Grant
The TAA Foundation
is seeking a TAA member to become the principal investigator (PI) for
a potential grant to study state adoption policies and practices for
textbooks. Financial incentives for the PI will be written into the
grant and the individual will work with a grant writer contracted to
the Foundation, thereby easing the grant preparation process. For more
information or to express interest, contact Michael Lennie at 619-515-5456
or mlennie@aol.com
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Help Us Market
the TAA Convention
We would appreciate
any help you can give us on getting the word out about the convention
to possible attendees (especially if you reside in Nevada). Does your
College have an internal bulletin board or listserv of some type, where
you could post information about the convention (contact your public
affairs or university relations department to find out)? Here is the
copy that you could post:
The Text and Academic
Authors Association (http://www.taaonline.net) is a national organization
committed to the advancement of textbook and academic authoring and
to the creation of quality educational materials at every level. To
these ends, TAA provides assistance to both the published author and
the potentially published author. TAA holds annual conventions for text
and academic authors that feature presentations on various topics including
electronic publishing, ethical issues for authors, contracts and licenses,
website development, marketing your work, repackaging/product development,
managing your royalties, textbook selection process, mergers and acquisitions,
textbook pricing controversy and more!
This year's TAA
convention will be held in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace Hotel, Friday,
June 24 and Saturday, June 25. To register, contact TAA at (727) 563-0020
or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com Room
rates for TAA convention attendees are $85 per night until May 20.
This year's TAA
convention will be held in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace Hotel, Friday,
June 24 and Saturday, June 25. Room rates for TAA convention attendees
are $85 per night until May 20. Convention registration for members
is $75 before May 1; $125 after; nonmember registration (which includes
a one-year membership to TAA) is $125 before May 1, $175 after. An optional
awards banquet dinner will be held Friday night. Cost is $45. To register,
contact TAA at (727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com
or download a registration form here.
Non-members: register
before April 1 to receive the Special Convention issue of "The Academic
Author", TAA's quarterly member newsletter. Special Convention e-mail
News Alerts are also being sent to members bi-monthly to keep them up-to-date
about convention planning.
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Advertise in
the Special April Convention Issue
Full page ads in
the print newsletter are $350, half page ads are $275, quarter page
ads are $200 and 1/8 page ads are $150. A business card sized ad is
$45. Special discounts apply for those who advertise in four or more
issues. If you would like to place an ad in the Special April Convention
issue of The Academic Author, or on the TAA website, please contact
TAA's interim advertising manager, Kim Pawlak, at kmpawlak@centurytel.net
or (608) 687-3106. More information about advertising in the print newsletter
or online can be found here.
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Register Now
to Attend TAA Convention in Las Vegas!
TAA is returning
to Las Vegas this year to hold its annual convention. Attending this
year's convention is no gamble, however; new authors will find solid
ideas for getting started in textbook or academic authoring and veterans
will find challenging sessions too! Register for the 2005 TAA convention,
to be held at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, Friday, June 24
and Saturday, June 25. To register, contact TAA at (727) 563-0020 or
TEXT@tampabay.rr.com. Download
a registration form here.
Room rates for TAA convention attendees are $85 per night until May
20.
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