James Morrison Awarded TAA Publication Grant

TAA member James V. Morrison, the Stodghill Professor Classics at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, has been awarded a Publication Grant from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association to cover image permission costs for his forthcoming academic book, Comedy in Literature and Popular Culture from Aristophanes to Saturday Night Live. The book will be published by Routledge in 2025.

“I was delighted to learn that I have received a $1,000 Publication Grant from TAA,” he said. “It is very generous of TAA to support this work of comparative literature and performance: the images are especially valuable for sections in the book discussing parody, satire, and caricature.”

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AI, Uber-Textbooks, and Knowing Your Own Strengths

By Dave Harris

Is there is a danger that LLMs (or other AI) will create an “uber-textbook” using the work of individual authors, basically stealing the best of all the individual work of scholars for profit, while paying the authors nothing? This question came up in the November 6, 2024 TAA Conversation Circle on royalties, and I wanted to touch on it again, after writing a related piece this past spring.

The previous piece argued (1) that current AI is too limited to do good intellectual work, and, (2) regardless of the capability of AI, that it’s important to take one’s own interests, desires, and personal experience into account because writing and research are personally uplifting positive experiences worth having, even if you’re not necessarily selling your work.

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2025 TAA Conference Bookstore Featured Book: ‘Government Contracting: Ethical Promises and Perils in Public Procurement’

This third edition of Government Contracting: Ethical Promises and Perils in Public Procurement by William Sims Curry incorporates research-based best practices, real-world procurement fraud cases, and offers recommendations for deterring fraud. This textbook is aimed at public administration, policy and procurement, along with public procurement postgraduate students and academics working in the fields of public administration, policy and procurement.

Purchase in the 2025 TAA Conference Bookstore

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Day One: Book Proposal

By John Bond 

Writers take different journeys getting to a published book. Some write their manuscript, and then write a book proposal. Some may work on both simultaneously. Some may never write a book proposal. And I am sure there are other permutations. I think a case can be made for writing a full, final book proposal before you ever write a single word of your manuscript. Hear me out.

Book proposals (the way I suggest people create them) include Project Overview and Summary, Extended Table of Contents, Project Specifications and Status, Book Market, Competitive or Complimentary Books, Author Bio, and Author Promotional Platform. Contact me for what each of these mean if you are unsure.

Writing a book proposal as a first step does not mean anything is set in stone. The table of contents, the title, the competitive books: all of it can change if needed. So, why create this before writing?

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Industry News Round-Up Week of 11/11/24

Stay updated on the latest news, advancements, and changes that are shaping the textbook and academic authoring industry with our bi-weekly Industry News Round-Up. Have an item to share? Email Sierra.Pawlak@TAAonline.net.

Scholarly Publishing World Slow to Embrace Generative AI (11/14/24)

Kindness in Academic Workplaces Can Boost Well-Being and Reduce Stress, Study Shows (11/13/24)

Flynn vs McGraw Hill LLC: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (11/6/24)

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