Forty-seven textbooks have been awarded 2026 Textbook Awards by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Awards Committee. Twelve textbooks received William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Awards, 11 textbooks received Most Promising New Textbook Awards, and 24 textbooks received Textbook Excellence Awards.
Your Author Bio: Time to Shine
By John Bond
If you’re an academic venturing into the world of publishing, your author bio is a small but important tool. It travels with your work, shapes how readers see you, and often determines whether media, conference organizers, or potential collaborators take a second look. But too many scholars undersell themselves here. Let me be blunt: humility has no place in your author bio. This is not your departmental webpage. It’s your moment to shine.
Industry News Round-Up Week of 3/09/2026
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.
Education Dept. Layoffs Leave Scars Behind the Scenes (March 11, 2026)
Arizona Bill to Ban Diversity Statements and Training Advances (March 9, 2026)
Inside Texas A&M’s Scramble to Censor Its Curriculum (February 27, 2026)
Writers Are Being Targeted by Scams. This Reporter Knows the Feeling (February 25, 2026)
3/24 TAA Webinar – Taxes & Authors: What You Should Know in 2026
Join Robert M. Pesce, a Managing Director with CBIZ, on Tuesday, March 24 from 1 – 2 pm ET, for the TAA webinar, “Taxes & Authors: What You Should Know in 2026”. He will share the basic tax information you should know as an author.
Bartz v. Anthropic Copyright Case: Guidance to Anthropic Settlement Process for Educational Authors
TAA has new guidance for educational authors whose works are involved in the Bartz v. Anthropic Settlement but who are not eligible for the 50/50 default split, or for non-educational authors who chose to opt out of the 50/50 default split. Attorney Brenda Ulrich, with Archstone Law Group, has been working with TAA on providing this guidance.
Authors and publishers who have each filed claims for a given work in which the claimed percentages do not match up with each other are required to “meet and confer” with the other claimants for that work to see if they can agree on how to split the payment for that work.
Dear Dr. Noelle: Vanquish That Self-Imposed Guilt
By Dr. Noelle Sterne
Q: What do you do if you missed a deadline you created for yourself? How do you get through the feelings of guilt and set another deadline in a way that you can hold yourself to it?
— M. Culpa
A: I empathize with you! It’s hard to miss your self-imposed deadline. As a fellow deadline-misser, I’ve arrived at several methods that make myself easier to live with.
1. Face it.
What did you decide to do instead? Maybe play time was irresistible when your kid begged you to build a Lego city together. Maybe you didn’t need to see the last 90-minute episode of “Greatest Scholarly Acknowledgments.” Whatever choice you made, face it. You made it.