Receiving a textbook award from TAA is not only a great honor, it can also be used to increase book sales and advance your writing career.

Judy Rasminsky, coauthor of Challenging Behavior in Young Children and Challenging Behavior in Elementary and Middle School, both of which have received TAA Textbook Excellence (Texty) Awards, said she and her coauthor Barbara Kaiser have leveraged the award in several ways, including:

• Posting the Texty logo in several places on their challenging behavior websites.
• Sending a press release announcing the award to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The NAEYC included information about the award in its catalog, newsletter, and journal, and also purchased Texty seals to put on the books they sell.
• Asking their editors to notify sales reps about the award.

Chuck Corbin, whose physical fitness textbooks have won both TAA Textbook Excellence Awards and a McGuffey Longevity Award, added the awards to his curriculum vitae. He also included the award in his website bio and plans to mention it in the prefaces of future editions of each book. Corbin also notified his university and local newspapers in order to publicize the award to students, faculty, and the community.

Both Rasminsky and Corbin also recommend including information about the award on conference presentation slides and handouts.

Eric Schulz, coauthor of Calculus, which won a 2011 TAA Textbook Excellence Award, encouraged his publisher to promote the award as much as possible. Pearson posted an announcement about the award on Facebook and included information about it in their literature. Schulz also let Wolfram, the technology company that makes the unique software used to create the e-book version of Calculus, know about the award. Wolfram published a press release on their blog. Like Corbin, Schulz also worked with his university to spread the word to his local academic community.