Publishing attorneys Zick Rubin and Brenda Ulrich, and publishing industry expert Sean Wakely, will present “The Life Cycle of a Textbook: Psychological and Legal Challenges,” at TAA’s 30th Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, June 9-10, 2017. The panel will discuss the psychological and legal issues that should be addressed at different states of a textbook’s life cycle, and what pitfalls should be avoided. 

As an author of psychology textbooks, Zick Rubin has personal experience with the life cycle of textbooks, including issues of succession among co-authors. As a publishing lawyer, he has worked with many authors on the legal issues related to these transitions. Before becoming a lawyer, Zick was a professor of psychology at Harvard and Brandeis Universities. He is a partner in the law firm of Rubin & Ulrich, LLC, which specializes in publishing, copyright, trademark, and higher education law.

Brenda Ulrich is an intellectual property attorney who focuses on publishing and higher education. Brenda represents authors negotiating publishing agreements, agency agreements, and joint author agreements and helps authors to resolve publishing disputes. She also advises colleges and universities on the development and implementation of intellectual property policies and on navigating the thorny copyright questions related to classroom and online teaching in the 21st century. She is a partner in the law firm of Rubin & Ulrich, LLC.

Sean Wakely is Vice President of Product and Editorial at Flat World. Sean possesses extensive higher education publishing experience gained by working at Cengage Learning, Thomson Learning, Pearson Education, and Houghton Mifflin’s college division. He’s held positions as a sales representative, college acquisitions editor, professional books editor, editorial manager, and was a senior executive for Cengage Learning’s global product planning team and National Geographic Learning group. He is also coauthor of Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide.

TAA has an outstanding program planned for its June conference, with the speaker panel including veteran authors, authoring attorneys, and publishing industry experts presenting more than 30 sessions focusing on writing strategies and productivity, copyright and royalty issues, eBook and technology trends, branding, open access and other exciting and challenging trends in academic publishing. For the full list of session descriptions and presenter bios please see the program listing.