What a TAA grant can do for you
TAA offers two forms of grants – publication grants and contract review grants – to assist members and non-members with some of the expenses related to publishing their academic works and textbooks.
As the April 30th grant application deadline approaches, we asked several 2017 publication grant recipients for feedback on how a TAA grant has helped them.
For more information on the TAA grants program or to apply for a publication or contract review grant, please visit https://taaa.memberclicks.net/grants.
Nikolai Wenzel
“In 2017, my first book appeared. I didn’t expect it to be a terribly lucrative deal — it was my first, and I was just excited to have a manuscript accepted (especially by a high-quality university press!). A few months before the book came out, one final thing came up: a pretty hefty bill for the index. I was on research leave in between jobs, and not sure how I would cover this expense. Fortunately, I found out about the Textbook and Academic Authors Association, and its grant program. I am grateful to TAA for providing a grant to support the final step towards publication.”
Anna Russakoff
“When I signed the book contract for my first monograph, I was really surprised that my publisher — a university press — required such a large subvention. On top of that, since I am an art historian, I also needed to spend a substantial amount of money ordering high-resolution images and covering copyright fees. I was absolutely thrilled that I found out about, applied for, and received the TAA publication grant. It gave a boost financially, as well as a boost in confidence.”
Alia Sheety
“The small grant supported language editing to a chapter that was published in December, 2017. We had good reviews with regard to the content of the study and the research process but were asked to make sure to use a professional editor to help with the language. The study was based on three case studies in three different countries in which two of them used Arabic, Hebrew, and Georgian to conduct interviews (depend on the interviewee language).
As in qualitative studies we translated parts of the interviews to provide direct citations to support our findings and discussion. The English used needed editing. It also helped unifying the three voices, as each of use wrote in English as a third language.
The grant made it possible to provide a better quality of writing since we were able to use it to supplement payment for a professional editor.”
Sun-Young Park
“I applied for a TAA publication grant to use towards my first book, Ideals of the Body: Architecture, Urbanism, and Hygiene in Postrevolutionary Paris(University of Pittsburgh Press, forthcoming). As a work of architectural and urban history, this book has a substantial and expensive illustration program of 120 images — comprising 19th-century prints and paintings, architectural drawings, and original and historical maps, many of which required reproduction and licensing payments that I would not have been able to afford on my own. The TAA grant was an integral funding component for a publication that will be a key part of my tenure review.”
Richard King
“We all know that no one is making any money in book publishing. We do it because we care about books, about voices, about patient teaching, celebrating, and exploring. Getting this TAA grant allowed my co-editor David Anderson (U. of Louisville) and I to buy the rights to special works of writing that we might not have been able to afford for our upcoming anthology of African American literature of the sea, which has the working title I Will Take to the Water. This is part of the University Press of New England’s Seafaring America series. David and I are proud and excited to be working on this project, to expand the record of our cultural relationship with our oceans. TAA has given us such a nice boost to enable the book to be all that much more expansive, while also including bigger name authors that are representative and will lure the reader in. Thank you so much, TAA!”
Barbara Weinlich
“In times when institutional funds for publications in the Humanities are more restricted, a TAA grant does wonders — especially for the careers of junior faculty.”
Federico Rossi
“The TAA grant was vital for defraying some of the cost of publishing my PhD dissertation as a book in a very prestigious press. As my university does not offer this kind of vital support, I know that I can count on TAA for achieving my academic goals. Thanks!”
Eric Schmieder is the Membership Marketing Manager for TAA. He has taught computer technology concepts to curriculum, continuing education, and corporate training students since 2001. A lifelong learner, teacher, and textbook author, Eric seeks to use technology in ways that improve results in his daily processes and in the lives of those he serves. His latest textbook, Web, Database, and Programming: A foundational approach to data-driven application development using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, MySQL, and PHP, First Edition, is available now through Sentia Publishing.
