Four TAA members have been elected to the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Dr. Dione Taylor has been elected Vice President/President-Elect and Brenda Ulrich has been elected to a third term as Secretary. Rick Mullins has been elected to a second term as Council Member, and Nicole Dillard has been elected to her first term as Council Member. Since there were no nominations for TAA Council Treasurer, current Treasurer Juli Saitz was appointed by the TAA Council to a two-year term.
Laying the foundation for an academic textbook: Testing for audience
It’s one thing to write a textbook; it is another matter entirely to get a critical mass of people to buy. For someone socialized as an academic, the audience for a textbook is a far less specialized one than one is accustomed to addressing. The format has to be perceived as accessible; the audience has to find it welcoming.
A website about trade books provides analytics enough to give a would-be author pause. According to Bookscan, of the 3.2 million books tracked in 2021, fewer than 1percent sold more than 5,000 copies. While I confess to find myself turning to book writing for the sheer love of the spaciousness it affords to expand on ideas, it’s hardly a wise investment of all-too limited time to a write a book that only a few will ever buy.