Register for 9/15 TAA Webinar: ‘How to Leverage a Textbook or Academic Book to Launch a Consulting Career’

Leveraging a textbook or academic book can be a powerful tool in launching a consulting career. Join us Friday, September 15 from 4-5 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “How to Leverage a Textbook or Academic Book to Launch a Consulting Career”. Presenter William Curry, author of three public procurement textbooks, including Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies: Best Practices for Public Procurement (winner of a 2017 Textbook Excellence Award), and founder of a consulting firm that specializes in consulting for state, local, and education entities that wish to implement best practices for public procurement, will share how you can use a textbook or academic book to position yourself as an expert in your field and attract potential clients.

Michael Sullivan Donates $100,000 to Fund Lecture Series, Matching Gift Challenge

A generous gift from mathematics textbook author and long-time member Michael Sullivan will fund an annual lecture at the TAA annual conference and a 1:1 matching gift challenge to encourage additional gifts to support the association.
His $100,000 donation is the largest gift TAA has ever received. Michael is a past-president of the TAA Council, served several terms as TAA Council Treasurer, and has been a long-time member.

“Michael’s gift will allow TAA to provide a top-notch lecturer with expertise on the textbook or academic authoring and publishing industry to further our mission of supporting textbook and academic authors in their authoring pursuits,” said TAA Executive Director Kim Pawlak.

One-half of the gift, $50,000, will be used to fund the Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring, honoring the life and work of Michael Sullivan, who has authored or co-authored more than 120 mathematics textbooks, many of which have been published in multiple editions.

Don’t Kill Your Chance with a Publisher By Making This Mistake

Gregory J. Privitera, PhD, Professor of Psychology at St. Bonaventure University and author of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (3e), Essential Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (2e), and Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences (3e), said that in his experience, one big way to kill/challenge a chance with a publisher is to come to them with a fully written book: “At least in the textbook publishing space, editors want room for the development of a project. So, they prefer a few sample chapters and a proposal, over a fully written book–with some exceptions, such as if that book was published already, but the author is ‘shopping’ for a new publisher to print the book.”

Registration is Now Open for the 2024 TAA Conference in Nashville: Let’s Meet Up!

TAA is excited to announce that the 2024 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference will be back in-person and we’ll be in Nashville!

Join us in Music City for lots of “author talk” – music to our ears!

Learn how to turn up the volume on your textbook or academic writing at this annual conference that features General, Textbook and Academic Tracks, mentoring by veteran authors and industry professionals, and lots of networking opportunities!

We can’t wait to see ya’ll there!

Register early to take advantage of discounted rates and book your hotel room before we sell out.

I’m in!

We promise a program rich in content, focused on emerging trends, changes in the publishing world, and connecting with other authors.

The Psychology Behind Writing: Tap into Your Natural Personality to Assist Your Academic Writing Process (Part 1)

Hello fellow TAA members, lovely to meet you and thank you for reading this inaugural post of “The Psychology Behind Writing.” Over the next 12 monthly offerings, we’ll get into some of the psychological processes that support our academic writing as well as the ones that derail our writing. And, we will definitely explore strategies for amplifying the positive and mitigating the negative. 

Active Writers vs. Reflective Writers

Let’s start this series by looking at our natural personality preferences and how these influence writing processes as well as the preferred approach of our chosen discipline. We’ll use the tried-and-true Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as our personality framework and starting point.

Submit a Proposal for the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association Conference Committee invites proposals for its 2024 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Nashville, June 21-22, “Author Talk. Music to Our Ears.”

Presenting at TAA’s 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring provides an opportunity to share your knowledge, experiences, and ideas with other textbook authors, academic authors, and industry professionals.

The goals of this year’s program:

  • Explore and exchange ideas on the future of the textbook and academic authoring and publishing industry, especially emerging trends like AI.
  • Share successful writing tips and strategies and inspire you to complete your writing projects.
  • Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic and educational materials.
  • Sessions will take place in three different tracks: General, Textbook, and Academic. Preference will be given to sessions that incorporate innovative and interactive elements.

We welcome proposals from first-time and veteran presenters! The deadline for submitting a proposal is October 15, 2023 (Look for Call for Proposals link at top of site).