Industry News Round-Up Week of 7/22/24

Stay updated on the latest news, advancements, and changes that are shaping the textbook and academic authoring industry with our weekly Industry News Roundup. Have an item to share? Email Sierra.Pawlak@TAAonline.net.

Should Google do more to prevent textbook piracy? (July 23, 2024)

Academic authors ‘shocked’ after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI (July 19, 2024)

Making Academic Writing More Engaging (July 11, 2024)

Textbook authors told climate change references must be cut to get Florida’s OK (July 5, 2024)

2024 TAA Textbook Award Winners Share Insight, Inspiration

Fifty-six textbooks were awarded 2024 Textbook Awards by TAA, representing more than 100 authors. We recently reached out to these award-winning authors asking several questions, including how they fit writing time into their schedule, what pedagogical elements in their textbook they are most proud of, and what they wish they had known before they started writing their textbook. We hope their answers provide insight and inspiration for your writing projects.

12 Articles on Writing Your Dissertation: A Curated Collection From Noelle Sterne, PhD

Dissertation coach Noelle Sterne, the author of Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles, has contributed more than 30 articles to the TAA Blog over the past 10 years. We’ve curated all of these articles into a new TAA Blog category, Noelle Sterne’s Dissertation Posts, and have included 12 of them here. Enjoy!

Cengage Seeking New Textbook Authors

Cengage, the leading provider of higher education materials, is currently seeking new textbook authors across all disciplines to join its creative team.

“While we’re eager to collaborate on full-length narratives, we’re equally interested in working with writers on smaller, focused projects as well,” said Erika Longstreth, Cengage’s Author Relations Manager. “If you’re a writer looking to contribute your unique viewpoint, whether through a comprehensive narrative or more targeted endeavor, we’d love to hear from you.”

New Sample by Jamie Pope, ‘Anatomy of An Author’s Email or Letter to Adopting Faculty or Committee’

TAA members can download this new sample from TAA’s Templates & Samples Resource Library, “Anatomy of An Author’s Email or Letter to Adopting Faculty or Committee,” developed by Jamie Pope, co-author of Nutrition for a Changing World. It walks authors through the essential elements of what to include in the letter to potential adopting faculty or a committee, with concrete examples based on what she does when she is reaching out to these groups for her own book.

Access to TAA’s Templates & Samples Resource Library is included with TAA membership. Not a member? Join TAA for only $30.

TAA Members Prefer the Annual Conference Be Held in June

In a recent survey of TAA members about what month works best for them for the association’s annual conference, 61 percent said June. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said May and only 10 percent said April. TAA’s conferences have been held in the first or third month in June since the first one, held in Las Vegas in 1988. The one-question poll was sent to 2,300 TAA members and 109 responded. As a result, the TAA annual conference will continue to be held in June each year at this time, said TAA Executive Director Kim Pawlak.