Industry News Round-Up Week of 9/2/24

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


The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case (September 4, 2024)

Artists and Creatives are Working with AI Companies, but Should They? (September 2, 2024)

Publishers sue Florida over book ban law, saying it creates “a regime of strict censorship” in schools (August 30, 2024)

Share Your Book Contracts, Royalty Statements for Complimentary Review

TAA member Joseph Rust, CPA, CFP, an accountant with Prager Metis CPAs, is seeking authors interested in sharing their book contracts and royalty statements for a complimentary review. Rust would also like to know what authors’ concerns and questions are when it comes to their contracts and royalties statements. He plans to take the information he learns to provide resources, including a glossary of royalty statement terms, to TAA members in the coming months.

Please reach out to him directly at jrust@pragermetis.com. His full contact information can also be found in TAA’s Professional Directory.

Routledge Sells Out Authors to AI

by Janet Salmons, PhD

An unassuming post on LinkedIn asked “Have you ever published with Taylor & Francis, Routledge, CRC Press, F1000 or Dove Medical Press? If so the rights for AI to harvest your work have been sold to Microsoft which it will use to power MS Co-Pilot.”

Really. Funny thing, I never heard a peep about this from Routledge, even though I have three books published with them. I wrote to ask what the heck is going on, and received this response from a Taylor & Francis/Routledge Editor:

TAA Creates Policy on Creating Position Statements

The TAA Board approved a new policy on how the association develops position statements relevant to textbook and/or academic authors with the goal of addressing critical issues that affect its members.

The policy states that “Position statements must be aligned with the association’s mission to support textbook and academic authors in the creation of top-quality educational and scholarly works that stimulate the love of learning and foster the pursuit of knowledge.”

Busy TAA People: Andrea Honigsfeld, Audrey Cohan, Author New Book

Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld​, a Professor of TESOL Teacher Education​, and Dr. Audrey Cohan, Senior Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Studies, both of Molloy University, co-authored a new book, Collaboration for Multilingual Learners With Exceptionalities​: We Share the Students​, published by Corwin, a Sage company.​ The book includes models, strategies, and real-life stories to strengthen ​readers’ collaborative practices.​ The authors won the Most Promising New Textbook award from TAA in 2016 for their book, Serving English Language Learners. Congratulations, Andrea and Audrey!

Princeton University Press Offering Grants to Historically Excluded and Underrepresented Scholars

Princeton University Press is offering grants for authors who represent groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields who are interested in developing a nonfiction book proposal. Applications are open August 12 to October 11, with selected candidates notified in December. Coaches participating in the grant program include TAA member Michelle Boyd, PhD, Inkwell Writing Retreats; and Margy Thomas, PhD, ScholarShape.

Selected grantees will be paired with a writing coach to collaborate on the development of a proposal for general interest books, scholarly monographs, or textbooks in physics and astronomy, earth science, biology, natural history, neuroscience, computer science, and the mathematical sciences. The opportunity is open to first-time and previously published authors who are writing in English from anywhere in the world.