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AI, Uber-Textbooks, and Knowing Your Own Strengths
By Dave Harris
Is there is a danger that LLMs (or other AI) will create an “uber-textbook” using the work of individual authors, basically stealing the best of all the individual work of scholars for profit, while paying the authors nothing? This question came up in the November 6, 2024 TAA Conversation Circle on royalties, and I wanted to touch on it again, after writing a related piece this past spring.
The previous piece argued (1) that current AI is too limited to do good intellectual work, and, (2) regardless of the capability of AI, that it’s important to take one’s own interests, desires, and personal experience into account because writing and research are personally uplifting positive experiences worth having, even if you’re not necessarily selling your work.
2025 TAA Conference Bookstore Featured Book: ‘Government Contracting: Ethical Promises and Perils in Public Procurement’
This third edition of Government Contracting: Ethical Promises and Perils in Public Procurement by William Sims Curry incorporates research-based best practices, real-world procurement fraud cases, and offers recommendations for deterring fraud. This textbook is aimed at public administration, policy and procurement, along with public procurement postgraduate students and academics working in the fields of public administration, policy and procurement.
Day One: Book Proposal
By John Bond
Writers take different journeys getting to a published book. Some write their manuscript, and then write a book proposal. Some may work on both simultaneously. Some may never write a book proposal. And I am sure there are other permutations. I think a case can be made for writing a full, final book proposal before you ever write a single word of your manuscript. Hear me out.
Book proposals (the way I suggest people create them) include Project Overview and Summary, Extended Table of Contents, Project Specifications and Status, Book Market, Competitive or Complimentary Books, Author Bio, and Author Promotional Platform. Contact me for what each of these mean if you are unsure.
Writing a book proposal as a first step does not mean anything is set in stone. The table of contents, the title, the competitive books: all of it can change if needed. So, why create this before writing?
Industry News Round-Up Week of 11/11/24
Stay updated on the latest news, advancements, and changes that are shaping the textbook and academic authoring industry with our bi-weekly Industry News Round-Up. Have an item to share? Email Sierra.Pawlak@TAAonline.net.
Scholarly Publishing World Slow to Embrace Generative AI (11/14/24)
Kindness in Academic Workplaces Can Boost Well-Being and Reduce Stress, Study Shows (11/13/24)
Flynn vs McGraw Hill LLC: United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (11/6/24)
Dear Dr. Noelle: Reciprocal Relationships of Advisors With Students
By Dr. Noelle Sterne
Q: How much about yourself should you divulge to create a reciprocal relationship?
–Approachable Advisor
A: The benchmark is boundaries. For your poor suffering student, you want to be approachable, supportive, encouraging, and all the other wonderful adjectives of a sterling advisor. BUT—you don’t want to be over-open or fall into a sinkhole of too much sharing.
What’s appropriate for you to share:
How you struggled in graduate school, the nightmare of your defense.
What’s not appropriate for you to share:
Your latest root canal agony, your septic system failure.
!–more–>