We asked the 2026 TAA Textbook Award winners what they wish they’d known before embarking on their textbook-writing journey. Whether you’re an aspiring author or already deep in the process, their advice may help you avoid common challenges and learn a few lessons the easy way.

What did you learn in the process of writing a textbook that you wish you had known before you started?

A: John Hall, co-author of Guyton & Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology (15e) and winner of the McGuffery Longevity Award (co-authored with Michael Hall):

“Three important things that I learned early in writing the book were the following: 

1) Start early – it takes more time that one might imagine to sift through the rapidly expanding medical literature and incorporate the most important new principles;
2) keep in mind that we are writing mainly for students; and
3) the text length must be limited so that the book can be used effectively in physiology courses for students and health care professionals.”

A: Tom Leslie, co-author of Design-Tech: Building Science for Architects (3e) and winner of the Textbook Excellence Award (co-authored with Rob Whitehead and Jason Alread):

“[Our textbook] has now been through three completely new editions, so we’ve added or rewritten virtually every chapter in the latest version. What’s really become clear over the 20 years we’ve been working on it is how quickly technology changes, and how quickly the profession has evolved. Information about energy consumption and carbon footprints in the first edition seemed slightly radical (for 2005). Now, those are two of the most important considerations architects face when making design decisions.”

A: Menzie Chinn, co-author of International Economics, International Trade, International Finance (1e) and winner of the Textbook Excellence Award (co-authored with Douglas Irwin):

“One has to ensure that all the essential fundamentals — definitions, terms, concepts, and history — are addressed directly somewhere in the text, so that the reader can understand without having to refer to other sources, but do so without making the text too encyclopedic.”

A: Charles Desnoyers and Peter von Sivers, co-authors of Patterns of World History (5e) and winners of the Textbook Excellence Award:

“How to shape our prose so that it would be easily comprehensible to freshmen, without losing any scholarly depth. As friends we also learned quite a bit about collaboration in service of a common goal. Finally, as academics used to writing research books and articles, all three of us were pleasantly surprised—and at times challenged—by the high degree of rigor demanded by the reviewers and editors—as many as 16 reviewers per chapter in some cases—on content, pedagogical issues, adaptability to student needs and circumstances, and marketability.”