Busy TAA People: Beverly Stein Signs Contract for Music Textbook

TAA member Dr. Beverly Stein, a professor in the Department of Music at California State University, Los Angeles, signed a contract with Rowman & Littlefield in May 2023 for a textbook entitled, Unlocking Meaning in Art Song: A Singer’s Guide to Practical Analysis Using Schubert’s Songs, to be published in June 2024 in time to present to the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) conference.

“Rowman & Littlefield has a new imprint that is combined with NATS, so it’s perfect for my book, which teaches singers how to analyze their songs, using Schubert’s lieder as examples,” says Stein. “I so appreciated TAA for helping me to learn about contracts, when I was considering their offer.”
Congratulations Beverly!

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TAA Member Phil Wankat: Textbook Ethics From the ‘TAA Report’

The fourth installment of TAA Member Phil Wankat’s curation and commentary of the archival issues of the TAA Report (now The Academic Author), Ethics, is now available.

Wankat selected articles that have information that is still valid today, and included commentary on each. We will be adding these articles to the web page, “Articles from TAA Report Archives (now The Academic Author) with Commentary,” over the next few months. The articles are organized into 10 categories, including Authors Needed, Cartoons, Contracts, Ethics, Money, Production, Recognition and Rewards, Software, Textbooks as Scholarship, and Writer’s Block. 

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TAA Members Weigh In On the Value of Association Benefits

To help guide planning for the association’s future, TAA recently surveyed members about their primary reasons for joining, what their most valuable member benefits are, and what benefits they think the association should begin offering. Of the 1,953 members surveyed (representing those who have agreed to receive emails), 77 responded.

Thirty-one percent of respondents said that their primary reason for joining TAA was to receive member benefits and services, and 30% said it was ”to network with other textbook and/or academic authors.” Seventeen percent of respondents said they joined for another reason.

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Jean Murphy Receives $1,000 TAA Publication Grant

TAA member Jean Murphy has been awarded a $1,000 Publication Grant from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association to cover manuscript editing costs for her academic book, A View From The Balcony: Opera Through Womanist Eyes Praxis for Developing a Balcony Hermeneutic of Restorative Resistance, which will be published by Cascade in early 2024.

“Being a member of TAA gave me access to resources and authors who gave pointers, encouragement, and the incentive to bring this book to completion,” said Murphy. “This grant validates all the time and effort spent to bring it to fruition and certainly assists with the cost of being an author. Please extend my thanks to the selection committee.”

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10/19 TAA Webinar: Blunders, Bad Ideas, and Bliss: My Experience Writing a Textbook

Are you contemplating writing a textbook? It can be a daunting process but there are many success stories and opportunities to learn from colleagues who have recently published their content.

Please join XanEdu Publishing and Erica Irlbeck, Ed.D, Professor of Agricultural Education and Communications at Texas Tech and author of The Crisis Communication Guide for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, on October 19 from 2-3 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “Blunders, Bad Ideas, and Bliss: My Experience Writing a Textbook.”

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TAA Members Say They Want More How-tos, Strategies, Tools

On October 3, 2023, TAA sent 2,115 members the first in a series of survey questions the association will use in preparation for a meeting of the TAA Council and staff in January 2024. The responses to these questions will be used to determine how the association can best serve members over the next year.

Of the 101 members who responded to the question, “As a TAA member, what do you want more of?,” more than half (55%) said they wanted more how-tos, strategies, and tools. Fifteen percent said they wanted more educational offerings, and 13% said they wanted information that will help them negotiate better contracts. Eight percent want advocacy on issues they care about, and 4% said they wanted opportunities to connect with other members.

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