This week’s collection of articles from around the web contains a lot of advice for academic authors including key writing skills, tips for communicating with your dissertation chair, coping strategies, and books on writing productivity. It also contains information on changes in research and edtech, including Google’s “Talk to Books”, a study on uncited research, necessary support and incentives for sharing data, and a scam involving forged acceptance letters from journals. Finally, we have an article on a technology platform for textbook authors designed to keep textbooks current.
According to Khaled Talib, “Writing is the light of imagination playing over shadow of thoughts.” This week let your imagination drive your research and creativity to enhance your writing. [Read more…]
We recently reached out to 
TAA member Noelle Sterne is an Independent Academic Editor, Author, Consultant, and Writing and Creativity Coach. She is an industry professional with experience in the English, Education, Nursing, Faculty Development, and Social Sciences writing disciplines.
TAA member Kathleen P. King is a Professor at the University of Central Florida, CEO of Transformation Education LLC, and both a textbook and academic author in the education, faculty development, and adult learning writing disciplines.
This week we begin with tips for academic book authors, insight into publishing an open access book, discussions on indexes, and the humbling experience of reviewing a copyeditor’s work on your manuscript. We then found insight into developing the narrative of a tenure dossier, social media concerns for academics and writers, issues of authorship abuse, the impact of article recommendation features, and the value of a master’s degree in Publishing. Finally, there were several industry news articles of note including a student’s perspective on Cengage’s efforts to promote Cengage Unlimited to professors, a win for publishers in a textbook counterfeiting suit, a new collaboration between VitalSource and McGraw-Hill, and changes in Top Hat’s OER Marketplace.
Have you heard the saying “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression”? For most research articles, the abstract is the first – and possibly the last – impression an author has on a potential reader. If ineffective, the researcher will move on to the next abstract in the search results. If effective, your article will be read further, and potentially cited in the new research.
TAA offers two forms of grants – publication grants and contract review grants – to assist members and non-members with some of the expenses related to publishing their academic works and textbooks.
Gerald Olson once said, “Of course, I tried to surround myself with other people like me whose dream of writing was a constant burden….” Our collection of articles this week identify and address some of the burdens associated with academic and textbook writing as well as some opportunities to surround yourself with other authors facing the same.
TAA member John Bond is a Publishing Consultant with 
TAA member Michael Greer is a Lecturer at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Editor for Research in Online Literacy Education, and both a textbook and academic author in the English writing discipline.
