2018 Textbook award-winning insight (Part 1): Deciding to write and getting the interest of a publisher

We recently reached out to winners of the 2018 TAA Textbook Awards and asked them to answer some questions about how they made the decision to write their textbook, how they interested a publisher, what they do to boost their writing confidence, how they fit writing time into their schedule, and more. We will be sharing their answers in a series of posts over the next few weeks.

This first installment of the four-part series focuses on why they decided to write their textbook, and how they got the interest of a publisher.

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Member Spotlight: Noelle Sterne

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.

Her most recent publication is Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping With the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2015). She published two other books previously: a spiritual self-help book and a children’s book of original dinosaur riddles. She has also published over 400 essays, writing craft articles, short stories, poems in print and online publications and blogs. She contributes regularly to four publications: TAA’s blog, Abstract, Two Drops of Ink, Transformation Coaching, and FromAddict2Advocate.

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Member Spotlight: Kathleen P. King

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.

Her most recent publication, Technology and Innovation in Adult Learning published by Wiley/Jossey-Bass, is a 2018 Textbook Excellence Award (“Texty”) winner. She has published 32 books – 22 as author/co-author/editor and 10 as series editor.

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The most useful textbook & academic posts of the week: April 13, 2018

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.

Bindu Adai said, “If writing is your passion, write and don’t let anyone else convince you otherwise. You don’t need to quit your day job to do it. Create a realistic schedule and stick with it.” As you head into a new week of writing, be encouraged by the other authors in and around TAA who share your passion for writing so that you may find greater success.

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How to write an effective journal article abstract

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.

The ability of your abstract to encourage the researcher to read further determines whether you have an opportunity to make an impact with your article. So how do you ensure a quality first impression?

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What a TAA grant can do for you

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.

As the April 30th grant application deadline approaches, we asked several 2017 publication grant recipients for feedback on how a TAA grant has helped them.

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