2021 TAA Council Election Results Announced

Five TAA members have been elected to the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Paul Krieger has been elected Vice President/President-Elect, Juli Saitz has been elected to a third term as Treasurer, and Brenda Ulrich has been elected to a second term as Secretary. Stacie Craft DeFreitas and Dione Taylor have been elected to Council positions.

Krieger, a retired professor of biology, is the author and illustrator of the four-book series, The Visual Analogy Guides. In his position statement, he said he intends to focus on three major goals as VP/President-Elect: (1) Help TAA remain true to its mission of supporting textbook and academic authors as it has done so impressively over the years;

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Your textbook isn’t being revised. Now what?

If your standard textbook revision cycle has come and gone, it doesn’t automatically mean that you aren’t being revised, and you can’t expect that your publisher will reach out to you either, so you’ll need to ask, says Donna Battista, vice president of content strategy for Top Hat.

“Get in touch with your publisher and just ask directly,” she says. “I think it’s always good practice to start from the perspective that everybody is going to work in good faith. Nobody wants to squat on your rights.”

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2021 TAA Council Elections – Cast Your Vote

Seven candidates are running for five open positions on the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Positions include Vice President/President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and two Council positions. Terms begin July 1, 2021. Officers serve two-year terms, with the exception of the Vice-President/President-Elect, who serves a two-year term as Vice-President, a two-year term as President, and a two-year term as Past President. Council members serve three-year terms.

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4/14 TAA Webinar, “Effective Organization Strategies for Developing a Textbook Chapter”

Thinking about writing a textbook can be much like planning to climb a mountain. A daunting task that may be overwhelming and require both endurance and strength before even getting started. But what if I told you that like most major projects or journeys, the effectiveness of the whole is really defined by the quality of the small parts that get put together?

Join us Wednesday, April 14, from 2-3 p.m. ET for the TAA Webinar, “Effective Organization Strategies for Developing a Textbook Chapter,” where TAA’s Membership Marketing Manager and author/co-author of several computer technology textbooks, Eric Schmieder, will share strategies for organizing your content at a chapter level in a way that defines your author style for content delivery.

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4/5 TAA Webinar, “Your Textbook Isn’t Being Revised. Now What?”

As publishing companies look to manage costs and focus on large introductory courses, many high-quality and high-value textbooks are not being revised.

Join us Monday, April 5, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET for the TAA Webinar, “Your Textbook Isn’t Being Revised. Now What?”, when Donna Battista, VP of Content Strategy at Top Hat, and previous Pearson Executive, will help authors navigate this increasingly common challenge. She’ll provide guidance on requesting rights back, what to do when rights are reverted, and what options there are to make content available.

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Member Spotlight: Brian Shmaefsky

TAA Member Brian Shmaefsky is a Professor of Environmental Science and both a textbook and academic author writing in the disciplines of environmental science and human disease and anatomy. His most recent publication is Phytoremediation: In-Situ Applications.

What are you currently working on?

An environmental science textbook and several human disease books in a deadly diseases and epidemics series.

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