Amazon: friend or foe?

When I ask writers, authors, or publishers about Amazon, I get a variety of responses:

  • I love Amazon. I just ordered laundry detergent from them, and it was really cheap.
  • I try not to order from them but shop locally.
  • Amazon always knows what I will be interested in when I am browsing for something to read.
  • They make ordering so easy, and delivery is so quick!
  • They get me mad because they have the wrong cover for my book, and they won’t change it.
  • When I search for my book, they list the old edition first and I can’t get them to flip it to the new edition. Ugh!
  • They’ve made self-publishing so easy. It is a dream.

Quite the spectrum. When people think of Amazon, they think of books first, which puts them in a Kleenex or Xerox situation from a branding point-of-view. But as you might know, Amazon is way past books and publishing.

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Join us as we celebrate the 2022 Textbook Award Winners on 4/27

We invite you to join us in celebration of the 2022 TAA Textbook Award Winners during a special virtual ceremony being held live via Zoom NEXT Wednesday, April 27th at 1:00pm ET.

While there is no cost to attend this event, we do require advanced registration to ensure that we have enough seats in the Zoom room for our awardees and guests in attendance.

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: April 15, 2022

Is your writing making a difference? As an academic author, you likely want to add new ideas, new discoveries, and new knowledge into your discipline that can inch your field forward. But until it’s finished and published, it can’t make a difference. As Jon Acuff shares, “90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head.”

In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we find ideas for continuing to write as you enter exam season, and for writing rhythmically while defining your own author voice. We explore why articles get rejected and how to come up with the perfect book title. We learn how to combat our inner critic and to leave a writer’s group gracefully. Finally, we see some advancements in the publishing industry.

Whatever is holding you back from sharing your writing with the world, face it today and in the week ahead. Make a plan to contribute those ideas to your field. Published is better than perfect. Happy writing!

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Tips for anxious writers: How to get moving

If you’ve been struggling with writing anxiety, getting started can be very hard. Anxiety-inducing concerns—do I write well? will my audience hate it? am I smart enough?—accompany the decision to write and crowd upon the writer, sometimes causing severe discomfort, or even paralysis. It can feel like writing is so hard that effort is futile. To approach your work when such anxieties hit, you want to identify small, easy, gentle steps to get started. Start with a tiny step that you know you can accomplish, then you can have small successes that help you move forward, and you can build comfort and confidence over time.

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2022 TAA Council Elections – Cast Your Vote

Three candidates are running for two open positions on the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Terms begin July 1, 2022. Council members serve three-year terms.

Jessica Gullion“Out of my gratitude for all the guidance TAA has provided me throughout my authoring career, I want to give back to this terrific organization.” – Candidate Jessica Smartt Gullion, Associate Dean of Research for the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas Woman’s University

Laura Jacobi“TAA has been a vital resource in my scholarly journey, and I wish to give back to the organization that contributed to my own success and to the success of so many others.” – Laura Jacobi, Communication Studies professor and director of a peer-facilitated academic support program

Tabitha Kinneer“I want to hit the ground running when I enter the academic industry. This opportunity is wonderful to be associated with individuals with extensive experience and knowledge to pass the torch down to new scholars such as I.” – Tabitha H. Kinneer, third-year PhD student in Communication at the University of Kentucky

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How to evaluate an effective book cover

Go ahead. Judge that next book by its cover. Or, at least, judge the cover itself and what purpose it serves for the book. Textbook author, Paul A. Krieger tells us that “Good book covers are important” and shares four specific benefits to a quality cover design.

  1. The book cover serves as an advertisement for your book;
  2. A quality cover makes a positive first impression with your readers;
  3. It informs your readers what the book is about; and
  4. It can improve overall sales.

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