TAA Member Kamalani Hurley from Leeward Community College asks: “What is normal in the timeline between an acquisitions editor expressing interest in publishing my material and the written contract?”
Textbook author Mike Kennamer, who is director of Workforce Development at Northeast Alabama Community College, and Julia Kostova, an acquisitions editor at Oxford University Press, share their advice:
Many trends are affecting the academic and textbook publishing industries. TAA regularly examines and reflects on these trends in its newsletter, during its annual conference, and in webinars and other communications with TAA members. One of the trends currently affecting the industry is consolidation, as corporations purchase academic and textbook publishing companies and consolidate them under large corporate umbrellas. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article discussed an example of this trend. Informa, a corporation that owns the huge scholarly publishing company Taylor & Francis, bought Ashgate Publishing last summer. By November, Informa had closed Ashgate’s U.S. office and laid off several Ashgate staff, according to a petition at Change.org. The Chronicle article noted that Informa “has become the latest adversary for academics worried about consolidation in academic publishing.”
Mark your calendars, the Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s 29th Annual Conference is fast approaching. Don’t miss out on this valuable two-day writing conference where you will gain inspiration for your writing projects, network with veteran authors, and learn strategies to help increase your publishing success. The conference program is ambitious, offering a wide variety of session topics for both veteran and novice authors. Register soon to take advantage of early registration rates.
In higher education’s charged, competitive environment, faculty are expected to publish peer-reviewed scholarship, yet receive little concrete guidance on how to navigate the complex waters of publishing. Join us on Thursday, February 4 from 2-3 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “Ask the Editors: What Publishers Want and Why”, to gain practical knowledge about the publishing process. Register
Are you struggling to reach your writing goals? TAA recently launched a new Writing Accountability Group within its online member community, CONNECT, to help members share their writing goals and progress updates, give and receive encouragement, and keep each other accountable for daily, weekly or monthly goals.
Increasingly, PhD students and junior scholars are creating an online presence to promote themselves and their work. Academics are also designing an online presence to assist in their transition to a career outside of academia or a different academic path within the university. But, there are so many platforms to choose from. How do you evaluate which ones to use, given the number and variety of options? Join us Thursday, September 24 from 3-4 p.m. ET for “Designing Your Online Presence to Communicate Your Academic Brand”, presented by Lee Skallerup Bessette, a Blogger and Social Media Advisor, and Paula Thompson, an Academic Coach, both from Academic Coaching & Writing, for an introduction to the most popular platforms and tools to help you decide which ones might be right for you.<
