Eighty percent of respondents to the Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s latest survey, “Generative AI, Your Publisher & You,” said they have not had conversations with their publishers about their position on AI, their use of AI in their work(s), and/or contract clauses related to AI. The purpose of the survey, conducted between December 12, 2023, and January 8, 2024, was to help members advocate for themselves in conversations with their publisher(s) about generative Al (like ChatGPT) in contracts, policies, and statements.
How to Organize a Book Launch
Congratulations! Your book is in print. It’s time to party.
Ok, do you literally want to have a party where people come and celebrate this significant milestone with you? If so, read on.
A book launch is an event that occurs on or around the official release date of your book where people come together to celebrate your book publication and learn more about your book.
You can host a book launch at a local bookstore.
If you’d like for your book launch to happen at a local bookstore, the first step is to find a bookstore that hosts events and has staff who support events. The second step is to pitch to them. Bookstores struggle to find audiences for book events so your job will be to convince them that you have an audience. For most writers, that audience includes your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. This is why it’s easiest to have a book launch in the city or town you live in.
Busy TAA People: Jean Murphy Under Contract For First Book
TAA member Jean Derricotte-Murphy, D.Min., Ph.D, is under contract with Cascade Books to publish her first book, A View From the Balcony: Opera Through Womanist Eyes, in early 2024. Excerpted from the book’s abstract: “..this work offers the reader a historical glance at the philosophical and religious underpinnings of systemic racism by presenting a new healing hermeneutic, a Balcony Hermeneutic, from which to view, critique, assess, correct, and reverse the devastating effects Anthropological Poverty has inflicted upon the world.” She will also be presenting the paper “Beloved, Margaret Garner, and the Desperate Flight to Freedom” at the November 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio Texas. Congratulations Jean!
Busy TAA People: TAA Member Margarita Huerta’s Work Reaches the 1,000 Mark for Citations
TAA member Margarita Huerta, PhD, writer and Founder of Real Academics, reached the 1,000 mark for citations on her Google Scholar profile on August 25, 2023.
Her top three most cited articles (out of 20 articles tracked by Google) include:
- “Graduate students as academic writers: writing anxiety, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence” (2017), M Huerta, P Goodson, M Beigi, D Chlup, Higher Education Research & Development, 36 (4), 716-729. (205 citations)
- “The effect of an instructional intervention on middle school English learners’ science and English reading achievement” (2012), R Lara‐Alecio, F Tong, BJ Irby, C Guerrero, M Huerta, Y Fan, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 49 (8), 987-1011. (184 citations)
- “Connecting literacy and science to increase achievement for English language learners” (2010), M Huerta, J Jackson, Early Childhood Education Journal, 38, 205-211. (62 citations)
Michael Sullivan Donates $100,000 to Fund Lecture Series, Matching Gift Challenge
A generous gift from mathematics textbook author and long-time member Michael Sullivan will fund an annual lecture at the TAA annual conference and a 1:1 matching gift challenge to encourage additional gifts to support the association.
His $100,000 donation is the largest gift TAA has ever received. Michael is a past-president of the TAA Council, served several terms as TAA Council Treasurer, and has been a long-time member.
“Michael’s gift will allow TAA to provide a top-notch lecturer with expertise on the textbook or academic authoring and publishing industry to further our mission of supporting textbook and academic authors in their authoring pursuits,” said TAA Executive Director Kim Pawlak.
One-half of the gift, $50,000, will be used to fund the Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring, honoring the life and work of Michael Sullivan, who has authored or co-authored more than 120 mathematics textbooks, many of which have been published in multiple editions.
Registration is Now Open for the 2024 TAA Conference in Nashville: Let’s Meet Up!
TAA is excited to announce that the 2024 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference will be back in-person and we’ll be in Nashville!
Join us in Music City for lots of “author talk” – music to our ears!
Learn how to turn up the volume on your textbook or academic writing at this annual conference that features General, Textbook and Academic Tracks, mentoring by veteran authors and industry professionals, and lots of networking opportunities!
We can’t wait to see ya’ll there!
Register early to take advantage of discounted rates and book your hotel room before we sell out.
We promise a program rich in content, focused on emerging trends, changes in the publishing world, and connecting with other authors.