TAA member Susan Robison, a former professor of psychology and department chair at the Notre Dame of Maryland University, has…
How to negotiate royalties for a textbook test bank
Q: “I am in the process of negotiating my second contract to write a test bank. The first contract was for a flat fee. I wrote a total of 490 multiple choice, true/false and fill in questions for a 14 chapter criminal justice book. The book was going into its 3rd edition and I think it is a big seller.
3 Things book indexers wish you knew
1. Indexing is an editorial function. You own a spellchecker, so why do you continue to work with editors? That’s…
Targeted marketing key to successful self-publishing
Self-published authors need to be more marketing savvy and more willing to dedicate time to the task of marketing, said Jeremy Robinson, author of POD People: Beating the Print-on-Demand Stigma.
“Marketing is really the only way a self-published author can get those first books sold and kick off the word-of-mouth machine,” he said.
When writing your dissertation, look at it from several perspectives
The project is not the subject. The project is not the thesis. Whether you are writing your dissertation, a journal article, or a book, the project is not simply the thesis. When I ask people about their projects the answer I get is always (or almost always) the subject of the project. Sometimes I ask specific questions like “what kind of project? Is it a dissertation? A thesis?” And still the answer I get is the subject of the project. But your project is not just about a subject; it has a certain form. It is a journal article, a dissertation, a book. It has a certain intention—to share a discovery, to support a position, to instruct others. It is aimed at a certain audience—peers, or students, or educated lay people.
If you can see that form, and understand how that form relates to the work you’re trying to accomplish, then the writing process becomes much easier: it’s less a shot in the dark, and more a purposeful action.
Q&A: Definition of ‘camera-ready copy’ & how it could affect your contract negotiations
Q: “The contract that has been offered on a book based on my dissertation specifies ‘camera-ready copy.’ What does this…