It’s no gamble! Play your cards right and win big by attending the Text and Academic Authors Association’s annual conference.…
Whose book title is it, anyway?
Professor Charlotte Smith, an up-and-coming young entomologist, decided to write a textbook for the always-popular, upper-level course on spiders. After putting out a few feelers, she submitted a proposal to Six Legs Press, a leading publisher of books about insects. Six Legs loved the proposal and offered Professor Smith a contract. Charlotte was so abuzz with excitement—”tenure, here I come!” she yelled—that she signed the contract without even reading it.
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.
Textbook contract Q&A with attorney Lisa Moore
Earlier this fall, TAA hosted an audio conference titled “Contract Negotiation: E-books & E-rights” featuring attorney Lisa Moore, principal of The Moore Firm, LLC. Moore’s outstanding presentation culminated in a rich Q&A discussion that provided valuable insight into textbook publishing contract negotiations.
Following are abbreviated excerpts edited by TAA from the transcripts of that discussion.
12 Secrets of a prolific textbook author
If you want to become a more successful and productive author, said Marilyn “Winkie” Fordney, the author of insurance billing…
Lawyer: Rank your textbook contract negotiation goals
Successful contract negotiation requires knowing “what you’re willing to give up and what you’re not,” said authoring attorney Michael Lennie, with Lennie Literary & Author’s Attorney.
Authors should negotiate better terms on several contract provisions, he said. They include: