The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: February 19, 2016

What sorts of strategies do you use to catapult you into your day’s writing? Do you do as Jerry Jenkins does and start the day with “a heavy edit and rewrite” of the “previous day’s work”? Maybe you do as Rachel Toor suggests: “leave off at a point where it will be easy to start again.” Rachel adds: “Some writers quit a session in the middle of a sentence; it’s always easier to continue than to begin.” Various other writers suggest using bullet points at the end of a writing session that point them in the direction they want the writing to go when they next return to it. Perhaps you have a completely different method altogether. If you do, I hope you will share it in the comments below this post. Happy writing!

Join us in San Antonio for TAA’s 29th Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference!

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.

The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: January 29, 2016

As an author you have to have a thick skin. You have to be both patient and persistent. You have to be brave. Lacking in any of those qualities is sure to leave you feeling inadequate and even paralyzed to get words on to the page. It is imperative that you remember, as Greg Daugherty reminds us, “rejected pieces aren’t failures; unwritten pieces are.” If you finished a marathon but didn’t win, are you a failure? No. You put in the hours, you showed up, and you finished. If you fall, you get yourself up, dust off, and continue—just as you should with any rejection you receive in your writing career. The only sure way to fail is to not try at all.

Join us 2/4 for TAA webinar on what academic publishers want (and why)

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