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

Why vision boards work and why you should make one today [for authors]

Visualization is a powerful tool. Athletes have harnessed this power for decades. In fact, visualization stimulates the same regions of the brain as actually performing the action does. This powerful tool, however, isn’t just for athletes. Writers too, can benefit from it. One way to do this, and express your creative self while doing so, is to create a vision board. A vision board is literally a board of some kind that you display images on to help you concentrate and maintain focus on a specific life goal (or goals) you have.

[Infographic] TAA announces results of 2015 Textbook Author Survey

A survey of 403 textbook authors by the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) and digital book pioneer and industry expert June Jamrich Parsons has found that most have the same royalty rates for digital and print. Only 6 percent of respondents reported higher royalty rates for digital versions. This infographic illustrates the key findings of the survey.