Many college textbook authors are experiencing declining print unit sales and diminishing royalty checks. Regular price increases previously helped college textbook publishers offset shrinking print sales, but that strategy is no longer effective. Consequently, some publishers are cutting budgets to offset revenue shortfalls. They’re also diverting remaining investment resources into new digital products and services that offer a measure of protection against the depredations of used, rental, and pirate competition. As a result, those publishers are rebranding themselves as software or learning science companies and setting very public goals to eliminate or scale back their print publishing programs in favor of fully digital product models. What are the key forces driving college publishers’ online publishing strategies? What are some steps higher education textbook authors can take in response?
Nominate your book for a 2017 TAA Textbook Award
Gain recognition with your fellow authors and within the textbook publishing industry by nominating your textbook for a 2017 TAA Textbook Award now through November 1, 2016.
The Textbook Excellence Award recognizes excellence in current textbooks and learning materials. The McGuffey Longevity Award recognizes textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time. Â The Most Promising New Textbook Award recognizes excellence in 1st edition textbooks and learning materials.
On Demand Webinar: 20 Tips & 20 questions for your next textbook deal
In this webinar recorded at the 2016 TAA Conference on June 25, Stephen Gillen, a partner at Wood Herron & Evans, and author of Guide to Textbook Publishing Contracts, takes you on a tour of a typical textbook publishing contract, pointing out the highlights along the way – what’s usually negotiable; what’s often not negotiable; what questions to ask; and when to ask them.
How writers can use feedback effectively
A good writing practice—a habit of coming back to work on your project regularly—is the foundation of good writing. One of the biggest challenges to many writing practices is to keep going after receiving difficult feedback. And perhaps an even bigger challenge is the fear of receiving feedback, which often contributes to writer’s block. If you’re submitting to a publisher, a journal, to your dissertation committee, or anyone else who might provide feedback, it will help if you feel like you can use the feedback you get effectively.
The following is a slightly edited excerpt from my book Getting the Best of Your Dissertation: Practical Perspectives for Effective Research:
2017 TAA Textbook Award nominations open Sept. 1
Nominations for the 2017 Textbook Excellence Award (“Texty”), McGuffey Longevity Award (“McGuffey”) and Most Promising New Textbook Award will open September 1, 2016.
For more than 20 years, TAA has supported textbook and academic authors through these highly-recognized awards, given annually to emerging and veteran published authors in eight subject categories.
Two new templates added to TAA’s Templates & Samples Resource Library
Two new templates have been added to TAA’s Templates & Samples Resource Library, a Workflow Chart Template, and a Royalty Tracking Template.
The Workflow Chart Template was contributed by Kevin Patton, author of Anatomy & Physiology (9e), who uses it to track his workflow. Available in both landscape and portrait, each row is a chapter or section and columns track items such as chapter number/title, research, reviews, copyedited draft, etc.