Don’t just rewrite an existing book

Coming to want to author a book is a slow process. There is likely ruminating, rethinking, internal debating, conflicting feelings, competing agendas, to say the least. Rarely, is it a moment of inspiration and then sudden action. Part of the decision process is thinking about what is already available on the market.

Many prospective authors will say, “there is nothing like this on the market. No competition.” This is very rarely true. There is usually some book, or more likely books, that your idea is standing on the shoulders of, wanting to reach higher. Also, the competition for some customer might be to buy nothing at all.

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Vice President’s Message: My publisher has been acquired…Now what? A personal story

This past summer I gave a presentation at TAA’s 2021 Virtual Conference on the joys and benefits of working for a small publisher, which I have done for the past 18 years. Well, guess what? I no longer work for a small publisher because they were recently acquired by a larger publisher. This serves as yet another example of what we all know so well – the publishing business in higher education is changing rapidly and we all need to adapt to new paradigms.

Allow me to share how I have handled this transition so far. The first thing I did was contact my intellectual property attorney to solicit advice on questions to ask my new publisher.

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Why you should be podcasting. Right now

TAA Vice President, Kevin Patton, is an award-winning professor and textbook author in human anatomy and physiology (A&P). He has a podcast and several blogs about teaching and writing, including TheTextbookAuthor.org. On Thursday, July 9th, as part of the TAA Summer Webinar Series, he will relate his podcasting experience, outline many different benefits of podcasting, and give you loads of practical tips for starting and running your own podcast in his webinar session, “Why Textbook & Academic Authors Should Be Podcasting. Right Now”.

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The digital transformation of publishing: What this means for authors

In her presentation at the 31stAnnual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Santa Fe, NM, June Jamrich Parsons shared an overview of the publishing industry with specific focus on the market, industry profitability, publishing formats, and disruptors impacting the role of the author within this changing world of publishing.

In her summary, Parsons stated that “the market for educational products and services is large and growing.” As a result, “this market is a huge target for disruptors.”

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Who can I get to write that chapter?

You are all set. The approach to your topic is inspired. A firm table of contents has been finalized. Your Book Proposal is great. And you now have a contract with a respected publisher!

But, who is going to do all this writing? You have probably carved out specific chapters that you will write. You may have spoken with some colleagues that like the project and said they would be glad to help out. You have a list of likely people to write other key chapters, but you will need more contributors. How do you go about identifying and asking people to contribute to your book?

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