How to use graphic design principles to evaluate the effectiveness of your book cover

All four books in textbook supplement author Paul Krieger’s Visual Analogy series showcase a visual analogy on the cover, a great advertisement for one of the key learning tools that make his books unique: visual analogies.

“My whole book idea was born in the lab from my teaching,” says Krieger, whose books include A Visual Guide to Human Anatomy, A Visual Analogy Guide to Physiology, A Visual Analogy Guide to Human Anatomy and Physiology, and A Visual Analogy Guide to Chemistry. “I used to sketch visual analogies out at my students’ lab tables, and it was students who encouraged me to write my first book 17 years ago. In the anatomy and physiology lab, students have to learn different anatomical structures. So, for example, when they need to learn the thoracic vertebra, I use a giraffe head to create a visual analogy that helps them learn and remember all of the parts of the thoracic vertebra, which is shaped like a giraffe head.”

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Feeling empowered to take a seat at the publishing table

In this blog post, long-time colleagues Karen Sladyk (professor and bestselling author) and John Bond (Publishing Consultant) discuss taking the first steps as an academic toward taking a seat at the publishing table.

Despite years of academic and professional accomplishments, taking the step to become involved in publishing may seem daunting. Finding seat at the table may not feel comfortable at first. More experienced colleagues and veteran editors and publishing-types seem to be monopolizing space and speaking an unknown jargon. Fear not!

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Pearson Education launches new mobile app, Pearson+

On July 30, Pearson Education announced the launch of a new college learning app, Pearson+, as a way for students to access the company’s 1,500 eBooks and study tools, such as flashcards, advanced note taking, and practice questions.

Pearson+, which will be available via desktop and mobile app, offers two monthly pay-as-you-go options:

Single Tier: $9.99 per month for one Pearson eText
Multi Tier: $14.99 per month for access to 1500+ Pearson eTexts

According to the company’s press release, “While 70% of Pearson’s higher education revenue already comes from digital products, Pearson+ will help recapture additional sales lost to the secondary textbook market and reset the economics of the company’s higher education business.”

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Royalty payment class actions: Opt-in? Opt-out? How does it affect me?

In recent years multiple class action lawsuits have been filed against the biggest textbook publishers, challenging their royalty-payment practices. In 2016, it was a suit against Pearson, alleging (among other things) gray market sales to international subsidiaries, paying lower international royalty rates, and then shipping books back into the U.S. for retail sales.1 More recently, there have been suits against Cengage, challenging “Cengage Unlimited,” Cengage’s all-access, Netflix-like subscription model.2 McGraw-Hill was also sued, in January, for improper royalty payment practices on its “Connect” products.3

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Get CCC checks? Go paperless

Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) pays royalties repatriated to the United States by foreign Reproduction Rights Organizations (RROs) for use of certain US published works. Authors of textbooks and scholarly publications who hold copyright to their works also receive royalties for various services offered by CCC.

If you receive royalty payments from Copyright Clearance Center for use of copyrighted work(s) in the US and abroad, you should know that CCC will make future royalty payments electronically.

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Inclusion means including everyone

As authors who have recommitted ourselves to the ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our professional lives, one of the many struggles we face is making access to our content inclusive. However inclusive of race, gender, age, and other aspects of humanity our writing is, it is important to also ask ourselves whether all potential readers are able to access it.

As an author, I have often left accessibility issues completely in the hands the professionals among our publishing team. However, I realize more and more that, in many ways, that sort of inclusion starts with me.

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