Busy TAA People: Beverly Stein Signs Contract for Music Textbook

TAA member Dr. Beverly Stein, a professor in the Department of Music at California State University, Los Angeles, signed a contract with Rowman & Littlefield in May 2023 for a textbook entitled, Unlocking Meaning in Art Song: A Singer’s Guide to Practical Analysis Using Schubert’s Songs, to be published in June 2024 in time to present to the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) conference.

“Rowman & Littlefield has a new imprint that is combined with NATS, so it’s perfect for my book, which teaches singers how to analyze their songs, using Schubert’s lieder as examples,” says Stein. “I so appreciated TAA for helping me to learn about contracts, when I was considering their offer.”
Congratulations Beverly!

TAA Members Weigh In On the Value of Association Benefits

To help guide planning for the association’s future, TAA recently surveyed members about their primary reasons for joining, what their most valuable member benefits are, and what benefits they think the association should begin offering. Of the 1,953 members surveyed (representing those who have agreed to receive emails), 77 responded.

Thirty-one percent of respondents said that their primary reason for joining TAA was to receive member benefits and services, and 30% said it was ”to network with other textbook and/or academic authors.” Seventeen percent of respondents said they joined for another reason.

More Archival Topics From TAA’s Print Newsletter with Commentary From Long-Time Member Phil Wankat

Long-time TAA Member Phil Wankat has dug back into his TAA print newsletter archive, this time into the black-and-white early issues published between 1994 and 2010, finding more gold to share with you along with his brief commentary of the value of each article.

We will be adding these articles to the web page, “Articles from TAA Report Archives (now The Academic Author) with Commentary,” along with the other articles he shared from the TAA Report, over the next few months. The articles are organized into 12 categories, including Authors Needed, Bios, Contracts and Legal Comments, Diversity, Managing and Planning, Money, Production, Publishing first book, Recognition and Rewards, Teaching, Textbook Scholarship and Textbooks in Promotion Cases, and Writing and Writer’s Block.
The first set of articles we are sharing, in the Authors Needed category, include:

“Co-authoring a book originally written by another,” by Frank Silverman. “Look for a book that has an author who is retired, or close to retirement or, well, deceased,” says Wankat.

“Authors uneasy over Pearson deal.” “Big mergers ‘reduce the opportunities for new authors and even close the door on experienced authors,'” says Wankat.

10/19 TAA Webinar: Blunders, Bad Ideas, and Bliss: My Experience Writing a Textbook

Are you contemplating writing a textbook? It can be a daunting process but there are many success stories and opportunities to learn from colleagues who have recently published their content.

Please join XanEdu Publishing and Erica Irlbeck, Ed.D, Professor of Agricultural Education and Communications at Texas Tech and author of The Crisis Communication Guide for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, on October 19 from 2-3 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “Blunders, Bad Ideas, and Bliss: My Experience Writing a Textbook.”

Court Certifies Class of Textbook Authors in Class Action Against Cengage

By Zick Rubin and Brenda Ulrich, Archstone Law Group PC

On September 25, 2023, Judge Andrew Carter of the federal district court in New York City certified a class  of textbook authors in a class action brought against Cengage Learning  (Bernstein v. Cengage Learning, Inc.). The lawsuit alleges that Cengage unfairly apportioned the revenues it received from sales of “MindTap” digital interactive versions of the authors’ texts, arbitrarily  allocating to the authors either 50% or 75% of these revenues and reducing royalties accordingly. In the wake of the class certification, lawyers for the authors can proceed to seek reimbursement on a class-wide basis for the allegedly underpaid royalties. The class may consist of hundreds or thousands of authors, and the total claimed underpayment may total many millions of dollars.

Nominate Your Textbook for a 2024 TAA Textbook Award

Nominations for TAA’s 2024 Textbook Awards is now open. Recognize your textbook today by nominating it for one our industry-respected awards:

McGuffey Longevity Award – to recognize long-standing textbooks and learning materials that have been in print for at least 15 years.

Textbook Excellence Award – to recognize excellence in current textbooks and learning materials.

Most Promising New Textbook Award – to recognize promising textbooks and learning materials in their first edition.

Learn more and start preparing your nomination.