Forget kindergarten. All I really need to know about being a textbook author, I learned as a lion tamer.
I’m a textbook author and professor now, but in my youth I was an apprentice lion tamer. And it continues to surprise and delight me that many of the principles I learned during those adventures have helped me in my career.
More than a decade ago, in 2004, Google initiated a program, in concert with several university and large public libraries, to scan and digitize the entire contents of millions of books without regard to whether they were or were not still under copyright, ultimately making complete digital copies of more than 20 million books. Google’s goal was to expand its search business to include print works as well as online works. It spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this project, suggesting what Google believed to be its commercial potential.
Seventeen textbooks have been awarded 2016 Textbook Awards by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA). Three textbooks received 2016 William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Awards, six textbooks received 2016 Textbook Excellence Awards, and eight textbooks received 2016 Most Promising New Textbook Awards.
TAA Member Kamalani Hurley from Leeward Community College asks: “What is normal in the timeline between an acquisitions editor expressing interest in publishing my material and the written contract?”
Textbook author Mike Kennamer, who is director of Workforce Development at Northeast Alabama Community College, and Julia Kostova, an acquisitions editor at Oxford University Press, share their advice:
Illustrations are an important part of many textbooks and peer reviewed papers because they can help explain concepts in ways that photographs can’t. According to Joanne Haderer Muller, a board certified medical illustrator and Chair of the Board of the Association of Medical Illustrators: “Illustrations have many advantages over photographs. For example, illustrations can show readers an average, rather than a specific, example of a concept, procedure, animal, or anatomical arrangement. They can show detail that may be lost or hidden in a photograph, can help explain things at a molecular or cellular level, and can show how a process unfolds over time to really explain the author’s message.”
Kevin Patton, the author of 10 anatomy and physiology textbooks or manuals in over 40 editions, shares his views and strategies on how to adapt and remain relevant and successful in the fast evolving textbook industry.
TAA: At this stage in your writing career, where do your developmental interests lie in terms of your current text projects?
