New TAA Workshop Presenter: Vernetta Mosely, PhD

TAA welcomes new Workshop present Vernetta K. Mosely, PhD, a Writing Coach, Editor and Consultant with Cultivate the Writer.

Vernetta offers four 90-minute workshops:

Registration is Now Open for the 2024 TAA Conference in Nashville: Let’s Meet Up!

TAA is excited to announce that the 2024 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference will be back in-person and we’ll be in Nashville!

Join us in Music City for lots of “author talk” – music to our ears!

Learn how to turn up the volume on your textbook or academic writing at this annual conference that features General, Textbook and Academic Tracks, mentoring by veteran authors and industry professionals, and lots of networking opportunities!

We can’t wait to see ya’ll there!

Register early to take advantage of discounted rates and book your hotel room before we sell out.

I’m in!

We promise a program rich in content, focused on emerging trends, changes in the publishing world, and connecting with other authors.

Submit a Proposal for the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association Conference Committee invites proposals for its 2024 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Nashville, June 21-22, “Author Talk. Music to Our Ears.”

Presenting at TAA’s 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring provides an opportunity to share your knowledge, experiences, and ideas with other textbook authors, academic authors, and industry professionals.

The goals of this year’s program:

  • Explore and exchange ideas on the future of the textbook and academic authoring and publishing industry, especially emerging trends like AI.
  • Share successful writing tips and strategies and inspire you to complete your writing projects.
  • Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic and educational materials.
  • Sessions will take place in three different tracks: General, Textbook, and Academic. Preference will be given to sessions that incorporate innovative and interactive elements.

We welcome proposals from first-time and veteran presenters! The deadline for submitting a proposal is October 15, 2023 (Look for Call for Proposals link at top of site).

Command Your Pet Words

Pets can be wonderful—I loved my orange and white cat. But when I received an editorial critique before publication of my short story “Casey,” I was horrified to learn it sheltered a whole menagerie of unwanted editorial pets —words, phrases, and grammatical constructions.

“Casey” is a story about a middle-school boy who feels like an outcast and later discovers he has healing powers. When I received the acceptance email, I was elated. Then the editor emailed me again: “Every author has pet words and phrases. Part of my job is to point them out so you can get rid of them.” She attached the manuscript and highlighted a herd of my pet words and phrases, in oxblood.

Do Proliferating Ideas Threaten to Overtake You?

Do ideas flood your brain like a herd gone wild? Are you flailing around, physically and metaphorically, trying to corral them and drive them into the barn? Going mad trying to figure out how to use them all?

I am almost constantly barraged by ideas for essays, stories, poems, novel slivers, quirky descriptions, and metaphoric pearls. Ideas surface everywhere: as I work on the current creative piece, edit clients’ manuscripts, wash dishes, huff through workouts, wait on line, watch people, meditate, fall asleep, and even at business dinners.