Laughing and learning: Cartoons as powerful textbook teaching tools

Dear Valuable Textbook Authors,

No, this isn’t spamming! I honestly think what you do is very valuable. Transmitting the hard-earned knowledge in your fields of study to a new generation is the only way that kind of knowledge will continue to be accumulated for a better smarter world.

Really, I’m absolutely blown away by the smarts and dedication of anyone who writes a textbook. Even the definition of a textbook is daunting:

“A book used as a standard work for the study of a particular subject”. Wow, that is a high standard, and kudos to you who strive to meet it especially now when getting published is more challenging than ever.

Laughing and learning: Cartoons as powerful textbook teaching tools Read More

Published textbook authors invited to take TAA’s 2022 Textbook Contracts & Royalties Survey

Are you curious what royalty rates other textbook authors are receiving for print and digital books? What about what they’ve been able to negotiate regarding first right of refusal, the sunset clause, or royalties for bulk, wholesale and foreign editions?

If you are a published textbook author, we invite you to participate in TAA’s 2022 Textbook Contract & Royalties Survey, which aims to provide a look into the range of royalties and contract options offered for print and digital textbooks.

Published textbook authors invited to take TAA’s 2022 Textbook Contracts & Royalties Survey Read More

TAA announces 2022 Textbook Award winners

Forty-five textbooks have been awarded 2022 Textbook Awards by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA). 12 textbooks received William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Awards, 13 textbooks received Textbook Excellence Awards, and 20 textbooks received Most Promising New Textbook Awards.

The McGuffey Longevity Award recognizes textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time. The Textbook Excellence Award recognizes excellence in current textbooks and learning materials. The Most Promising New Textbook Award recognizes excellence in 1st edition textbooks and learning materials.

TAA announces 2022 Textbook Award winners Read More

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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3 Options for authors to promote accessibility in their textbooks

Who is reading your textbook? What limitations might those readers have when it comes to consuming and comprehending your material? When focused on inclusion and accessibility, whose responsibility is it that the content be universally accessible?

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines outline multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression as a foundation for discussion. TAA Council President, Kevin Patton shares three sets of options for textbook design focused on creating multiple means of representation.

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What is critical race theory and why it should matter to academic authors

Recently, since the popularity of the 1619 project and its connection to critical race theory (CRT), there has been significant confusion about what CRT is. CRT used to be only known and debated by scholars in law, education, sociology and other related fields, but now it is troubling the minds of the parents of elementary students, among others. Let’s start with what it is, talk about what it isn’t and end with discussing what academic authors need to know about it.

What is critical race theory and why it should matter to academic authors Read More