Leveraging a textbook or academic book can be a powerful tool in launching a consulting career. Join us Friday, September 15 from 4-5 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “How to Leverage a Textbook or Academic Book to Launch a Consulting Career”. Presenter William Curry, author of three public procurement textbooks, including Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies: Best Practices for Public Procurement (winner of a 2017 Textbook Excellence Award), and founder of a consulting firm that specializes in consulting for state, local, and education entities that wish to implement best practices for public procurement, will share how you can use a textbook or academic book to position yourself as an expert in your field and attract potential clients.
Michael Sullivan Donates $100,000 to Fund Lecture Series, Matching Gift Challenge
A generous gift from mathematics textbook author and long-time member Michael Sullivan will fund an annual lecture at the TAA annual conference and a 1:1 matching gift challenge to encourage additional gifts to support the association.
His $100,000 donation is the largest gift TAA has ever received. Michael is a past-president of the TAA Council, served several terms as TAA Council Treasurer, and has been a long-time member.
“Michael’s gift will allow TAA to provide a top-notch lecturer with expertise on the textbook or academic authoring and publishing industry to further our mission of supporting textbook and academic authors in their authoring pursuits,” said TAA Executive Director Kim Pawlak.
One-half of the gift, $50,000, will be used to fund the Michael Sullivan Lecture on Textbook & Academic Authoring, honoring the life and work of Michael Sullivan, who has authored or co-authored more than 120 mathematics textbooks, many of which have been published in multiple editions.
Don’t Kill Your Chance with a Publisher By Making This Mistake
Gregory J. Privitera, PhD, Professor of Psychology at St. Bonaventure University and author of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (3e), Essential Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (2e), and Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences (3e), said that in his experience, one big way to kill/challenge a chance with a publisher is to come to them with a fully written book: “At least in the textbook publishing space, editors want room for the development of a project. So, they prefer a few sample chapters and a proposal, over a fully written book–with some exceptions, such as if that book was published already, but the author is ‘shopping’ for a new publisher to print the book.”
2024 TAA Textbook Award Nominations Open Sept 1
It’s almost time! Nominations for the TAA Textbook Awards will open in two weeks. Starting September 1st, we’ll start accepting nominations for our three prestigious 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.
TAA’s Textbook Awards Are Coming Back!
The TAA Textbook Awards are coming back, and we’ll begin accepting nominations on September 1. Get ready to apply! We’ll be accepting nominations for the following 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.
Exploring diversity in science textbooks
When Kathy Burleson, a senior lecturer of biology at Hamline University, was preparing to teach a course on the biology of women, she was surprised that she couldn’t find any images of the female muscular system to use for the class. “I got really curious about the discrepancies in how women’s and men’s bodies are portrayed across anatomy and physiology textbooks,” she said. To learn more, she embarked on a research project in 2016 with the goal of helping to close diversity gaps in STEM.“Textbook images tell us a story about science and who belongs in science,” she said. “My hope is that, informed from interviews and data, we can give textbook publishers something to think about.”