TAA member Dr. Derrick Darden is seeking participants interested in completing a short, 3-minute, anonymous survey for his new book, Understanding Personality Traits and Decision-Making Styles. The purpose of the survey is “to explore people’s personality traits and decision-making styles. Our goal is to gather valuable insights to help individuals better understand their strengths and challenges in making choices and navigating life. Your participation in this survey will contribute to our understanding of human behavior and decision-making processes. Your input is valuable to us, and we appreciate your time and effort in helping us with our research.”
Should You Index Your Own Textbook?
By Ken Saladin
Most authors may not want to index their own textbooks. Indexing has to be done quickly when paginated proofs become available, yet it comes at a time when we’re very busy proofreading the final pages, writing front matter, and getting the book to press. It also must look, to most, like a tedious chore. It may seem better left to a professional indexer, even if the cost is borne by the author.
Even aside from the cost, there are good reasons to leave it to the pros. Indexing is a complex skill that requires understanding of not just the book’s subject matter, but its audience, the publisher’s practices, and the stylistic mechanics of good versus amateurish and dysfunctional indexes.
Your Textbook Deserves Recognition: Nominate it for a TAA Textbook Award
You’ve put so much time and passion into your textbook. Now is the time for that work to be recognized by nominating it for one of TAA’s industry-respected awards:
- Most Promising New Textbook Award: this award recognizes promising textbooks and learning materials in their first edition.
- Textbook Excellence Award: this award recognizes excellence in current textbooks and learning materials.
- McGuffey Longevity Award: this award recognizes long-standing textbooks and learning materials that have been in print for at least 15 years.
Chemeketa Press Seeks Textbook Proposals
Chemeketa Press, a nonprofit textbook publisher located in Salem, Oregon that makes affordable, effective, engaging, and accessible textbooks, is seeking submissions of new textbook proposals and faculty editor grant applications through October 15, 2024.
Chemeketa Press publishes textbooks across a variety of disciplines.In this reading period, textbook proposals for original material or OER adaptation are sought, as well as faculty editors for two public domain series, the American Voices Collection and Primary Text Editions, and themed anthologies.
Larson Texts and Big Ideas Learning Unify Under a Single Brand Identity
Larson Texts and Big Ideas Learning, founded by TAA member and multiple TAA Textbook Award winner Dr. Ron Larson, announced the unification of its two brand identities to Big Ideas Learning, a Larson Texts Company.
Both companies are leaders in K-Higher-Ed math education. According to a September 20, 2024 press release, Larson’s “contribution to mathematics education is monumental. From the publication of his first Calculus textbook in 1978 to the foundation of Big Ideas Learning, his vision has always been to make math accessible and engaging for students.”
WIPO Publishes Contracts Toolkit for Authors and Publishers
The World Intellectual Property Association (WIPO) has published a new toolkit for authors and publishers that includes “a checklist of the most essential considerations while drafting and concluding a contract.”
Contracts in Publishing: A Toolkit for Authors and Publishers, was drafted by Brian Wafawarowa, Chairperson of the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA), and Isobel Dixon, a renowned South African poet and Head of Books at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency in the UK, in consultation with several international author and publisher organizations.