Last Updated February 13, 2012

• Featured Member: Self-publishing your textbook, An interview with Patrice Morin-Spatz
  
• TAA seeks nominations for new Ron Pynn Award
  
• Join the TAA Council
  
• Reinforce your New Year’s writing resolutions
  
• Outstanding program planned for June conference
  
• Featured Member: Honing your writing craft: An Interview with Dannelle Stevens, Ph.D.
  
• Williams awarded $1,000 TAA Publication Grant
  
• TAA member publishes first book
  

Additional TAA Notes Info:
Busy TAA People
President's Message

Featured Member
Self-publishing your textbook: An interview with Patrice Morin-Spatz

Patrice Morin-Spatz started MedBooks in 1986 with a little under $1,000 in her pocket. Today she has self-published seven titles on the subject of medical coding and billing and the allied health profession. Morin-Spatz received her undergraduate degree in chemistry & art and went on to study basic medical sciences in her postgraduate work.

Here Morin-Spatz talks to TAA about self-publishing textbooks:

TAA: What are the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing?

Patrice (Trish) Morin Spatz: “There are many advantages of self-publishing, the main one being that you get to say what you want to how you want to. No one tells you that your wording is politically incorrect or that you should stay away from a sensitive topic. You write from where your passion is and you are driven, because you know that the outcome depends on you and only you. So does the cash. You impose your deadlines. You create your graphics (or hire someone else to).

One of the biggest disadvantages is that there is no up-front money to get you going and sales can be challenging. That being said, at the end of the day, if your book is successful, you’ve got an entity that you can sell. You avoid the traps of publishers using your stuff in other books and finding someone to replace you.”

TAA: What kind of marketing strategies do you use to promote your book?

TMS: “When I first started, I sent out freebie books to all the instructors that I could find who taught medical coding and billing. The book took off. We made over $350,000 in our first year shipping books out of the garage. It was great! There was no Internet and all interest was generated via word of mouth and direct mail.

Nowadays, it’s a little tougher in some respects mainly because we are not the only ones addressing our target market. The big guys have the sales people we don’t have. But we are getting smart! Those instructors who have bought from the big guys are seeing that bigger is not necessarily better. They like the fact that we personally answer their phone calls and feel their frustrations. They also like the fact that we understand their industry well, that we specialize exclusively in their niche, and that our products really do address the topics they are trying to get across to their students.

We’ve also found sales people and advisors who are also self-employed and who have relationships with distributors and buyers of trade books. We will plan to go to trade shows, and we’ve come out with a few products that again, will be novel in the industry. We are getting our books reviewed by peers and either publishing their compliments or learning from and correcting their concerns. We are getting better about strategizing on how to use YouTube and email marketing and my hope for 2012 is that we’ll come out on top.”

TAA: Do you have any publishing suggestions for other authors?

TMS: “I have three basic suggestions for other authors who are interested in self-publishing. First, decide you are going to go for it and don’t look back. You can always turn your book over to a publisher, but you can’t always get it back. Second, outsource your desktop publishing, graphics, editing, cover design, printing, and sales and distribution. This will allow you to stick to what you are good at (writing). Finally, if you are not able to make a go of this, or if you feel that this is too much to tackle, consider licensing your book to a publisher or an association on your terms rather than giving up your rights to them. Licensing allows them to use what you’ve created with you calling the shots. They will need to disclose to you what their print runs are, pay you if they want to use your pictures and content in another way and you will be in the driver’s seat.”

TAA: What do you value about your TAA membership?

TMS: “What I value about TAA is the easiest of the questions to answer. I LOVE the way that I am truly a valued member and that my opinion really counts. I love the fact that there is an actual phone number that I can use to talk to real people (and not some machine or computer.) The members are real people who are passionate about their subjects. We are a community of people that have something to say, and TAA offers us a forum through which we can communicate with one another. The staff at TAA is helpful and they really care. I like the fact that I can get involved and that the opportunities to do so are clearly communicated. Of all of the memberships I’ve ever had (and there have been many) I am most active here because I count.”

top of page for all news

TAA seeks nominations for new Ron Pynn Award

TAA is seeking nominations for a new award established to honor longtime TAA member Ron Pynn, who was a charter member of TAA, a three-time TAA president, and served as executive director of the association for more than 10 years.

The award is open to TAA members who have authored, co-authored, or co-edited at least five textbooks, at least two of which are authored or edited solely by the nominee. The nominee’s textbooks must be published in more than one discipline or more than one area of a discipline.

Other criteria for nomination include one of the following:

• National and international reputation as evidenced by written, refereed, widely cited and reviewed publications.
  
  
• National prominence as an educator of the public, as shown through television broadcasts, magazine articles, newspaper articles, or other public media, as well as authored or edited publications.

Any TAA member may nominate him or herself or another TAA member. The award is limited to one recipient annually and the recipient will be selected by the TAA Council via ballot.

To nominate yourself or another TAA member for this award, please submit the nominee’s name and a brief description of how the nominee meets the criteria for the award. Please send your nomination via email to TextandAcademicAuthors@taaonline.net with the subject line: “TAA Ron Pynn Award Nominee”. The deadline for nominations is March 23, 2012.

top of page for all news

Join the TAA Council

TAA is accepting nominations for four open positions on the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Open positions include Treasurer, Secretary and two Council positions. The deadline for nominations is March 1.

To nominate yourself, please send a maximum 150-word position statement describing why you would be a good candidate for the TAA Council, as well as a maximum 150-word bio and high resolution color photo to TextandAcademicAuthors@taaonline.net. Nominations can also be mailed to P.O. Box 56359, St. Petersburg, FL 33732-6359. Nominations must be received by March 1, 2012.

Terms start July 1, 2012. Any member of TAA is eligible to serve on the TAA Council. The terms for Treasurer and Secretary are two years. The Council terms are three years.

TAA Council members are required to attend two meetings per year, one in January in St. Petersburg, Florida, and one the day prior to the association's annual conference (heldtraditionally in late June or early July). Travel and lodging expenses related to attending these meetings is reimbursed. The Treasurer and Secretary also attend monthly teleconferences.

For more information or to view detailed job descriptions for each position, visit TAA Elections.

top of page for all news

Reinforce your New Year’s writing resolutions

If one of your New Year’s Resolutions includes completing a scholarly journal article or writing a textbook, TAA can help. We have a growing archive of podcasts on various topics intended to help you reach your writing and publishing goals.

These podcasts represent the best advice and strategies shared by a wide variety of veteran textbook and journal article authors and industry experts specializing in time management, scholarly and textbook writing, contracts, indexing, copyright, marketing, and more.

Download select podcasts from the TAA website and listen to them on your mp3 player while you exercise, cook dinner, or on your commute to and from work. You can also listen to them right from your computer to boost your motivation prior to working on your project.

The following is a sampling of the more than 60 podcasts in TAA’s growing archive of recorded audio conferences and webinars. View a full list or download a podcast

• Five Key Strategies to Boost Writing Power & Productivity
  
  
• How to Develop a Daily Writing Practice
  
  
• First-Time Authors: An Inside Look at Journal Publishing
  
  
• Kicking It Out the Door: How to (Finally) Submit Your First Journal Article
  
  
• Motivational Techniques: ‘Professional Nag’ Uses Creative and Innovative Tricks, Tools & Techniques to Motivate Authors
  
  
• Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Author
  
  
• Writing, Procrastination & Resistance: How to Identify Your Fun and Move Through It
  
  
• Writing & Editing Effectively Using ‘Fast Writing’ and ‘Slow Editing’
  
  
• Generating & Refining Research Ideas
  
  
• Scholarly Writing: Strengthening Your Literature Review
  
  
• Scholarly Publishing: Finding Support Through Peer Mentoring
  
  
• A Coach’s Perspective on Finishing a Dissertation
  
  
• Fine-Tuning Your Work: Writing, Editing & Publication Preparation Skills for Scholarly Authors
  
  
• Time Management: Why You Don’t Need It, Can’t Do it Anyway & What To Do Instead
  
  
• How to Craft a Winning Textbook Proposal
  
  
• You Want to Write a Textbook? Here’s How to Do It!
  
  
• The 10 Worst Legal Mistakes a Textbook or Academic Author Can Make
  
  
• Don’t Settle for a Publisher’s Standard Contract: Terms You Can & Should Negotiate

TAA will be offering more audio conferences and webinars in the coming months. If you have an idea for a topic or would like to present an audio conference or webinar, please contact Kim Pawlak at kim.pawlak@taaonline.net or (608) 687-3106.

top of page for all news

Outstanding program planned for June conference

The call for proposals for TAA’s 25th annual conference in New Orleans this June was a resounding success, resulting in a record number of session proposals.

“We are thrilled with the response to the call for proposals for this year’s conference,” said Mary Kay Switzer, TAA president. “It is very gratifying to see so many members and non-members willing to participate by contributing their time and expertise to the program. I want to thank everyone who submitted a proposal and encourage all of our members to join us in New Orleans for the conference.”

New this year is the addition of two concurrent two-hour workshops. Rachel Toor, a former university press acquisitions editor and author of a monthly column on writing and publishing for the Chronicle of Higher Education, will focus on the craft of writing with her workshop titled, “Thinking Well, Writing Well: How Smart Academics Write to Get Published.” Best-selling geography textbook author Robert Christopherson will share a guide to textbook authoring with his workshop titled, “Textbook Authoring Basics: A Holistic Approach.”

Best-selling textbook author Joy Hakim will be a featured keynote speaker. Hakim is the author of many successful textbooks including the 11-volume series A History of US, which gave rise to the PBS documentary, "Freedom: A History of US”.

Additional conference sessions include:

• Publishing On Your Own
• Grant Proposal Writing: Do’s and Don’t’s
• Differing Lenses on the Textbook Art
• Brainstorming Academic Publishing
• An eBook Update
• Challenges of Copyright in the Digital Age
• Interactive Contract Improvement Session
• Boost Academic Writing Strategies
• Tradebooks, Columns, and Blogs, Oh My!
• Find and Use Online Media for Your Projects
• How Authors Can Help Students with Disabilities
• Digital Pedagogy: Make the Most of Multimedia

In honor of TAA’s 25th anniversary, conference registration this year has been reduced to $125 for members and $155 for non-members. The first 30 registrants will receive a copy of Step-by-Step: Building a Research Paper, and Internet Surf & Turf Revealed: The Essential Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Finding Media. Registration is now open.

More information about the 2012 TAA Conference

top of page for all news

Featured Member:
Honing your writing craft: An Interview with Dannelle Stevens, Ph.D.

Dannelle D. Stevens is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Portland State University. She is a coauthor of several books including: Introduction To Rubrics: An Assessment Tool To Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback and Promote Student Learning; Journal Keeping: How to Use Reflective Writing for Learning, Teaching, Professional Insight and Positive Change; and Tenure in the sacred grove: Issues and strategies for women and minorities.

Here Stevens talks to TAA about honing her writing craft:

TAA: How do you dedicate time to writing?

Dannelle Stevens: “I write every workday and most weekends for at least 30 minutes on paper or on the computer. When I write something every day, the ideas feel like they are fresh and alive. And that allows me to get ideas at other times as well; they just pop into my head. My subconscious is working on the ideas. When I don’t write regularly even for a short time, each time I go back to my writing it is an uphill battle and takes a while to figure out what I am doing and what I want to say.

Of course, after the 30 minutes of writing, I search for references, organize my files, contact co-authors, plan length of chapters, keep charts on numbers of words written, etc. This may take a minimum of another 30 minutes. “

TAA: Is goal setting part of your writing process?

DS: “Setting goals motivates me. I have different kinds of goals. First, I list and post what I want to accomplish during that week. I see the weekly goal every time I sit down at my desk. At the end of the week I check in to see if I accomplished it. I write down on a chart what I want to do that day as a goal as well and check whether I did it or not. I also chart words written each day on a graph. I chart pages edited on a chart when I am not writing but merely editing.

I learned about the power of goals and strategies when I left Michigan State ABD (all but dissertation). I had my data and my proposal and that was all. I was starting a new tenure-track job at a small liberal arts college. I had to find a strategy that would let me succeed in my first faculty position and complete my dissertation.

During that first year in this new tenure-track job, I went to the college every morning at 6:00 a.m. and wrote and worked on the dissertation for one hour only. I still had this new job to contend with. Writing one hour allowed me to not feel guilty that I was not working on my dissertation. After that, I could pay full attention to this new job the rest of the day. To the surprise of my advisors (and me), I defended my dissertation in June at the end of my first year in this new job.“

TAA: What do you do to speed up the process from writing to publication?

DS: “Keeping a handwritten journal in my professional life has expedited my publishing process. The way I set up my journal allows me to track my activities, organize my notes and keep all my reflections on my work in one place. I create a table of contents and use a two-column entry system. When my journal is full, I create a table of contents in the front with the date, title of entry and page number. When filling in the table of contents, I review my notes from conferences, my reflections following teaching, and my notes from meetings I have attended. The two-column method on each page allows me to reflect and keep an ongoing to do list in the smaller column.

I am always asking myself: what do I need to do next? What have I accomplished in these six months? I will photocopy pages with good ideas and use them to start an article. Unlike a computer journal, the lovely thing about a handwritten journal is that I can draw, make diagrams and visuals to clarify my thinking. I can even put in sticky notes with ideas. All of these uses of my professional journal help me stay organized and give me time to do what I want to do… write.”

TAA: Can you give an example of a learning experience that helped shape your writing process or approach to publishing?

DS: “No writer would continue writing if she weren’t surprised! From the work of Peter Elbow (1978), I learned the value of surprise in writing. Many of the journal keeping techniques I teach and practice are invitations to surprise! Have a dialogue with perfectionism. Create a metaphor for a grant I am writing. It is affirming and inspiring to use these techniques to get fresh ideas flowing and to find the surprises in my thinking.

An ‘aha’ moment! Writing IS thinking, not what happens after thinking. In the past I learned that what I put down on paper had better be pretty good the first time I wrote it. That was a terrible constraint, squashed my creativity and led to tortured text. Now I start with what I know and don’t know and wish I knew and do not worry about whether it even makes sense. Then, I go back and cull out the good ideas and begin to see the shape it can take.”

TAA: What are your favorite TAA benefits?

DS: “TAA is the first organization I have belonged to that recognizes that textbook and academic writing is more than just producing text. Writing a textbook is also about book contracts. It is also about finding good mentors. It is also about being organized and planning. Writing is even about finding and selecting clip art, a topic at the recent TAA conference.

In the world of academic conferences, TAA’s was a breath of fresh air. It was not about competition. It was not about strutting our stuff. There is a time and place for that elsewhere. It was about mentoring and sharing and learning from one another.”

top of page for all news

Williams awarded $1,000 TAA Publication Grant

Gregory Williams, an assistant professor of contemporary art and critical theory, and director of graduate studies in the department of History of Art and Architecture at Boston University, has been awarded a $1,000 TAA Publication Grant.

The grant will help cover costs incurred in the publication of his book, Permission to Laugh: Humor and Politics in Contemporary German Art, which will be published by the University of Chicago Press in spring 2012.

“I am truly grateful for the support of TAA,” said Williams. “This grant makes an enormous difference in financing a book that required significant out-of-pocket contributions.”

William’s book explores the work of three generations of German artists who, beginning in the 1960s, turned to jokes and wit in an effort to confront complex questions regarding German politics and history.

Williams has written catalogue essays for major exhibitions of the work of Martin Kippenberger and Rosemarie Trockel, as well as numerous articles and reviews for art periodicals.

Learn how you can apply for a TAA Publication Grant

top of page for all news

TAA member publishes first book

TAA member Angela Jackson's first book, The Cultural Awareness Journal, was published November 2011 by AuthorHouse. The purpose of the journal is to allow people to document their own cognitive progression of change — emotionally, spiritually, and socially — to tear down the walls of their own cultural box. Jackson has a Ph.D. in counselor education from Virginia Tech and is the owner of Culturally Competent Consulting.

top of page for all news

Archive of Past News