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Join us for
the 2008 TAA Conference at Harrah's in Las Vegas, June 19-21
2008
TAA Conference Registration
Deadline Extended! Early Registration Deadline
is May 15, 2008
Register
Now
$195 for
Members before May 15, 2008
(after May 15, 2008, $245)
$245 for Non-Members before May 15, 2008
(after May 15, 2008, $295)
Join TAA
for $30! Click here for info
Book your
room at Harrah's at the special $99 conference rate by calling
888-458-8471. Use the special group code SHTEX8, when making your
reservation.
The deadline
for reserving a room at Harrah's for the special conference rate
is May 19, 2008.
Visit
Harrah's Las Vegas web site
Click
here for larger view of map
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 News
Updated
6/17/08
TAA Headquarters staff will be away June 17-22
TAA Headquarters staff will be away at the 2008 TAA Conference in Las Vegas Wednesday, June 17 to Sunday, June 22. If you need to reach someone during that time please email TAA Associate Executive Director Kim Pawlak at kim.pawlak@taaonline.net or call (507) 459-1363.
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New TAA
Conference Roundtable Discussion: 'Textbook 2.0: How to Stay in
the Textbook Business'
Mary Ellen
Lepionka, owner of Atlantic Path Publishing, will lead a discussion
of how print textbook authors can move into the next generation
of learning materials, beginning with understanding current publishers'
online initiatives and alternative publishing models. Participants
also will explore how to reuse existing text and how to construct
digital text and online courses. Mary Ellen will offer some insights
on giving away content and getting paid for content in the new
digital publishing industry.
View
more Roundtable Discussions
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New
TAA Conference session: 'Author & Publisher Open Discussion:
Ask Your Questions About Publishing & Marketing Issues'
Current and
prospective authors will have an opportunity to ask questions
of a book publisher and a marketing coordinator during this open
Q&A discussion. Mary Ellen Lepionka is the owner of Atlantic
Path Publishing, and can answer questions related to the acquisition,
editing and publishing process, as well as how traditional publishers
are adapting to pricing issues and the used book market, the digitization
movement, the online marketplace, and the open access movement.
She will explore with us several strategies for keeping our textbooks
"alive," including such alternative publishing models as e-textbooks,
online courses, wiki-textbooks, and academic self-publishing.
Lauren Betsos is marketing coordinator for Cengage Learning (Engineering).
She can answer questions about issues related to eMarketing and
the international marketplace for academic texts, as well as questions
surrounding eCommerce, the move from print to digital content,
electronic supplements or ancillary production, and making a text
marketable outside the US.
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TAA Conference
one-hour mentoring session winners announced
Michael Spiegler,
Patricia Casey and Courtland Bovee are the winners of the early
conference registration drawings for three one-hour mentoring
sessions to be held at the 2008 TAA Conference at Harrah's in
Las Vegas, June 19-21. To be entered into the drawing, you had
to register for the conference by May 1.
Spiegler
won the one-hour mentoring session with Authoring Attorney Michael
Lennie. Casey won the one-hour mentoring session with Tara Gray,
presenter of the TAA-sponsored workshop, "Publish & Flourish:
Become A Prolific Author." Courtland Bovee is the winner of the
one-hour mentoring session with Authoring Attorney Stephen Gillen.
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Deadline
for reserving $99 per night room rate at Harrah's is May 19
The deadline
for reserving a room at Harrah's at the special $99 conference rate
is May 19, 2008. Book your room by calling 888-458-8471 and giving
them the special group code, SHTEX8. The room block is filling up
fast, so reserve your room as soon as possible.
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Early
TAA Conference registration deadline extended to May 15
TAA has decided
to extend its early conference registration deadline to May 15
to allow people to continue to register for the 2008 TAA Conference
at Harrah's June 19-21 at the low rate of $195 for members and
$245 for non-members. This extension does not apply to the drawing
for one-hour mentoring sessions with Michael Lennie, Steve Gillen
or Tara Gray, so if you are interested in being entered into that
drawing, you will need to register by May 1.
Register online:
Click here
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Publisher's
Roundtable Discussion added
Mary Ellen
Lepionka |
TAA has added
a Publisher's Roundtable Discussion to the list of Roundtable
Discussions that will be part of the 2008 TAA Conference at Harrah's.
The Roundtable Discussions will be held over a boxed lunch on
Friday, June 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Publisher's
Roundtable will give attendees a chance to meet with publishers/editors
and ask questions, and perhaps connect on a project. The publishers/editors
participating in the roundtable so far include Mary Ellen Lepionka,
the founder of Atlantic Path Publishing, and the author of books
and articles on academic and educational writing and publishing;
and Lauren Betsos, marketing services coordinator for Cengage
Learning, Engineering.
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Register
by May 1 to be entered into a drawing for one of three one-hour
mentoring sessions
Those who
register for the 2008 TAA Conference before the May 1 early registration
deadline, will be entered into a drawing for one of three one-hour
mentoring sessions with either Authoring Attorney Michael Lennie or
Stephen Gillen, or Tara Gray, Presenter of the TAA Workshop, "Publish
& Flourish: Become A Prolific Scholar." Early registrants
also receive $50 off their conference registration. Register
online
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2008
TAA Conference to feature 'Roundtable Discussions'
The 2008
TAA Conference will feature several Roundtable Discussions, including
Self-Publishing; Preparing for the Next Edition; Deciphering Your
Royalty Statement; K-12 Authoring and Publishing; Working with
Co-Authors; Creating a Successful Author-Editor Relationship;
an Open Discussion for Non-Tenured Professors and Those New to
Higher Education; and Share Near-Finished Article Drafts with
'Little-e experts' and 'Capital-E Experts': Click
here
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Textbook
Track: 'A Play of Words: Acting Out Contract Negotiations, Part
II'
Authoring
Attorney Michael Lennie, Jan Kardys, a former director of contracts
at several major publishers, and Christopher Kenneally, director
of author relations for the Copyright Clearance Center, will share
their insight into contract negotiations: Click
here
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General
Session: 'Further Orientation to Las Vegas: Seven Things You Should
Know About Casinos'
Where did
cards come from? Who really started the Las Vegas Strip? What's
the relationship between organized crime and gambling? What's
the best bet in the casino? The worst? Why are casinos so big?
Weaving together history, practical math, and Las Vegas lore,
this session by David Schwartz, director of gaming research at
the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, makes casinos a little less
mysterious: Click here
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General
Session: 'Don't Get MAD: The Joys and Heartaches of Co-Authorship'
No one ever
sets out to co-author a work with their first enemy, but when
a collaboration goes bad that's where you can end up if you haven't
planned for that possibility. Stephen E. Gillen, an authoring
attorney with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald, a long-time TAA
member, and member of the TAA Council, knows all too well that
disputes among co-authors are more likely to result in Mutually
Assured Destruction ("MAD") than in a successful outcome for one
author or the other. He explains what can go wrong, and provides
tips for how authors can plan for the best even while preparing
for the worst: Click here
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Panelists
sought for 2008 TAA Conference sessions
The 2008
TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring, which will be held
at Harrah's in Las Vegas, June 19-21, is taking shape nicely,
and our website will soon reflect the wide array of activities
planned.
Some of the
panels are still being fleshed out, and we hope you will consider
offering yourself to serve on one of the following:
- "Milk
that Dissertation!" Margaret Fisher Dalrymple, acquisitions
editor for the University of Nevada Press, will be doing
a talk on the changing nature of university presses. Her talk
will also show how scholars should think ahead as they write
their theses and dissertations, trying to identify what audiences
beyond their graduate school committees might find their work
of value. We are therefore very interested in having participants
join the panel who can share interesting stories about how they
milked their own theses or dissertations into scholarly and/or popular
articles, and scholarly and/or trade books.
- "Keeping
it simple isn't stupid." This is a reprise of a topic
presented a few years ago at our San Antonio conference. The
notion here is that whether writing textbooks or even more scholarly
articles for generalist or inter-disciplinary audiences, we
have to write in a manner that it accessible to the educated
lay public. Most of us are probably pretty good at it, and this
is a chance for a bit of healthy patting ourselves and each
other on the back. Specifically, we seek presenters who will
talk for 10-15 minutes or so about how they took a very specific
and potentially very dry, dull, and/or complex concept, and
summoned their best writing skills to make the concept digestible
for an audience of non-specialists.
- "The
Review Process: Stories of Praise and Horror" At our
2008 brainstorming session at the end of the Buffalo conference, it
was suggested that many TAA members likely have interesting,
perhaps even inspirational, stories to share about their own
experiences of either having their manuscripts under review--whether
for publication in a journal, or as a scholarly book
or textbook-- or in commenting on others' manuscripts as
a peer reviewer. Again, this is our chance to teach each other
(in 10 minute narratives or so) what worked well, what
didn't, what we learned from the process.
We are also
open to other presentation proposals on topics not represented
above, especially if you have an idea that would be a plenary
session (of interest to the whole assemblage) or that would fit
in the "academic writing" (journal articles, university press
and other scholarly books) track.
If you're
interested in serving on any of the above panels, or have an idea
for a different panel, please contact 2008 TAA Conference Chair
Paul Siegel at PSiegel@hartford.edu with
a short (100-200 word or so) description of your interest in the
topic and what you think you have to offer to make the panel an
especially successful one.
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2008 TAA
Conference to feature two half-day workshops
The 2008
TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring, which will be held
at Harrah's in Las Vegas, June 19-21, will feature two half-day
workshops on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Michael
D. Spiegler |
"The Basics
of Textbook Writing from Start to Finish" will be presented by
Michael Spiegler, a professor of psychology at Providence College
and the author of several leading psychology textbooks, including Contemporary
Behavior Therapy, Personality: Strategies and Issues, and Contemporary
Psychotherapies for a Diverse World. He is currently
writing a comprehensive Handbook for College Textbook
Writing.
This half-day,
interactive, hands-on workshop is for both those who want to learn
how to write their first textbook and those who have written a
textbook and want to learn how to write their next textbook or
revision more efficiently and effectively. The workshop will provide
participants with the nuts-and-bolts of how to write a prospectus
and sample chapters, how to contact publishers, and how to negotiate
a favorable contract. They'll learn the basics of the writing,
revising, and production phases and get advice on how to deal
with publishers, alternatives to traditional publishing, and survival
skills for authors.
This workshop
is a based on a three-day National Science Foundation Short-Course
for college faculty and graduate students that Spiegler teaches
at the University of Washington in Seattle and at St. Petersburg
College in Florida. Prior to his TAA workshop, he will be presenting
a full-day workshop on textbook writing at Claremont Graduate
University in February 2008.
Kenneth
Henson |
"Writing for
Publication" will be presented by Kenneth Henson, distinguished
professor of education at The Citadel's School of Education, and
the author and co-author of more than 300 national publications. His
40 books include five books on writing for publications and two
Phi Delta Kappa fastbacks (monographs) on this topic.
This workshop
is a practical, hands-on workshop designed to remove the fear
that blocks writers. Get the nuts and bolts facts needed
to succeed and enjoy writing for publication. In this workshop
you will learn how to: find topics; select appropriate journals;
develop an effective writing style; organize articles; write query
and cover letters; design and use questionnaires; use journals
as blueprints; base articles on dissertations and theses; avoid
the errors that lead to rejection; hear the advice of 40 editors;
and increase your acceptance rate by 300 percent.
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