Originally established as the Textbook Authors Association, TAA was formed in the spring of 1987 by then Purdue University Professor of Mathematics Mike Keedy. Keedy served as the organization's Executive Director and President and operated the organization from his home in Orange Springs, Florida.

TAA grew quickly that first year to nearly 1,000 textbook authors with its three principal objectives of improving contracts for authors, reducing the sale of used books, and preventing the sale of complementary copies of textbooks.

TAA's first national conference was held in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 21, 1987, and was chaired by TAA's first member, mathematics textbook author Paul A. Anderson. The convention included three panel discussions, used books, working conditions, and taxes. In late 1987, TAA headquarters staff consisted of Mike Keedy as Executive Director; Norma Hood and Karen Strauss as Keedy's assistants; and computer operator Bill Allen.

In 1987, member services included a list of attorneys with expertise in publications; a list of author's agents; and an Author Experience File: information from members concerning authors' experiences with specific publishers. TAA Committees consisted of Used Books and Complimentary Copies, chaired by Howard Anton; Working Relations and Contracts, chaired by Paul Anderson; and Publishing Practices, chaired by Eugene Nichols. TAA's primary communication vehicle was The TAA Report, a quarterly print newsletter edited by Mike Keedy.

TAA was governed by three Senior Members, founding partners who shaped the direction of TAA while the organization got on its feet and established its goals. These senior members delegated authority to a TAA Council elected by the membership, although the senior members retained final responsibility for all actions governing TAA.

In these early years, membership growth was a primary focus of the organization, as stated by then Executive Director Mike Keedy, in his conference keynote speech at the 1988 TAA Convention at the Clarion Hotel in St. Louis, May 27-29: "Having a large number of members gives us clout and of course helps us provide necessary operating revenue." Membership would continue to be a major concern of the association's leadership in the coming years. In his 1988 Convention keynote, Keedy also encouraged text authors to think of themselves as professionals.

At the end of 1987, TAA lobbied for a new section (Section 263A (h) in the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that would enable authors to deduct the expenses of researching and writing a book in the year that they were incurred. The section had been added mysteriously as a footnote in the report to the Senate-House conference committee, causing much controversy. TAA's efforts, as well as the efforts of other authors groups, to keep the section in the Tax Reform Act, prevailed, and Congress passed it into law on the last day of its 1988 session.

The first TAA Council met January 10, 1989 in Phoenix, Arizona. On the agenda at that first meeting: membership growth and dues; financial considerations; filling of vacancies and TAA Committees. Council members included Paul A. Anderson, Howard Anton, Phil Cheifetz, Patrick Cihon, Mike Keedy, Bill Masterton, Gene Nichols and Richard Ziegler. The 1989 TAA Convention was held in San Antonio, June 15-18 at the Menger hotel. It was the first convention to feature "mini-courses" on three different subjects: The Textbook Publishing Contract - Potential and Pitfalls; Turning Your Textbook Ideas Into a Saleable Prospectus; and Financial Planning and Investment Strategies. These mini-courses would pave the way for TAA workshops, which were held the day before annual conferences, and later at colleges and universities across the country. The 1990 TAA Convention in Philadelphia, PA, June 21-24 featured the first of these pre-conference workshops.

In 1990, Kathy Heilenman, Professor of French at the University of Iowa, was chair of the newly formed Committee on Text Authoring and Academic Values. The committee eventually produced a set of guidelines to be distributed to promotional committees in educational institutions, giving criteria for judging the value of textbook authorship. Also that year, the Textbook Authors Association was incorporated as a not for profit corporation in the State of Florida.

In 1991, TAA sought to expand its base and focus by creating a special interest section for software creators. Within one year this section grew and diverged in needs and concerns and they moved to create their own separate organization.

The 1991 TAA Convention was held in Chicago at the Allerton June 20-23. That year, TAA decided to investigate changing its name to better fit its expanded scope and mission, which included authors of all kinds of academic materials. From the July 1991 issue of The TAA Report: "With special sessions [at the June 1991 TAA Convention] for software authors and for editors...the Council felt it most appropriate to include all academic authors in its scope of service and growth."

In 1991, when Mike Keedy decided to sell his horse farm in Orange Springs, Florida where TAA was headquartered, TAA purchased a mobile home on Norma Hood's property with Keedy's help. This mobile home became TAA's new headquarters. In 1992, Mike Keedy stepped down as Executive Director, having met his goal of establishing the organization and seeing it grow and mature. The TAA Council convinced him to remain as a consultant. Norma Hood, who had managed the TAA office, was appointed acting Executive Director, but for financial reasons, a search for an Executive Director to replace Keedy was never launched. Later in 1992, Mike Keedy announced his retirement as a consultant to TAA, and the TAA Council asked Norma Hood to stay on as acting Executive Director and to refer issues that formerly went to Mike Keedy to the association's officers and Council members. In June 1993, TAA created, in recognition of Mike Keedy's contributions to TAA, the M.L. (Mike) Keedy Award, awarded to a TAA member each year at the TAA Convention who has made the most significant contribution in the past year on behalf of authors. The first was awarded to Mike Keedy. That same year, the TAA Council presented Keedy with a lifetime honorary membership in TAA.

In October of 1992, the TAA Ethics Committee, chaired by Ronald Pynn, then chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of North Dakota, was charged with preparing a draft Ethics Code for Authors. A draft was presented to the TAA Council in January 1994, and adopted as "Principles of Ethics." A Committee on Contracts and Working Relations was also formed in 1992, chaired by Bill Pasewark. That committee would eventually create a Model Contract for authors for use in negotiating contracts with publishers.

To demonstrate the maturing nature of the organization, in 1993, major discussion was initiated about creating an author's publishing company. Negotiations were initiated with Copley Publishing Company about creating such an enterprise. While the venture proved not to be financially viable, it illustrates the seriousness of the organization in working to protect the rights of authors.

Also in 1993, the Senior Member governance structure was abolished in favor of membership-elected officers and a Board of Directors. From the July 1993 issue of The TAA Report: "The TAA Council has proven able and effective in directing the affairs of TAA. The senior members have agreed their presence is no longer needed. By amending the bylaws [to eliminate any reference to senior members] the senior members transferred all authority for managing TAA to the Council."

At the same time that the by-laws were being revised to reflect the changed governance structure, the name and priorities of the organization also changed. The Textbook Authors Association became the Text and Academic Authors Association, reflecting the broader base of membership and concern for all forms of academic and educational authorship. From the October 1993 issue of The TAA Report: "The Council action [to change the association's name from Textbook Authors Association to the Text and Academic Authors Association], long the subject of discussion within TAA, took place Fall 1993 to position TAA as an organization representing all academic authors in the United States. The TAA Council felt the issues facing authors in the 21st Century transcended textbook writers, that academic and scholarly writers will have more in common with textbook authors in the future."

That same year, TAA established The Textbook Excellence Award to recognize and honor the best new textbooks each year in a variety of genre categories, and the McGuffey Longevity to honor longevity in textbooks in those same genre categories. These awards have grown in popularity and acceptance and have become recognized by publishing houses as marks of publishing excellence.

Another important development in 1993 was TAA's involvement in international reprographic rights. TAA learned that international funds were being collected and returned on U.S. copyrighted material. TAA visited the U.S. reprographic rights organization, the Copyright Clearance Center, to talk about authors' share of non-title specific funds being returned to authors. TAA also visited the meeting of the International Federation of Reproductive Rights Organizations to press the claim of U.S. authors for their fair share of international funds collected on U.S. copyrighted material. The result of these actions produced negotiations between TAA, the Authors Guild, the Copyright Clearance Center, and Kopinor, the Norwegian reprographic organization.

By 1994 the negotiations over international reprography funds led to TAA being instrumental in helping create the Authors Coalition in the United States. The Authors Coalition is a coalition of U.S. author groups to receive and distribute international reprographic funds collected on U.S. copyrighted works. That money now rightfully goes to author groups.

Also in 1994, TAA established workshops for authors and prospective authors to be held on college and university campuses nationwide. Using a model developed by TAA member Franklin Silverman, a speech pathology author from Marquette University, TAA workshops proved a popular way for TAA to achieve the objectives of promoting authoring and assisting new authors to become established.

That same year, TAA's member newsletter, previously named The TAA Report, was renamed The Academic Author, and began being published monthly. Mass Communication author John Vivian took over as News Director and editor of the newsletter, and launched the TAA website, which provided a new medium for communicating with members. Paula Wiczek (now Heimbecker) was hired as Production Editor. In late 1995, Kim Pawlak was hired to write content for The Academic Author and the TAA website. The TAA listserv, moderated by TAA member Patrick McKeown, was created in December 1994 to provide text and academic authors with a forum for exchanging information, ideas, reviews of software, etc. More than 100 authors signed on between October and December 1994.

In November 1994, TAA established grants to help its academic author members offset expenses incurred in their research, writing and publishing of academic works. The TAA Council called the program "an important, additional member service." From the November 1994 issue of The Academic Author: "We are funding this new program with funds received from Europe for the photocopying of academic works by U.S. authors," said Kathy Heilenman, TAA President. "The grants will be an excellent and appropriate use of this new reprography income." The grants were suspended a couple of years later due to the association's financial issues at the time, but were resurrected in July 2007.

TAA used a portion of its reprographic funds in 1995 to fund a program of grants-in-aid to support the preparation and publication of academic works.

TAA Executive Director Norma Hood died in 1995 after a battle with lung cancer. To express the association's appreciation for Hood's commitment to TAA, then TAA President Gerald Stone established an annual Norma L. Hood Award for TAA service. As secretary and then Executive Director of TAA, Hood had managed the TAA member database, set the type for the TAA newsletter from its inception to its redesign, helped manage the TAA Conventions, and much more.

After Norma Hood's death, Ronald Pynn was named Executive Director and TAA headquarters was moved temporarily to Pynn's office at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND. By 1996, TAA headquarters was moved to the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Florida. Natalie Nichols was hired as TAA Office Manager, and Pamela Turner was hired as Director of Operations and Programs. Together they co-managed TAA headquarters. Pynn remained Executive Director based in North Dakota. TAA also hired St. Petersburg local reporter Tom Bayles to take over as editor of The Academic Author, so that editor John Vivian could concentrate on the TAA website.

TAA continued its battle against the sale of complimentary copies in 1996 by collecting from TAA members their institution's policies against the sale of comp copies on their campus. From the June 1996 issue of The Academic Author: "TAA is not going to solve the problem [sale of comp copies] with any one initiative but we can chip away at it little by little. This is such an effort."

Pamela Turner resigned as Director of Operations and Programs in 1997 to pursue a career in elementary education. Tom Bayles resigned as editor of The Academic Author at the end of 1997. Kim Pawlak, who had been writing for the newsletter and website for three years by that time, was hired in March 1998 as the new editor of The Academic Author, which became a monthly digested version of the TAA website. Paula Heimbecker was re-hired as the newsletter's Production Editor.

Also in 1998, the organization had become financially sound enough to permit making the Executive Director's position a half-time paid position. That year Janet Tucker became the Office Manager to replace Natalie Nichols, and Pynn moved to St. Petersburg as TAA's first half-time paid Executive Director. In early 1999, Margaret Matson was hired as Tucker's assistant.

The TAA Council of Fellows was created in 1998 to honor prolific and widely adopted authors in any field of textbook writing. From 1999-2005, 15 authors were inducted into the TAA Council of Fellows.

In 1999, TAA's Author-Publisher Relations Committee conducted a survey on author-publisher relations that was presented at its 1999 Convention in Park City, Utah. The survey found that textbook authors felt that their relationships were either going nowhere or down hill. In the October 1999 issue of The Academic Author, the Committee said the findings were important for TAA: "Every business needs to find out what customers think. So do professional organizations like TAA. Our customers, if you will, the members, poured their hearts and brains out in responding to this survey."

In June 1999, then Executive Director Ron Pynn developed several authoring workshops and offered members $500 to make contact with their faculty development offices and set up a workshop on their campus. Workshops included "Authoring a Text or Professional Book"; "Negotiating a Contract"' "Writing a Successful Book Proposal"; and "Self-Publishing." These workshops were successful for a number of years before interest in them declined. The biggest hurdle was in attracting colleges and universities interested in hosting a workshop on their campus.

In December 1999, then TAA Executive Director Ron Pynn solicited contributions among the TAA membership for a 42-page monograph containing information and advice for textbook authors. The monograph, "Tips for Successful Authoring," included sections on getting started in publishing, choosing a publisher, book proposals, working with co-authors, contract negotiations, the writing process and more.

TAA established an electronic journal, The Journal of Text and Academic Authoring, in 2000 as a companion to its web site. While further development of the journal was put on hold as more pressing association matters took precedence in the next few years, the creation of the journal recognized the growing digitalization of publishing as the future trend in academic publishing.

A new section of the TAA website went online in January 2000 that allowed authors to sell their works directly to customers. TAA's E-List for Books, is for TAA members who own the copyright to their books, or who are self-publishers.

In June 2001, TAA began sponsoring New Mexico State University writing coach Tara Gray's workshops "Publish Don't Perish," held on campuses across the country in return for her promoting TAA to attendees and asking them to join. Tara's workshops, now titled "Publish & Flourish: Become A Prolific Scholar," have proven to be TAA's most successful member recruitment tool.

In August 2001, TAA member Michael Lennie founded a TAA Chapter in San Diego. The chapter held its first meeting on May 29. Ten authors attended the first meeting, but the chapter was ultimately unsuccessful.

In October 2001, newsletter editor Kim Pawlak resigned to accept greater responsibilities at Sioux City, IA publisher Stevenson Consultants, Inc.

John Vivian resigned as News Director in 2002, causing TAA to rethink its news format and web design. As a result, Tammy (Lydia T.) Seidick was hired to develop a more streamlined TAA web site, and writer Kim Pawlak was re-hired as TAA's part-time Publications Manager, serving as Editor of The Academic Author, which shortened to a four-page digested version of the TAA website and published quarterly, and the TAA website. Pawlak instituted bi-monthly e-mail News Alerts to keep TAA members informed of text and academic authoring developments in between quarterly issues of The Academic Author. Over the next few years, Pawlak expanded the quarterly version of The Academic Author to 12 pages, and solicited advertising for the newsletter and website, while expanding the TAA website to include Industry News and TAA Notes sections; a Media Center; a Member-Only section; online new member and renewal forms; blogs; and more.

In February 2002, the TAA Council established a permanent executive committee made up of the association's officers, the executive director, and editor. This Executive Committee meets by teleconference monthly to look after TAA's affairs, conduct routine business, and study issues to make recommendation for action to the Council.

TAA membership swelled in April 2002 to more than 1,000 thanks in large part to Tara Gray's workshops, the first time membership has gone past 1,000 since the 1980s when TAA's membership, under the direction of founder Mike Keedy, pushed past 1,100. By the start of 2003, TAA membership was the highest in the association's history at 1,150. At the end of 2003, membership had risen to 1,279. The rise was attributed to the success of TAA's authoring workshops.

In January 2003, the TAA Council established a Standing Committee on Diversity. The Committee's mission is to diversify TAA's membership and expand the range of viewpoints represented in the writing of textbooks and academic papers.

TAA established the TAA Foundation in 2003 to raise funds to support projects that benefit text and academic authors. TAAF's current projects include a study of the diversity of textbook authorship in the United States, with the goal of encouraging more minorities to write textbooks; and a study of the U.S. Textbook Adoption Process. A successful solicitation of contributions allowed the Foundation to get established and begin to investigate grant possibilities. A TAA Foundation Board was developed and in 2006, hired a part-time Executive Director and created a TAAF logo, a website and a fund raising structure.

In December 2003, Frank Silverman, who served as TAA President in 1997, had been a member since just after the association's founding, and whose book, Authoring Textbooks and Other Academic and Professional Books and Materials, formed the basis of the first TAA workshops, died after a battle with terminal brain cancer.

In 2003, TAA moved out of its offices at University of South Florida, and the Executive Director and Office Manager began working out of their homes. Although at first thought to be temporary, this arrangement has worked well for the TAA staff and no further discussion was made about finding a new TAA headquarters.

By the start of 2005, TAA's finances were looking solid, with regular distributions of foreign reprography monies from the Authors Coalition, and around 1,200 members. By the end of 2005, membership numbers had begun to drop as members brought in through TAA workshops didn't renew. A reduction of dues for workshop members in their second year failed to increase renewals.

In July 2005, TAA hired a new half-time Executive Director Richard Hull to replace Ron Pynn. Charged with increasing member renewals and retention, Hull developed a plan to assist TAA in fulfilling its mission to provide more services to its academic author members, who were brought in largely through TAA workshops, but were difficult to get to renew. He redesigned and expanded TAA's workshops to include those on grant writing, academic publishing and the creation of camera-ready copy. Hull also began the move to professionalize the organization, changing it from a largely volunteer-run organization to a staff-run organization with volunteer input and leadership by the member-elected TAA Council.

To further professionalize TAA, in September 2006, TAA hired its Publication Editor, Kim Pawlak, who had been associated with TAA for more than 11 years by then, as its first full-time Associate Executive Director. Pawlak revamped TAA's member communication materials, restructured its membership renewal process, assisted the TAA Council in seeking nominees for the 2007-2008 elections, and began a redesign of The Academic Author.

On November 8, 2006, TAA's very first member, mathematics author Paul Anderson died. Anderson had chaired TAA's first committee on working conditions, and the association's first meeting in Las Vegas. At the TAA Council's mid-winter meeting in St. Petersburg's, Florida July 7-8, the Council voted to create the Paul A. Anderson Memorial Award to annual reward a member for his or her membership recruitment efforts on behalf of the association.

In December 2006, TAA created an e-pamphlet discouraging faculty from selling complimentary copies to booksellers. Titled "Stomp the Comp: Why You Should Stop Selling Your Comp Copies to Book Resellers," the e-pamphlet is posted on the TAA website as a downloadable PDF, and was mailed to faculty development officers at campuses across the U.S. requesting that they share it with their faculty.

By January 2007, membership and membership renewal were still top concerns. New Associate Executive Director Kim Pawlak began a strategy of directly reaching out to TAA members when they join or renew. She began planning a more expanded and dynamic 2007 TAA Conference, which was held in Buffalo, NY June 22-23, developing a theme and logo and a conference website; offering concurrent tracks for text and academic authors, adding moderated Roundtable Discussions, and providing more networking opportunities for attendees.

TAA Leadership 1987-2007