2008 Texty, McGuffey winners participate in Q&A during TAA Conference Awards Ceremony

Five of this year's Texty and McGuffey winners attended the TAA Awards Ceremony in Las Vegas held June 21 during the 2008 TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring.

After being presented with their awards from TAA President John Wakefield, Texty winners Bradley D. Fahlman, author of Materials Chemistry; Charles Corbin, co-author of Fitness for Life: Middle School; Janet Belsky, author of Experiencing the Lifespan; and Jay Withgott, co-author of Environment: The Science Behind the Stories; and McGuffey winner Belverd E. Needles, co-author of Principles of Accounting, participated in a Q&A session with attendees.

Q: What is the hardest part about becoming a textbook author?

Fahlman: "I wrote my textbook before I gained tenure. The hardest part about writing the textbook was managing a research group and publishing enough articles for tenure while writing the book at the same time."

Needles: "Everything you have to do after the first edition is written. I took me eight years to write my first textbook. Writing the first edition is not the end of your work. There's much to do after that."

Withgott: "The time commitment. There were tremendous sacrifices of family and leisure time while writing the book. The rewards in the process and the end result are worth it."

Belsky: "Forcing myself to get to the computer at 8:30 every morning."

Corbin: "The hardest part of becoming textbook author was convincing the publisher there was a need for the book, and the second hardest was convincing adopters that they needed the book."

Q: What is your textbook's most outstanding feature?

Belverd: "We used a non-traditional approach to accounting. This was a negative in the beginning, because the publisher made us do two years of class testing with students before they would consider the book. Once it was published the book sold more copies in the first year than what were expected to sell during the entire life of the edition."

Corbin: "I am most proud of the way we characterize kids. We worked hard to portray kids in an inclusive way in photos and examples. We wanted kids to feel that physical education was for all kids, not just those who are athletic or good at games."

Withgott: "We integrated central case studies throughout the book. Each chapter starts with a case study that is expanded on throughout the chapter. This feature has proven popular with instructors and students."

Belsky: "The feedback that I receive from students who say they really like to read the book. They say that they read it for pleasure. The book has a personal, conversational style, yet is research-oriented. It is used at both top research-oriented institutions and at community colleges."

Q: What are your writing habits?

Belverd: "I work most productively from 4 to 7 p.m. I taught during the daytime and my rule was that I closed my door from 4-7 and wasn't available until after that time."

Belsky: "I start early in the morning and work in at least three-hour blocks. I have a hard time working at night or in the afternoon."

Corbin: "I take a block of time. Early on I stopped teaching in the summers and spent my time writing. I collected data during the school year but did most of my writing in the summer. During the school year I set aside one day a week to work at  home. Phoenix and Arizona State government had a 'don't drive one in five' campaign to help reduce pollution and save energy. That was a perfect opportunity to stay home one day a week and save the commute time to work. You might take advantage of similar opportunities. If you have your resources at home you can get more done in one day in a block of time than you can do in eight hours divided over a week's time. Those are two strategies that have worked for me."

Fahlman: "I'm a night owl so I start about 9 p.m. and work until two or three in the morning. Fortunately for me the earliest class I teach is 11 a.m."

Withgott: "I put as much time between the first and second draft as I can so that when I come back to it I can see it anew and read it through in a different light. I also read the text differently in manuscript form in a Word document than I do when it is in PDF form in page proofs. It helps me catch things I may not have seen in the text draft."

Belverd: "I think it is important for an author to focus on where he or she adds value, i.e., on the organization, writing, pedagogy, and development of assignments and cases. Leave the tedious tasks to someone else. Back before computers, I had a typist for 20 hours a week. I tried to produce enough material to keep her busy for the entire 20 hours. I also hired graduate students to solve solutions to problems."

Q: How unhappy was your spouse/partner during your writing of the textbook?

Belverd: "My wife has been working as a co-author on my textbooks for 32 years."

Belsky: "My husband likes to have space of his own and doesn't mind the time I spend on the book. It was my son that didn't like the attention my book took away from him."

Corbin: "My wife and I celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on June 12th. So we're doing fine."

Withgott: "We are both busy with our careers and I involve her in the process."

Fahlman: "You can ask my wife yourself. She's here." (his wife said that she missed him while he was working on the text, and so did their cat. When the cat wanted Bradley's attention, it would lay across his keyboard. Another attendee asked his wife if she had tried that.)

Q: How did you convince publishers your book idea was valuable?

Corbin: "My coauthors and I had to publish our first book ourselves in 1968. We had to go out to conventions and convince publishers that they needed the book before we were finally signed by a publisher in 1970. Publishers don't like to try new ideas. You have to push them to make changes. If you've got a good idea you have to push publishers to try it. You also have to push publishers to include new and different ancillaries for your books. For example, we used Persuasion (a slide making computer program) to create computer slides long before PowerPoint was available. The publisher said that there was no demand. We got there before the demand and it helped our book. Now all books have PowerPoint programs. We have developed other new things that we had to sell publishers on, but after they are successful our ideas appeared in other books from the company. You can't protect ideas but you can protect innovations if you plan ahead. Now matter what you do your good ideas will end up in other books including your competitor's books. Getting there first with new ideas helps you stay ahead of the pack."