- Q&A interview with psychology author Philip Zimbardo Oct. 30
- First International Conference on Academic Writing in Israel
- Member Column: Should books be written for departmental profit?
- TAA president, ED, respond to article on textbook costs
- Authors embrace open educational movement
- What's next for Google Settlement
- Textbook 2.0: What's the future of textbooks?
- Authors to benefit from textbook rental royalties
- With textbook rentals, authors should read their contracts
- Google Book Search opt-in/out deadline extended
- Authors embrace new open source publishing model
- TAA thanks Sustaining Member
- Listen to recording of Oct. 27 TAA Teleconference on social media for authors
- Busy TAA People: Kathleen King
- TAA member interviewed by WLW Cincinnati Radio on unemployment and retraining
- Members receive discount on book printing
- TAA thanks Sustaining Members
- TAA members asked to make opinions on government-published “free” textbooks known
- Busy TAA People: Frank Christ
- Listen to recording of Oct. 19 TAA Teleconference on the author-editor relationship
- Two more editors offer editing discounts to members
- Dozen education books added to TAA bookstore
- Beyond the Book podcast features geo-primer of San Antonio
- Call for proposals for 2010 conference
- Apply or nominate someone for membership in TAA's Council of Fellows
- Listen to part two recording of Oct. 12 TAA Teleconference on textbook supplements
- Listen to part two recording of Oct. 12 TAA Teleconference on generating and refining research ideas
- Apply or nominate someone for membership in TAA's Council of Fellows
- Listen to recording of Oct. 8 TAA Teleconference on copyright-related issues
- New TAA gift memberships
- Listen to recording of Oct. 5 TAA Teleconference on textbook supplements
- Listen to recording of Oct. 5 TAA Teleconference on generating and refining research ideas
- TAA thanks Sustaining Member
Q&A interview with psychology author Philip Zimbardo Oct. 30
Participate in a Q&A session with Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist and author of several hundred professional articles and fifty books, including The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence (McGraw-Hill), on October 30, 2009, 1-2 p.m. EST. The session is hosted by Ben Dean of MentorCoach (www.mentorcoach.com).
Zimbardo, a long-time TAA member, co-authored The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life (New York: Free Press, 2008).
To sign up, click here: http://www.mentorcoach.com/zimbardo/index.htm
First International Conference on Academic Writing in Israel
The Israel Forum for Academic Writing (IFAW) and the Institute of Research, Curriculum and Program Development for Teacher Education (known by its Hebrew aconym, MOFET) announce 'Academic Writing and Beyond in Multicultural Societies,' Israel’s First International Conference on Academic Writing, July 28-29, 2010, which will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The conference will address current issues in first, second, and foreign language academic writing in English, Hebrew, Arabic, and other languages. Parallel sessions will include individual presentations, panels, round table discussions, and workshops for those in higher education and those who prepare students for higher education.
Keynote and plenary sessions will be delivered in English. Papers and small group presentations may be given in Hebrew, English, or Arabic. Research-based contributions, as well as practical approaches to the teaching and learning of academic and professional writing are welcome.
Temporary Web site for the conference: http://web.mac.com/michael_dickel/iWeb/IFAWConf.html
Member Column:
Should books be written for departmental profit?
By Charles B. Corbin
TAA Member
As an author I have been aware of custom book sales for some time. My own books have been customized over the years to provide instructors with books that meet their unique needs. In some cases an instructor or a department, in the case of departmental adoptions, will choose selected chapters from a book. In others they will choose selected chapters and add material of their own. Finally, there are those that combine chapters from several books to provide materials that meet the specific needs of their students. Click to read full column
TAA president, ED, respond to article on textbook costs
TAA President Paul Siegel and TAA Executive Director Richard Hull respond to a September 24, 2009 article in Inside Higher Ed, entitled, "Free, But at What Cost?". The article talks about a free digital textbook program being instituted at the University of South Florida in partnership with a state-supported digital library called The Orange Grove.
Article on Inside Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/24/textbooks
Said Siegel:
"I suppose one could invoke the logical implication of Samuel Johnson's famous quip, and thus conclude that only a "blockhead" would put in the thousands of hours it takes to produce a good textbook without expectation of remuneration. But one need not be so harsh to recognize that limiting professors' choices of texts to those few that have been offered gratis is to offer very little choice at all. And if the goal is, as some have suggested, to create a sufficient library such that professors can choose individual chapters from many different sources in order to custom-design a reading list, that choice is already available, and properly so, under Fair Use. I have on more than one occasion replied to inquiring professors that they don't need my permission to use one of my textbook chapters as supplemental reading for their students in classes where a competing text as the primary reading (or indeed where there is no single text adopted). Choice is a good thing, and what Creative Commons is thus doing with its partners can be a good thing. Our reasonable fear is that professors may be pressured to "choose" a free text, even if it is an inferior text."
Said Hull:
"The open access movement being sponsored by the University of Florida Press and The Orange Grove is an interesting idea. It will be crucial to its success to have a variety of texts for each typical course area, as needs and interests vary enormously from the intro logic course at a community college campus, where the course is thought of as trying to improve the critical reading and thinking of students about daily life, to the intro logic course at a technical school that leads to a degree in Artificial Intelligence, where the need is to develop facility in symbolic rendering of concepts and their structuring in networks of analysis. One text won’t fit all.
From the faculty perspective, teaching the same text semester after semester is deadly boring. Variety is the spice of the life of the faculty who teaches service courses and helps keep the subject interesting.
From the perspective of the author, while the core material of any given subject probably doesn’t vary much from one semester to another, developments in the field can have profound implications for the presentation of the subject, as can the interests of different populations of students. A high percentage of Hispanic students in an American History class is probably going to require attention to different issues than a class of mostly African Americans, and both of those may require different approaches than for a class of transplanted Yankees! Again, one size won’t fit all, meaning that multiple options in digitized texts will have to be secured, just as are multiple options in print texts.
The final concern is one voiced in the article: a politician might decide that the interests of students are best served if the legislature dictates the texts that will be so made available. The Florida legislature has repeatedly demonstrated an interest in affecting the content of the classroom; the idea of a digital library might make that interest easier to indulge.
That all said, the option of either a digital or printed on demand copy at a reduced price seems a good one for students. The needs of the author and the publisher/producer will have to be secured in order for this option to succeed."
Authors embrace open educational movement
by David Cole
Voicing concern about the financial burden of textbooks on students, a growing number of authors are embracing the concept of open educational resources (OER)—teaching materials that are free, modular, and adaptable.
“While a few textbook authors do very well authoring for-profit texts, most don’t make very much money,” said Barbara Illowsky, Ph.D, professor of mathematics and statistics at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, and co-author of Collaborative Statistics, an open educational resource (OER) available on the non-profit Connexions website (http://cnx.org). “At the same time, faculty are used to writing journal articles that they don’t get paid for. So the idea of working on a textbook without the incentive of getting paid is not unthinkable.”
Her book was originally published by HarperCollins and later by Addison-Wesley as a text for introductory statistics classes. In the 1990s, she and her co-author bought back the rights and published it themselves. In 2008, the Maxfield Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting scientific research and education, bought the rights to the book, converted it to an OER format, and made it available under a Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org) license on the Connexions website.
Since then, said Illowsky, she has been thrilled to see that the work has been adopted for classes throughout the country and the world. She is also pleased to see that instructors are adopting and adapting modules for a variety of courses in addition to the introductory statistics course for which it was written.
“I have been in contact with instructors who are using chapters of my book for business courses,” she said. “An instructor at Howard University is using a portion of my book in a dentistry program.”
The savings for students using her book are considerable, she said: “We calculated that by adopting the free book for the introductory statistics course at De Anza College we saved students $250,000 in one year.”
The Connexions program is funded by grants and through the support of several non-profits. The Connexions website is run by Rice University with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, also a major supporter of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) and its Open Textbook Project, which was instrumental in making the necessary arrangements and putting all the parties together.
Jacky Hood, director of CCCOER at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California, said there are a variety of models for creating open textbooks, many of which include compensation for authors.
“While some authors are grant funded, others may hope to supplement their income through add-on sales of ancillary materials, or they can find speaking and consulting opportunities,” she said.
Companies like Flat World Knowledge (http://www.flatworldknowledge.com) and Freeload Press (http://www.freeloadpress.com) are experimenting with a combination of free downloadable books and low-priced paperbacks. Freeload has developed a model that offers books free with advertising, or low cost without.
In the mathematics department at the College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California, said Hood, faculty are contributing to a free online introductory math text as part of their job.
A large number of instructors already have course materials online, and she has been approaching them with the idea of adapting their materials as open resources and making them available in modular form. The Connexions site is already hosting almost 15,000 such modules in 26 languages and is actively seeking materials for use in the most popular introductory classes.
Hood currently has her eye on a free introductory economics textbook by R. Larry Reynolds, professor emeritus of economics at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, who provides his textbook to his students online (http://www.boisestate.edu/econ/lreynol/web/).
“I felt sorry for students who were paying hundreds of dollars for texts, and I wasn’t even using all of the books,” he said. “I was particularly pleased to be able to customize a text that suited my own style and perspective.”
His book includes a chapter on epistemology because, he said, “students weren’t getting it anywhere else, and I felt it was important.” His book also includes a variety of teaching modules in Excel that students can download and interact with.
“This is really visual,” he said. “You can look at a demand curve and price elasticity and watch what it does.”
Now retired, Reynolds continues to hear from students as far away as Ethiopia who have found his book online and are using it to supplement their coursework.
David Cole is a freelance writer and publishing professional in Pt. Richmond, California.
What's next for Google Settlement
Copyright attorney Lois Wasoff will present a free Beyond the Book seminar for the Copyright Clearance Center on Wednesday, September 23 at 12 noon ET as part of CCC's educational series on the proposed class action settlement between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.
Since its announcement in October 2008, there has been a continuous stream of activity surrounding the Google Settlement. Thousands of pages have been filed with the court, and the US government has weighed in. Wasoff returns to help sort out the diverse viewpoints in anticipation of the Fairness Hearing. Presented in clear and concise terms, the seminar will examine the complex issues facing Judge Dennis Chin.
This presentation continues a seminar series sponsored by CCC. Recordings of previous sessions can be found on CCC's Education page.
Register for this seminar: Click here
Textbook 2.0: What's the future of textbooks?
Panelists of a June 2009 TAA Conference session on Textbook 2.0, including Roth Wilkofsky, president of the Arts and Sciences Communication, English, and Political Science group for Pearson – considered how technology can make textbooks better by improving the educational experience, and accommodating different learning styles.
Listen to a podcast of the session on the Copyright Clearance Center's Beyond the Book website: http://beyondthebookcast.com/textbook-2-0/
Authors to benefit from textbook rental royalties
By Anne Millbrooke
McGraw-Hill’s pilot textbook rental program will start with 25 titles: Thermodynamics by Yunus Cengel Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design by Richard G. Budynas Business Communication by Raymond V. Lesikar Understanding Business by William Nickels Opening Doors by Joe Cortina General Chemistry by Raymond Chang Music Appreciation, Brief Edition by Roger Kamien Biology by Roger J. Brooker Essentials of Finance by Stephen Ross Psychology by Michael Passer Practical Business Math by Jeffrey Slater Business and Administrative Communication by Kitty O. Locker Theatre by Robert Cohen Basic College Math by Ignacio Bello Reconstructing Gender by Estelle Disch Fit and Well by Thomas D. Fahey Managerial Accounting by Ronald W. Hilton Financial and Managerial Accounting by John J. Wild Child Development by John W. Santrock Introduction to Mass Communication by Stanley J. Baran Biology by Sylvia S. Mader Essentials of Biology by Sylvia S. Mader Chemistry by Raymond Chang Marketing by Dhru Grewal Organizational Behavior by Steven McShane Editor’s Note: Only lead authors are listed |
Textbook publishers McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage Learning say their new textbook rental programs will provide authors a royalty on each rental.
Cengage plans to rent its textbooks directly to students through a new retail website called CengageBrain.com starting this December. Authors will be compensated on a per-rental basis. Because CengageBrain.com is not a separate company, all royalties paid on rentals, including the initial new book rental, will be based on the net rental fee rather than on the sale price of the book, said Lindsey Brown, Cengage’s corporate communications director.
“While the net rental fee is lower than the net price of a text, the effect of multiple rentals over the course of the life of an edition is likely to be more beneficial to both the author’s and publisher’s income than the current conventional model by which used books erode publisher’s new book sales over the course of an edition,” she said. “This is different from the current sales model where our authors are cut out of the revenue stream after the initial sale of the new book.”
The amount of the royalty will be based on each author’s contract, said Brown.
“The rental model may prove to be a win-win if it defeats the used book market,” said Paul Siegel, TAA president, professor of communication at the University of Hartford, and a textbook author.
CengageBrain.com will charge 40 to 70 percent of the suggested retail price for each rental of a print book, said Brown. Students will also have the option to buy a print book, e-textbook, e-chapter, or audio book.
Brown said Cengage has not yet chosen the titles it will include in its December launch of CengageBrain.com.
Rather than renting textbooks directly to students, McGraw-Hill has partnered with rental textbook company Chegg.com in a revenue-sharing pilot program starting with the 2009-2010 school year.
During the pilot, McGraw-Hill plans to sell 25 of its titles in print editions to Chegg.com, who will rent out the titles and pay a fee to the publisher on each rental. McGraw-Hill will pay a royalty to its author for each rental based on each author’s contract with the publisher.
Tom Stanton, McGraw-Hill’s director of communications, said the program will allow McGraw-Hill and its authors to receive revenue from the initial purchase of their books and share in the rental revenues through the life each title. In the past, Chegg has purchased McGraw-Hill titles, paying only the initial sale price and nothing on subsequent rentals of the books.
“McGraw-Hill’s royalty agreement with authors remains unchanged with this pilot,” said Stanton. “Our authors are paid a royalty on net receipts for their product. Through our agreement with Chegg, authors will receive royalties from McGraw-Hill every time the book is rented.”
Online textbook rentals have been growing in popularity for years, and certain McGraw-Hill titles have been available through Chegg's online textbook rental service since Chegg began nationwide operations in 2007. This agreement creates a first-ever direct working relationship between a publisher and textbook rental company, wherein Chegg will source all of its rental inventory directly from McGraw-Hill.
For each of the 25 titles selected for the revenue-sharing pilot, McGraw-Hill and Chegg will share the revenue received on each rental throughout the life of the textbook. Textbooks are often rented five or more times before they are retired, and, according to Chegg, the rental life of a textbook is often longer than the life of the published edition.
The purpose of the pilot program is to establish the economics of renting textbooks in a live-market test. The 2009-2010 school year will be used to determine the success of the pilot program and the value of an expanded partnership and revenue-sharing model between McGraw-Hill Education and Chegg.
“The relationship Chegg has with the publishers has been mutually beneficial from a business perspective and we hope to continue this practice going forward,” said Chegg’s spokesperson Angela Pontarolo.
She declined to comment on how much McGraw-Hill will receive on each book rental.
McGraw-Hill hopes to build upon this model to expand textbook rentals through other channels, including bookstores.
Jay Devore, who has published four books with Cengage, including Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences, 7/e, said that he was disturbed by the fact that the publisher did not contact authors before going public to find out if they had questions or concerns.
“I would like to see more transparency with authors,” he said. “But something needs to be done to stem the tide of used books. So maybe this is the answer.”
Brown said that Cengage’s outreach to authors began with the public announcement of CengageBrain.com. Devore received a letter from Cengage the week after the public announcement.
Anne Millbrooke is the author of the textbook Aviation History and a freelance writer based in Bozeman, Montana.
With textbook rentals, authors should read their contracts
By Anne Millbrooke
Although Cengage Learning and McGraw-Hill Education’s rental programs seem to be a win-win for authors, copyright attorney Stephen E. Gillen, of Greenebaum Doll & McDonald, cautions authors to read their contract and to ask themselves the following questions as they do so:
Does the publisher have the right to rent books or to share in rental revenue with a third party?
“That is not part of the traditional royalty system,” he said. “If a publisher sets up a separate subsidiary to handle rentals, there is a danger that the author will not be entitled to royalties on the subsidiary’s revenues.”
Does the publisher’s contract with the author give the publisher the right to rent the book?
“You are likely to find the answer in your contact in a paragraph often called the ‘Grant of Rights’,” he said. “The paragraph is likely to assign the copyrights in your work to the publisher, in which case the publisher will have the right to rent your book in addition to selling it. Alternatively, the grant paragraph may assign a laundry list of specific rights to the publisher, in which case the publisher may not have the right to rent out copies of your work unless that activity falls within the list of rights being assigned.”
Does your publisher have the right to rent out copies of your work, and can you or the publisher stop another company from renting out copies of your book that have been purchased from the publisher?
“You will most likely find that you cannot,” he said. “The ‘doctrine of first sale’ in copyright law cuts off the copyright owner’s right to control what happens to a copy of her work once that copy has been sold or given away, so a second-party rental company has not infringed upon any copyright when renting out the copy that it acquired by purchase.”
How do authors get paid?
“See the Royalty Rates section of your contract,” he said. “The question is, which category does rental fit in? Rental is new enough that that may not be clear in an existing contract. Authors or their agents can negotiate rental and digital rights in future contracts.”
Anne Millbrooke is the author of the textbook Aviation History and a freelance writer based in Bozeman, Montana.
Google Book Search opt-in/out deadline extended
The deadline to opt-in or out of the Google Book Search Settlement agreement has been extended to Tuesday, September 8 at 10 a.m. EDT. Authors whose publisher(s) holds copyrights to their book(s) will not need to do anything. But authors of self-published works, or works in which they have retained copyright, will have until Tuesday to make a decision about whether to opt-in and receive a cash settlement for books that were copied by Google before the agreement, and to receive payments for online access to their works.
Learn more about the Google Settlement Agreement and how will it affect textbook and academic authors:
- Google Settlement Agreement less relevant to in-print textbook authors (Nov '08 article)
- Authors, publishers, and Google reach landmark settlement (Nov '08 article)
Authors embrace new open source publishing model
by David Cole
|
Several authors who have signed contracts to write textbooks for online textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge (FWK) say that despite some initial reservations, they are enthusiastic about taking part in an experiment that promises to serve students, instructors, authors, and publishers.
One of the first authors to sign with FWK was Michael Solomon, a professor of marketing, and director of the Center for Consumer Research at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
His book, Launch! Advertising and Promotion in Real Time, co-authored with Lisa Duke Cornell and Amit Nizan, and published by FWK, offered him the opportunity “to walk the walk.” he said.
“I saw Jeff Shelstad and Eric Frank’s [founders of FWK] entire venture as a noble experiment,” said Solomon. “Given the subject area of my text, I saw the company’s publishing model as offering a great platform, and I was intrigued enough by the business model to want to see how it would play out.”
Though available online in a beta version for a couple of semesters, the book is just being published and marketed now. While it is too soon to have solid sales figures, Solomon said that the book has been picked up by “some major programs."
Karen Collins, associate professor of accounting at Lehigh University, was also one of FWK’s first authors. Her textbook, Exploring Business, was originally published by Prentice Hall.
“I was attracted by FWK’s open source approach, which makes the entire book available on the Internet for free while offering a variety of versions for sale at different prices,” she said.
Students can download an entire PDF of her book for $19.95; purchase a black and white printed version for $29.95; a color version for $59.95; or an audio version for $39.95.
While Collins acknowledges that offering a free online version will cost her some sales, she believes that over time this approach will create more readers for the book and more effective teaching. “I like the idea that individual instructors can customize the text for their classes,” she said. “I also enjoy the opportunity to interact with other instructors about how their classes are taught.”
Published in February 2009, her book has so far been adopted at 65 schools with a total expected enrollment of about 8,500 students.
Charles Stangor, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland and the author of seven textbooks, including Research Methods in Social Psychology, originally published by Houghton Mifflin (now Cengage Learning), recently signed on with FWK to write Introduction to Psychology.
“I really appreciate being able to put the book online and get feedback,” he said. “They are doing everything right. They have good developmental editors, and the books look good.”
Stangor said he also likes the fact that royalties are set at 20 percent, paid four times a year, and apply to all the book’s digital ancillaries such as flash cards, online quizzes, and study guides.
Mason Carpenter, professor and M. Keith Weikel Chair in Leadership in the Wisconsin School of Business, co-authored Principles of Management with Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan, which was published by FWK in March 2009.
Having already written a number of books for several different companies, Carpenter first saw Flat World’s publishing model as risky. However, because part of his work involves teaching disruptive strategies, he concluded this project would let him experience first hand some of the ideas he presents in his classes.
“So far I am happy with my decision,” he said.
In July, only a few months after publication, Carpenter had already received a royalty check, which he considers a good sign. “I expect that my returns will eventually be equal to or greater than those I would have received from a traditional publisher,” he said. “Of particular value, is the fact that FWK gives authors exclusive rights within certain subject areas, so that the firm’s sales staff won’t be presenting instructors with competing books.”
Steve Barkan, a professor of sociology at the University of Maine, recently signed on with Flat World after writing five textbooks with traditional publishing companies.
He was particularly attracted to FWK because he saw its model as a win-win proposition: “Teaching at a public university, I see students suffering from financial pressures, and so having books available online for free or at low price points is important to me.”
He is currently working on writing an introduction to sociology textbook for FWK, which he expects to compete successfully because of the high quality and low prices, even though there are many established books already in use for this course.
Barkan especially likes the fact that FWK values rigor: “They have a full vetting process among colleagues, and they are looking for authors who have a track record of scholarship as well as experience writing textbooks.”
David Cole is a freelance writer and publishing professional in Pt. Richmond, California.
Previous TAA articles on Flat World Knowledge:
- Flat World Knowledge publishes first textbooks (April 2009)
- Online textbook delivers timely, real-world content (November 2008)
TAA thanks Sustaining Member
TAA thanks Sustaining Member Jane E. Aaron.
Listen to recording of Oct. 27 TAA Teleconference on social media for authors
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 27 TAA Teleconference "Using Social Media to Promote Your Writing & Your Personal Brand", presented by Amy DeLouise, of Amy DeLouse Consulting. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
Busy TAA People: Kathleen King
Dr. Kathleen P. King, president of Transformation Education LLC, presented a two-hour training session on "Podcasting Basics and Educational Applications" in San Antonio, TX, October 26, 2009.
TAA member interviewed by WLW Cincinnati Radio on unemployment and retraining
Dr. Kathleen P. King, president of Transformation Education LLC, was interviewed by WLC Cincinnati Radio's Scott Sloan about unemployed workers, the benefits of education and training, how to identify careers, and how to select a program of study. King, an adult development and learning expert, is a TAA member. Listen to the recording of this interview: http://transformationed.com/info/#radio
Members receive discount on book printing
New TAA member HX Book Printing is offering fellow members 10 percent off its book printing services. Learn more: Click here
TAA thanks Sustaining Members
Thank you to Sustaining Members Karen Morris and Wayne L. Weiten.
TAA members asked to make opinions on government-published “free” textbooks known
TAA Members Respond: "It would be far easier to jump on board this proposal if government had a better track record in its incursions into the relationship among publisher, author, and teacher. But it is governments—state boards of education, typically—that have pressured textbook publishers to water down their work so as to not offend. Creationism and its more recent incarnation, intelligent design, have been pushed on professional educators over and over, and principled teachers have had to go to court to win their right to adopt more appropriate learning materials. To be sure, the federal government has frequently been a powerful check on dangerous interventions at the state and local level. But we should not cast aside all skepticism just because this is federal legislation under consideration. Who among us would embrace the idea of Congress being able to dictate to schools and colleges nationwide what books they should use? Yet in an age of scarce resources, forcing publishers and authors to compete against zero-cost classroom materials will make it very difficult indeed for individual school boards and teachers to argue for what they see as superior materials but which are not offered free of charge." Paul Siegel |
TAA Executive Director Richard Hull asks members to help the Association of American Publishers with their efforts to amend a bill (HR 3221) that would allow the government to produce online course materials. The AAP argues that quality online materials are already readily available, and the government would be hurting authors, publishers, and the hundreds of companies involved in developing and distributing online materials -- and students -- by competing with them.
Dear TAA Members:
The Association of American Publishers has asked us to help them with their efforts to amend a bill that would allow the government to produce free online course materials. The AAP argues that quality online materials are already readily available, and the government would be hurting authors, publishers, and the hundreds of companies involved in developing and distributing online materials — and students — by competing with them.
HR 3221 is still sitting in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has been meeting with the staff of the Senators who serve on the HELP Committee and their staff to encourage them to amend the bill.
The bill has the solid backing of the White House and staff at the Department of Education. Their principal arguments are that quality online materials are not available and, even if they are, the government can produce better materials, and that online course and course materials should be free to everyone, in the U.S. and abroad.
The AAP has pointed out that online courses are, in fact readily available and that those produced in the U.S. are the best in the world and noted that spending government money to compete with that existing structure will hurt authors, publishers and the hundreds of companies involved in developing and distributing online materials and, ultimately, the very students they want to help.
The government wants to start from scratch. Why wait when, as Tom Allen notes in his attached letter to the editor of Politico; all the course materials they want are already only “a mouse click away.” The AAP said they are getting some traction with the Democrats. The Republicans on the Committee are strongly supportive of our position but, as the minority, have limited input to the process.
I encourage you to contact HELP Committee members and express your opinions on the bill. Clicking on the link beside each name will take you to the member’s web page; look for “Contact me” and then search for the email address or the telephone number for legislative issues.
Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
Here is a collection of background articles to look at to make your expressed opinion more credible:Democrats (13)
Robert E. Andrews (NJ-01) http://www.house.gov/andrews/
David Wu (OR-01) http://www.house.gov/wu/
Phil Hare (IL-17) http://www.house.gov/hare/
John F. Tierney (MA-06) http://www.house.gov/tierney/
Dennis J. Kucinich (OH-10) http://www.house.gov/kucinich/
Marcia Fudge (OH-11) http://www.house.gov/fudge/
Dale E. Kildee (MI-05) http://www.house.gov/kildee/
Carolyn McCarthy (NY-04) http://www.house.gov/mccarthy/
Rush D. Holt (NJ-12) http://www.house.gov/holt/
Joe Sestak (PA-07) http://www.house.gov/sestak/
Dave Loebsack (IA-02) http://www.house.gov/loebsack/
Yvette Clark (NY-11) http://www.house.gov/clark/
Republicans (8)
Tom Price (GA-06) http://www.house.gov/price/
John Kline (MN-02) http://www.house.gov/kline/
Howard “Buck” McKeon (CA-25) http://www.house.gov/mckeon/
Joe Wilson (SC-02) http://www.house.gov/wilson/
Brett Guthrie (KY-2) http://www.house.gov/guthrie/
Tom McClintock (CA-4) http://www.house.gov/mcclintock/
Duncan D. Hunter (CA-52) http://www.house.gov/hunter/
Phil Roe (TN-1) http://www.house.gov/roe/
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/27922.htmlBoth textbook and academic authors will have interests affected by a government-run free, open access textbook program in competition with standard publishers. You may wish to express your views so that this sub committee understands the opinions of us all.
Tom Allen, President and CEO, Association of American Publishers
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27762.html
Column supporting HR 3221 by Sec. of Ed Arne Duncan
http://www.redstate.com/johnkline/2009/10/15/federal-curriculum-101/
Column opposing HR 3221 by Rep. Kline (R-MN)
http://chronicle.com/article/Free-Online-Courses-at-a-V/48777/
Open Courses: Free, but Oh So Costly
http://chronicle.com/article/Countries-Offer-Different-T/48775/
Around the World, Varied Approaches to Open Online Learning
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/10/06/hess
The Misguided 'Online Skills Laboratory
http://www.hewlett.org/news/the-liberation-of-textbooks
The Liberation of Textbooks
Richard Hull, PhD
Executive Director of TAA
Richard.Hull@taaonline.net
(850) 893-6539
Busy TAA People: Frank Christ
The Journal of Developmental Education published "Learning Center Issues, Then and Now: An Interview with Frank Christ" in the Spring 2009 issue (pp. 24-27). The JDE had published an interview with Christ 30 years ago and this interview attempted to show the changes in the field of learning assistance at the college level.
Listen to recording of Oct. 19 TAA Teleconference on the author-editor relationship
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 19 TAA Teleconference "Making the Most of the Author-Editor Relationship: Insights From An Author & Editor," presented by Elsa Peterson, a freelance editor with 25 years of experience in the college textbook industry; and Bruno Dyck, Professor at the I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada and lead author of Management: Current Practices and New Directions. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
Two more editors offer editing discounts to members
Archer Editorial Services and Ann Greenberger have joined several other editors in offering discounted editing services to TAA Members. Learn more about Archer Editorial Services, Ann Greenberger, and other companies offering discounts to members: Click here
Dozen education books added to TAA bookstore
A dozen of TAA member Kathleen King's books have been added to the TAA Books for Purchase section, including Podcasting for Teachers: Using a New Technology to Revolutionize Teaching and Learning coauthored with Mark Gura, and Planning for Effective Faculty Development, coauthored with Patricia A. Lawler. View the full list: Click here
Beyond the Book podcast features geo-primer of San Antonio
A new Copyright Clearance Center Beyond the Book podcast features geography textbook author Robert Christopherson's geo-primer of San Antonio, Texas, originally presented at the 2009 TAA Conference in San Antonio June 26, 2009. Christopherson, professor emeritus of geography at American River College, and author of the leading physical geography texts, explored the city of San Antonio as a point of convergence in geography and history, from the physical setting in the southern Great Plains to the challenges to settlement posed by dryness and vast distances. Listen to the podcast: Click here
Call for proposals for 2010 conference
The 2010 TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring will be held in Minneapolis, MN, June 25-26 at the Ramada Mall of America. The theme of the 2010 Conference is "Recent Trends in Textbook and Academic Publishing." The deadline for the call for proposals is January 4, 2010.
The Conference Committee, chaired by TAA Vice President Don Collins, invites the submission of proposals of three types:
- One-hour or half-hour presentations by individuals that would appeal to textbook authors (both print and electronic), academic authors (authors of journal articles, dissertations, grants, scholarly books, etc.), or both groups. These sessions are held on Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26.
- One-hour panels that present divergent perspectives and information about a common topic. The Conference Committee will consider proposals for panels in which the panel chair has already enlisted panelists as well as proposals for panel topics for which invitations to serve as a panelist will be issued after the panel topic is accepted. Panel sessions will also be held on both Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26.
- Half-hour roundtable discussions that focus on a specific topic. These are small-group discussions held concurrently during lunch on Friday, June 25.
The Conference Committee invites proposals on any subject consistent with the general theme of the conference. Sessions presented at recent conferences that would also be appropriate for the 2010 conference include:
For textbook sessions: the future of textbooks; new and emerging technology for authors; electronic publishing; the textbook authoring/publishing process; author–publisher relations; how to write a crossover book (one that can sell in the trade market and/or in different disciplines); textbook author websites; and contract negotiations.
For academic sessions: all aspects of journal article authoring (choosing a research topic, single or coauthorship, doing the research, organizing notes and literature review, choosing a journal, working with reviewers, etc.); how to create an edited book; turning your dissertation into a book (step-by-step approach).
For both types of sessions: Developing collaborative relationships with other authors; the writing process—how to get started, stay on track, fit writing into a limited time schedule, etc.); e-rights royalties; copyright and permissions issues; open resources; how to promote yourself and your writing through websites; writing groups, both in-person and online, and how they can assist you with your writing.
Questions about the conference and proposals for presentations should be sent to:
Professor Don Collins, Chair of the 2010 Conference Committee at don.collins@wku.edu. Please include a brief biographical statement with your proposal along with email and telephone contact information.
Apply or nominate someone for membership in TAA's Council of Fellows
TAA is calling for applications and nominations for induction into its Council of Fellows, which recognizes distinguished authors who have a long record of successful and diversified publications. Candidates should be authors whose textbooks or academic articles or books have established their presence in their field.
Council of Fellows members are chosen by a TAA Selection Committee based on a set of criteria which includes their level of participation in TAA activities; teaching excellence; quality and quantity of textbooks; and quality and quantity of professional journal articles, monographs and edited books (if academic authors): View a full set of criteria
TAA's current Council of Fellows are Michael Sullivan, Lee Mountain, Everette E. Dennis, Mike Keedy, Franklin H. Silverman and Karl J. Smith, inducted in 1999; Thomas L. Wheelen and William R. Pasewark, induced in 2000; Karen Hess, D. Stanley Eitzen and J. David Hunger, inducted in 2001; Charles D. Holland, inducted in 2002; Patrick G. McKeown, inducted in 2003; Karen C. Timberlake and Marilyn T. "Winkie" Fordney, inducted in 2005; and Robert Christopherson and Fred Kleiner, inducted in 2009.
Fellows members receive free lifetime membership in TAA. New members will be inducted at the 2010 TAA Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in June.
Applications are due November 30, 2009. Applications must include documentation in support of the Council of Fellows criteria. Mail your application and documentation to TAA at Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA), P.O. Box 56359, St. Petersburg, FL 33732-6359 or email it as a PDF attachment to TextandAcademicAuthors@taaonline.net
Listen to part two recording of Oct. 12 TAA Teleconference on textbook supplements
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 12 TAA Teleconference "Textbook Supplements: Electronic Products, Part Two," presented by Mary Ellen Lepionka, Higher Education Developmental Editor, and Founder of Atlantic Path Publishing. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
Listen to part two recording of Oct. 12 TAA Teleconference on generating and refining research ideas
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 12 TAA Teleconference "Generating & Refining Research Ideas, Part Two," presented by Dr. Sonja Foss, professor of communication, University of Colorado, and Dr. William Waters, assistant professor of English, University of Houston-Downtown. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
Apply or nominate someone for membership in TAA's Council of Fellows
|
TAA is calling for applications and nominations for induction into its Council of Fellows, which recognizes distinguished authors who have a long record of successful and diversified publications. Candidates should be authors whose textbooks or academic articles or books have established their presence in their field.
Council of Fellows members are chosen by a TAA Selection Committee based on a set of criteria which includes their level of participation in TAA activities; teaching excellence; quality and quantity of textbooks; and quality and quantity of professional journal articles, monographs and edited books (if academic authors). Download a full set of criteria. View a list of current Council of Fellows.
Fellows members receive free lifetime membership in TAA. New members will be inducted at the 2010 TAA Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in June. Applications are due November 30, 2009. Applications must include documentation in support of the Council of Fellows criteria. Mail your application and documentation to TAA at Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA), P.O. Box 56359, St. Petersburg, FL 33732-6359 or email it as a PDF attachment to TextandAcademicAuthors@taaonline.net
Listen to recording of Oct. 8 TAA Teleconference on copyright-related issues
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 8 TAA Teleconference "How Authors Can Navigate Successfully Through Copyright-Related Issues", presented C. Jeffrey Belliston, Scholarly Communications Librarian and Chair, Office of Digital Content Management, Brigham Young University; and Elsa Peterson, a freelance editor with 25 years of experience in permissions editing, picture research, and manuscript development. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
New TAA gift memberships
TAA thanks Pat Casey for giving gift memberships to Holly Hansen-Thomas, Sue Mutchler, and Talullah Crawley-Shinault.
Listen to recording of Oct. 5 TAA Teleconference on textbook supplements
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 5 TAA Teleconference "Textbook Supplements: The Big Three, Part One," presented by Mary Ellen Lepionka, Higher Education Developmental Editor, and Founder of Atlantic Path Publishing. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
Listen to recording of Oct. 5 TAA Teleconference on generating and refining research ideas
Listen to a recording of the Oct. 5 TAA Teleconference "Generating & Refining Research Ideas, Part One," presented by Dr. Sonja Foss, professor of communication, University of Colorado, and Dr. William Waters, assistant professor of English, University of Houston-Downtown. Recordings are free for members. Non-members pay $69 for each recording. Listen to this teleconference
TAA thanks Sustaining Member
TAA thanks Sustaining Member David G. Myers.
 |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
||||
 |
|||||
|
|
||||
|
|||||
