President's Message

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July 2008
Examining our self-concept as authors

TAA President Paul Siegel

This is my first President’s Message in my new capacity as president of TAA. As I write these words I am settling back into my daily rituals after the association’s very successful annual conference in Las Vegas. We had a record number of attendees this year. During the conference I asked the gathering of almost 80 textbook and academic authors how many first-timers were among us, and well over a dozen hands were raised. This is very exciting, especially since we have been making a concerted effort to increase new member participation in not only the conference, but in the overall membership of TAA as well.

If you have never been to one of our conferences, my simple and unsolicited advice is “Come!” It is a truly rejuvenating experience. While the presentations were quite varied, some focusing on law, and others on technological advances in publishing and in author-maintained websites, I would like to share with you a bit about one of the more earthbound and universal topics presented: “Breaking Writer's Block.”

The presenter was Dr. Erin Oksol, a clinician and professor at the University of Nevada, and president of the Nevada State Psychological Association. Like so many of the stellar “local talent” presenters we have enticed (begged?) to participate over the years, Oksol had no previous affiliation with or awareness of TAA. She donated her time and expertise simply because we asked. Like Blanche DuBois, TAA is often enhanced by the kindness of strangers.

Oksol called upon vocabulary borrowed from Rational-Emotive Behavioral Therapy [REBT] to suggest that we writers become our own worst enemies when we engage in negative self-talk, such as “I should have met that deadline and I failed. I am worthless and unreliable.” We have all been there. There are too many “shoulds” in the world, Oksol reminded us: “Don’t ‘should’ on yourself!”

In order to help us do a “reality check,” REBT asks us first to construct the very worst self-talk we can imagine for our situations then laugh at the resulting absurdity. That we had a well-attended lunch hour Roundtable Discussion earlier in the conference for non-tenured faculty found me free associating during Oksol’s address, wondering how an untenured assistant professor’s worst self-talk might emerge: “None of my publication projects will come to fruition. I will be denied tenure. I will never get another job. I will become homeless, and live my last few pathetic years desperate and alone.”

But many TAA members have been awarded tenure. And among the textbook authors in our membership, I would suspect that a large percent of us are not dependent on our royalty incomes. For this part of our membership, even the most negative self-talk would not likely conjure images of starving on the streets. At worst we might imagine that “my current edition won’t sell, and I will never again get a book contract.” For these authors it is the powerful but intangible self-concept as authors that we most fear losing.

This struck me as a powerful cognition. What is it about getting to see ourselves as authors that we find so intrinsically rewarding? One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons depicts a New York cocktail party, with the hostess comforting a fellow we presume to be the guest of honor: “Relax. You’re a famous author. No one expects you to talk about anything but yourself.” I hope the cartoonist, while getting a chuckle from us, nonetheless has it backwards. Our status as authors, especially as we are always looking toward the next edition, means that we manifest more curiosity about others, and the world in general, than do most people. Perhaps the grain of truth in the cartoon is the reference to being famous. Is fame what we crave? If so, very few of us will ever be satisfied. But surely recognition is something authors desire. We love having our works cited with approval in others’ publications. We love the fact that people in our fields who are not of our acquaintance know our names. Perhaps we especially love the experience of strolling on a campus hundreds or thousands of miles from our own and seeing students reading our book.

How entwined is your self-concept with the label, “author?” How much would you grieve if it were taken from you? Many thanks to Dr. Oksol for prompting the discussion.

Paul Siegel

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