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| Speech pathology author Frank Silverman is greeted warmly by Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat after being introduced as "a Jewish guy who is helping Palestinian children." The introduction was by Hatem Abu Ghazaleh, chairman of the Society for the Care of the Handicapped in the Gaza Strip. |  |
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Authors recount Gaza experience| LAMPETER, Wales, June 15, 2002 -- The Edwin Mellen Press has published an account by two U.S. authors about their work with Palestinian children suffering speech impediments. Speech pathology author Frank Silverman and education scholar Bob Moulton tell about helping establish a speech pathology training program in the Gaza Strip between 1992 and 1996. The book contains autobiographies of some participants, almost all of whom lived in refugee camps, and other information about living conditions in the Gaza Strip. It also contains detailed practical information on how to conduct such programs in developing countries. Silverman is on the faculty at Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Moulton, now at New Mexico State University, was at Lamar University at the time. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | Franklin H. Silverman (speech pathology), Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Robert Moulton (education), New Mexico State University, wrote The Impact of a Unique Cooperative American University USAID Funded Speech-Language Pathologist, Audiologist, and Deaf Educator B.S. Degree Program in the Gaza Strip (Edwin Mellen). |
| Ric Martini (anatomy), University of Hawaii, spent late June in Victoria, British Columbia, driving a spectator boat at the starting line of the Victoria to Maui International Yacht Race. |
 | John J. Bonsignore (law), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ethan Katsh (law), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Peter d'Errico (law), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ronald M. Pipkin (law), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Stephen Arons (law), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Janet Rifkin (law), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, wrote the seventh edition of Before the Law: An Introduction to the Legal Process (Houghton Mifflin). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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"Satisfactory manuscript" clause cracked| SAN FRANCISCO, California, June 14, 2002 -- A federal appeals panel ruled that a publisher cannot cancel an author's contract because the market for a book has dwindled. Author Rafael Chodos of Los Angeles had sued after his publisher, Bancroft-Whitney, refused to proceed with his book because market conditions had changed. Chodos lost in U.S. District Court, but appealed to the 9th Circuit Court and prevailed. Chodos, a lawyer, had signed a contract with Bancroft in 1995 for a book on fiduciary responsibility and worked on it for three years. In 1998, with the book finished, Bancroft told Chodos that the market for the book had dried up and canceled the contract. The contract included a standard provision for the publisher to decide whether a manuscript is satisfactory, but Chodos argued that the quality of the work, not market conditions, should be the test for acceptability. Bancroft editors had acknowledged batches of chapters with encouraging words as he submitted them. In court, Bancroft's corporate successor, Thomson's West unit, acknowledged that the quailty of Chodos' work was acceptable, which the appellate court found to be the key issue. |
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Medical journal loosens review rulesBOSTON, June 13, 2002 -- The New England Journal of Medicine relaxed its conflict-of-interest rules to accept reviews and opinion columns on new drugs from researchers who have a financial interest in the research they are commenting on. Now, only authors with a "significant" financial interest are prohibited. Since 1990 the Journal has had an absolute ban on commentaries and reviews from people involved in company-sponsored research. Editor Jeff Drazen said the policy had prevented important material from being published, leaving Journal readers to rely only on information from pharmaceutical manufacturers. What is a "significant" financial interest that would preclude a researcher's review or comment from being accepted? More than $10,000 from the manufacturer in the preceding two years from a manufacturer or competitor, an unlimited potential interest in stock and patents, or major research support. The former ban, said Drazen, had prompted many researchers involved only in clinical trials to publish in competing journals. The Journal still requires a disclosure statement on financial interests.
What this means for authors: The new Journal is a sensible model that should be considered at other journals. Full disclosure of an author's interests makes more sense than banning an author's contribution. |
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Publishers honored for helping blind| WASHINGTON, June 14, 2002 -- The American Federation for the Blind presented its 2002 Access Award for leadership to the Association of American Publishers for helping to craft the legislation designed to accelerate Braille and other editions of textbooks and learning materials for the visually impaired. The legislation has been introduced in both houses of Congress. The association also praised AAP for cooperating with advocacy groups for the blind to enact a special exemption to the copyright law in 1996 to permit reproduction of material into specialized formats for the blind and others with disabilities. |
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| Janet Perlman, editor. Running an Indexing Business. Information Today, 2001. Perlman, an indexer herself, has collected the advice of expert indexers on basics of setting up an indexing business, including rate setting, proposal writing, project management, office space, and ergonomics. Perlman discusses moonlighting, taxes, hiring subcontractors, and unpleasantness like dealing with delinquent clients. |
| Franklin H. Silverman. Teaching for Tenure and Beyond: Strategies for Maximizing Your Student Ratings. Greenwood, 2001. Silverman, a professor-author, offers information about authoring textbooks and other materials for enhancing teaching. |
| Judith Serebnick and Stephen P. Hartner. "Ethical Practices in Journal Publishing: A Study of Library and Information Science Periodicals," Library Quarterly, Volume 6 (April 1990) Number 2, Pages 91-119. Serebnick and Hartner, both library science scholars, asked the editors of 34 journals in the discipline to rank the actions in 22 scenarios as ethical, unethical, possibly unethical or not an ethical issue. They found a strong commonality among editors on what constitutes ethical practice even though many of the journals either have minimal author guidelines on ethics or none at all. |
McGraw ranks in New York Top 100GARDEN CITY, New York, June 13, 2002 -- Media giant McGraw-Hill was the top-ranked publisher on a list of New York City's Top 100 companies compiled by the newspaper Newsday. About the 17,000 employee company, the newspaper said:"Look in any high schooler's backpack and chances are you'll find at least one textbook by the McGraw-Hill Companies. One of the world's largest producers of educational materials, the company also provides financial and business information services through brands such as Standard & Poor's and Business Week.Though a soft advertising market reduced revenue and operating profit at Business Week and McGraw's other publications, expense controls and strong performance by the financial services division led to solid first-quarter earnings gains, according to chief executive Harold McGraw III, who told investors he remains confident the company will produce a double-digit earnings increase in 2002. Other book publishers on the Newsday list: Primedia, 43rd, and John Wiley, 67th. |
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Wiley acquires P-H Direct education titles| NEW YORK, June 13, 2002 -- Publisher John Wiley & Sons bought 250 teacher education titles from Pearson Education's Prentice Hall Direct. Terms were not disclosed. The acquisition brings to Wiley a collection of "hands-on" activities and teaching strategies for K-12 teachers, administrators, coaches and counselors to complement to Wiley's Jossey-Bass Education series and its children's publishing program, said Stephen Kippur, a Wiley vice president. "It represents an important step towards the company becoming the leading publisher of high-quality resources and ready-to-use tools for school leaders and classroom instructors," said Kippur. With this acquisition, Wiley will publish The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, Grammar Grabbers and Hands-On Algebra. Wiley already has the best-selling series of science activity books by Janice VanCleave, which have sold more than 2 million copies. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | Douglas A. Bernstein (psychology), University of Surrey and University of South Florida, and Peggy W. Nash (psychology), Broward Community College, wrote the second edition of Essentials of Psychology (Houghton Mifflin). |
 | Fred Fedler (journalism), University of Central Florida, John R. Bender (journalism), Westminster College, Lucinda Davenport (journalism), Michigan State University, and Paul E. Kostyu (journalism), Ohio Wesleyan University, wrote the seventh edition of Reporting for the Media (Thomson). |
 | Chris Harper (journalism), Ithaca College, wrote Journalism 2001 (Atomic Dog). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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Pearson: Good college sales for 2002| LONDON, June 12, 2002 -- The chief executive at Pearson, Marjorie Scardino, told investors to expect a significant recovery in adjusted earnings for the full year, partly because of good growth in its Pearson Education college publishing operation in the United States. "Our U.S. college publishing business is on track to perform ahead of the market as a whole," Scardino said. She was less upbeat about el-hi sales through the year because of "a quieter adoption program." Even so, she said the company expects to beat its market share expectations. | 
SCARDINO |
Libertarians object to exam deletions| NEW YORK, June 13, 2002 -- A diverse group of free speech and civil liberties organizations, concerned parents and others signed a letter to the New York education commissioner to protest censorship of literary works used in a state-sponsored high-school graduation exam. The groups asserted that altering literary passages was "a form of censorship that distorts the content and meaning of the original work." The "political correctness" changes were uncovered by Jeanne Heifetz, the parent of a high school student. Heifetz studied Regents Exams over the past three years and found that out of 26 literary passages, 20 were censored. The letter called on state Education Commissioner Richard Mills to stop the censorship. The letter asked the Legislature for an investigation. Pat Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, which signed the letter, said: "Whenever bureaucrats try to become gatekeepers for literature and art, the result is always a disaster. The First Amendment really means what it says: The government needs to keep its hands off our books." |
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Art book wins editorial, design honor |
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| INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 12, 2002 -- Author-designer Owner Demer's Digital Texturing and Painting, published by Pearson's New Riders Press, won the 2002 Benjamin Franklin Award for the computer category. The award, sponsored by the Publishers Marketing Association, recognizes excellence in editorial and design. In the book, Owen Demers, a 3D artist and art director at Curous Pictures in New York City, combines traditional texture creation principles with digital texturing techniques to enhance scenes and animations. Recognized too was Christine Urszenyi of Toronto as contributing author and editor. |
Blackboard eyes first profits| WASHINGTON, June 12, 2002 -- The educational software startup Blackboard, which offers course cartridges geared to Pearson, Thomson and Reed Elsevier books, will be profitable by the end of the year, co-founder Matthew Pittinsky said. Revenue will reach $70 million in the third quarter, he said. The five-year-old company has 2,400 colleges and school systems using Blackboard. In a bullish interview with the trade journal Publishers Weekly, Pittinsky said Blackboard will do well with publishers seeking a course management partners because it can dekiver so many schools. Publishers recognize that making and keeping an adoption depends on whether their digital textbook supplements work with course management software available at a campus. |
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Mathew Arnold set receives indexing award| GALVESTON, Texas, June 12, 2002 -- The indexer for the six-volume Matthew Arnold letters, Margie Towery, was presented the Wilson Award for excellence in a cumulative index. The Letters of Matthew Arnold, a collection of close to 4,000 letters of the 19-century British poet and critic, was published by the University Press of Virginia. The American Society of Indexers presented the award. |
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Author survey: How did merger go?WINONA, Minnesota, June 12, 2002 -- The Society of Academic Authors sent questionnaires to its members to ascertain author perceptions on how well they were treated in corporate mergers or acquisitons. Questions include:How did you first learn that the acquisition or merger was occurring?Did you feel well informed during the process? How is the level of overall publisher support today, compared to before?Did the publisher propose contract changes during or after the acquisition or merger? The findings will be issued to members in mid-July.
What this means for authors: SA2 is building a database to track changes over time and to give all authors a better sense of where they are at collectively. This is the first survey in the longitudinal series. |
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| ABOUT sa2
| Academic authors who did not receive the e-mail questionnaire should contact the society for a replacement copy: SA2 |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | David N. Sattler (psychology), College of Charleston, Geoffrey P. Kramer (psychology), Grand Valley State University and West Shore Community College, Virginia Shabatay (psychology), Palomar College, and Douglas A. Bernstein (psychology), University of Surrey and University of South Florida, wrote Child Development in Context: Voices and Perspectives (Houghton Mifflin). |
 | Andrew S. Tanenbaum (computer science), wrote Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms (Prentice Hall). |
 | William Trochim (policy analysis), Cornell University, wrote The Research Methods Knowledge Base (Atomic Dog). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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Professional, scholarly book sales soarWASHINGTON, June 11, 2002 -- Sales of professional and scholarly books rose dramatically in April, up 34.9 percent, the Association of American Publishers reported. The category was up 1.9 percent for the calendar year. University press sales, both hardbound and paperbound, rose in April, with hardbound up 13.5 percent and paperbound up 26.8 percent. Year-to-date figures, however, were less. El-hi sales were down 9.9 percent, and for the year-to-date down 8.3 percent. College sales, typical for April, were exceeded by returns from bookstores, so data were considered insufficient for tallying. Through March, however, college sales were up 18.2 percent. Here are the year-to-date AAP data through April, extrapolated from 76 member-publishers, for genres in which academic authors write:STM, professional
University press (paperback)
University press (hard cover)
El-hi
College | 26.8 percent
2.2 percent
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Untallied |
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To Bush: Don't let history be suppressed| WASHINGTON, June 11, 2002 -- Presidential biographer Richard Reeves called for Congress to toughen its 1978 law on public and scholarly access to presidential papers. Reeves said he had tried to make the case to President Bush that a new executive order restricting access to the papers is wrong-headed. He has sent copies of his books on the Nixon and Kennedy administrations to the President: "I said that they might be worth something some day as artifacts because it would be impossible to write them under his new order." Reeves is in a growing number of scholars and authors who have objected to the Bush order, issued in November, to allow former presidents, their families and the vice president to seal documents. |
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WANT TO WRITE A TEXTBOOK? Accounting author David Rees details what's involved, including what a publisher expects of an author. Also, what's reasonable for an author to expect of a publisher. He lists some of the rewards -- psychic and financial. |
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REES
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Parent: State censored literary passages| NEW YORK, June 10, 2002 -- A parent, Jeanne Heifetz, reported finding 20 literary passages were censored to remove references to race, religion, and sexuality, mild profanity, and even criticism of the government on a New York state exam that public high school students must take to graduate. Heifetz, co-chair of group that opposes the exams, said the expurgations occurred in 20 out of 26 passages that were checked. Permission for the deletions were sought from neither the authors nor publishers, she said. Passages were deleted from the works of Frank Conroy, Anton Chekhov, Annie Dillard, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Elie Wiesel, and others -- and, she said, distorted the author's original intent. |
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Publishers send medical books to Aghanistan| WASHINGTON, June 10, 2002 -- Books donated by U.S. publishers have been sent to Afghanistan medical training facilities, the Assocaition of American Publishers announced. Responding to a call for humanitarian aid to help restore books and journals to facilities that had been stripped of teaching materials by the Taliban, the U.S. publishers donated 482 books, 992 journals and 95 pamphlets. "The publishing industry has really come together in this," AAP President Pat Schroeder said. "We're glad to play a role in the effort to rebuild an educational infrastructure that was all but destroyed during the Taliban years." Among donors: McGraw-Hill ad the New England Journal of Medicine. |
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Ebrary expands book, other offerings| MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, June 10, 2002 -- Library web service company ebrary added new sources, including the Library of Congress, Bancroft Library, Marriott Library, Getty Images, Octavo and Maps.com. In all, ebrary said it has increased its offerings by 50 percent to 7,500 books and other documents from more than 115 publishers and academic presses. Ebrray said more than 40 percent of its 2,000 business and economics are recent, published in either 2001 and 2002. Most computers and technology titles were published originally within the past two years, ebrary said. Among publishers with which ebrray has distribution agreements: McGraw-Hill, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Greenwood, Random House, Pearson, Redmond, and Coriolis. |
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| Becky Hornyak, editor. Indexing Specialties: Psychology. Information Today, 2002. Hornyak, a trade and scholarly indexer, has assembled chapters by experienced indexers on textbooks and books aimed at clinical practitioners in psychology. Carol Shoun focuses on choosing medical terminology. Sylvia Coates deals with the complexities of author-name indexes, which is applicable in fields besides psychology. Hornyak includes an annotated listings of print and online resources for indexers. |
| Daniel L. Sherrell, Joseph F. Hair and Mitch Griffin. "Marketing Academicians' Perceptions of Ethical Research and Publishing Behavior," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Volume 17 (Fall 1989) Number 4, Pages 315-324. The authors, all marketing scholars, surveyed 328 academicians about the ethics of editor, author and reviewer practices at academic journals in the discipline. Lapses were perceived at a higher level among less-published respondents. The article's authors suggest a code of ethics. |
| Franklin H. Silverman. Self-publishing Books and Materials for Students, Academics, and Professionals. CODI Publications, 2000. Silverman, who is both self-published and published with several major houses, describes all aspects of self-publishing academic books and materials including how to set up a publishing company for less than $500. |
Evan-Moor offers standards-check site| MONTERREY, California, June 9, 2002 -- A web site that correlates state learning standards to Evan-Moor K-6 titles has been created, the publisher announced. Teachers have free access to the site, which includes 6,500 skills and performance objectives. The site will assure teachers that Evan-Moor materials are meeting learning standards, the company said. Evan-Moor has 450 titles and issues 40 to 60 new titles a year. |
| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | Daniel C. Alexander (math), Parkland College, and Geralyn M. Koeberlein (math), Mahomet-Seymour High School, wrote the third edition of Elementary Geometry for College Students (Houghton Mifflin). |
| Kim Becker, public relations vice president at Bravo Networks, was named communications vice president at Wolters Kluwer North America. |
 | Stan Gibilisco (science and technology), Chippewa Falls, Wis., wrote Physics Demystified (McGraw-Hill). |
 | Belverd Needles (accounting), DePaul University, Marian Powers (accounting), Northwestern University, and Susan V. Crosson (accounting), Santa Fe Community College, wrote the 2002 edition of Financial and Managerial Accounting (Houghton Mifflin). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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McGraw, Microsoft in joint text venture| NEW YORK, June 8, 2002 -- Publisher McGraw-Hill and software giant Microsoft are targeting the education and professional market in a new partnership to produce information technology textbooks. The companies announced that a new imprint, McGraw-Hill-Microsoft Press, will adapt Microsoft's Academic Learning Series for sales through McGraw's 300-rep college sales staff, as well as its el-hi and staff and web bookstore. Other information technology texts and materials will also be developed in print, and digital formats, the companies said. Also, some existing McGraw-Hill books will go to the new imprint. |
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Canada law services in merger talks| KINGSTON, Ontario, June 7, 2002 -- The leading Canadian legal information web services, Quicklaw and LexisNexis Butterworths, will merge if a deal described in "the final stages" is completed. The merged companies would be part of Europe-based Reed Elsevier, which owns LexisNexis Butterworths. Customers would have access to Reed Elsevier's LexisNexis, a database on U.S. law, the companies said. In Canada the LexisNexis Butterworths and Quicklaw brand names would be retained but for different products. |
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Presidential historian protests Bush order| MADISON, Wisconsin, June 6, 2002 -- A scholar on the U.S. presidency, Stanley Kutler, called on Congress to nullify an executive order issued by President Bush to extend the period during which presidential papers are sealed from the public. "If his action stands, Bush will substantially shut down historical research of recent presidents," said Kutler. "With this order, we would have no studies of recent events such as we have for the Vietnam War." He said that present and future leaders would be less aware of past mistakes and errors. Kutler, a University of Wisconsin law professor, is author of Abuse of Power, The New Nixon Tapes. He said President Bush's executive order "constitutes nothing less than a wholesale emasculation" of a 1978 law that was designed to open presidential records relatively soon after a president leaves office. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
| Paul Gottlieb, longtime editor-in-chief at Harry N. Abrams, who built the market for illustrated books and developed the blockbuster museum exhibition tie-in, died at home in New York of a heart attack. He was 67 and recently retired. He was chair of the American
Academy of Poets. |
| Pat Harrigan, Southwest sales manager for Harcourt, was named president and chief executive at Classroom Connect, which is a unit of Harcourt. He succeeds Judith Hamilton. |
 | Belverd Needles (accounting), DePaul University, and Marian Powers (accounting), Northwestern University, wrote the seventh edition of Financial Accounting (Houghton Mifflin). |
 | James Redmond (mass media), University of Memphis, and Robert Trager (University of Colorado at Boulder), wrote Balancing on the Wire: The Art of Managing Media Organizations (Atomic Dog). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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SA2 math prize loses Keedy name| BARLOW, Florida, June 5, 2002 -- Retired math author Mike Keedy said that he changed his mind and asked that he not be the namesake of a new Society of Academic Authors prize for textbook excellence. Keedy said he had been pressured by a leader at Text and Academic Authors not to let it be inferred that he was turning his back on TAA, which he founded. Keedy said he regretted withdrawing his name. "It would be better if you put the Keedy Award on hold for now," he told SA2 founder John Vivian. Said Vivian: "Of course, we will honor Mike's preference, but I am disappointed that some of our colleagues would cast TAA and SA2 in us-or-them terms. What we need is some creative thinking to bridge gaps, not create gaps where they don't exist." About the Keedy Prize, which was announced May 31, Vivian told Keedy: "I see nothing more appropriate to recognize your legacy." |
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SA2 supports timely materials for blindWINONA, Minnesota, June 5, 2002 -- The Society of Academic Authors added its support for the proposed Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002 for national format standards to facilitate the conversion of textbooks and other learning materials into products for visually impaired students. Messages of support were sent to the bipartisan primary sponsors: Senators Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Thad Cochran, Republican of Massachusetts, and Representatives Tom Petri, Republican of Wisconsin, and George Miller, Democrat of California. The legislation would establish standardized national electronic file format to be used for the conversion of textbooks and other material into accessible formats; mandate that publishers provide materials to a central repository for timely conversion; fund the repository for cataloging, storing and distributing the material; and require states to assure that visually impaired students receive materials at the same time such materials are provided to other students.
What this means for authors: Without this legislation, blind kids will continue to experience delays in receiving new learning materials. Delays, which often run months, diminish the impact of authors' works. |
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| ABOUT sa2
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Bertelsmann courting U.S. mags, not textbooksNEW YORK, June 4, 2002 -- The acquisition sights of German media juggernaut Bertelsmann may be focused on U.S. magazines, not textbooks. Executives at Berteslmann magazine subsidiary Gruner + Jahr have approved a "wish list" of magazines to strengthen its U.S. position, the Wall Street Journal reported. There even has been a preliminary Bertelsmann approach to McGraw-Hill regarding Business Week, the Journal said. In Europe, Bertelsmann already is heavily into scientific and professional publishing with its BertelsmannSpringer unit. The magazine acquisition plan, which is characterized as "ambitious," eases speculation that the company might be interested in buying textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin from debt-mired French conglomerate Vivendi. Already Berteslmann has eight U.S. magazines, including Family Circle, Parents, Rosie and YM.
What this means for authors: Houghton Mifflin authors can rest easier about the possibility of merger-and-acquisition disruptions and dislocations. |
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| Susan C. Borkowski and Mary Jeane Welsh. "Ethical Practice in the Accounting Publishing Process: Contrasting Opinions of Authors and Editors," Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 25 (May 1, 2000), Pages 15-31. Borkowski and Welsh, both accounting scholars, sampled 163 senior accounting faculty and 95 accounting journal editors in the United States. They conclude that a code of ethics could ease perceptions of unethical practices. |
| M.J. Rose. "Everything Old Is New Again: Reinventing the Publishing Model," Poets & Writers, Volume 30 (May/June 2002) Issue 2, Pages 40-41. Rose, herself the author of several books, sees small author-oriented trade publishing houses emerging as alternatives to major publishers. Her point: Authors don't need to risk getting lost in mega-house lists that are too large for every title to be nurtured to success. Rose's article deals only with trade books. Web version. |
| Franklin H. Silverman. Publishing for Tenure and Beyond. Praeger, 1999. Silverman, a textbook author and a tenured professor, provides information about meeting publishing expectations for tenure. His emphasis is on journal publishing. |
Vivendi off S&P liquidity risk list| NEW YORK, June 4, 2002 -- A Standard & Poors investment advisory against French conglomerate Vivendi has been softened. S&P withdrew Vivendi from a list of companies with "a meaningful degree or liquidity risk." The decision came after Vivendi announced it had negotiated credit lines with its banks. Vivendi properties includes Houghton Mifflin, Universal Studios and USA Networks in the United States. |
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Free journal access boycott fizzlesWASHINGTON, June 4, 2002 -- By some measures, a massive call for a boycott to pressure academic journals to make articles available free has fizzled. A boycott organizer, Michael Eisen, said he is aware of only 100 or so scholars who have withheld articles or refused to sit on editorial boards. The boycott, promoted by the Public Library of Science, a group of leading scientists, drew 30,000 pledges a year ago. The goal was to promote the exchange of information and ideas, especially in countries where libraries can't afford high-price journals, by making articles free on the web six months after publication. Not only have few scholars joined the boycott, but both the commercial companies and learned societies that publish academic journals have turned a deaf ear. Eisen, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is not without hope, however. He told that the Chronicle of Higher Education that a largely unnoticed movement for free access to scholarship is occurring in dozens of new online journals that are available free without any time delay. The major subdivisions of biology and medicine already are well represented, he said.
What this means for authors: If this were sports, the headline would read: "Journal Publishers Blank Scholars." It is a setback for scholarship and authoring, but, as Michael Eisen says, the web is creating opportunties for inexorable advancements for the dissemination of information and ideas. |
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Could publisher's "me-first" clause backfire?
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| By an SA2 Member
A variety of restrictive clauses has been creeping into my textbook contracts. Recently I came across this new clause: "Author guarantees that this Work shall be the Author's next book; and that the Author shall not undertake to write another book for another publisher until a complete manuscript for the Work has been delivered to the Publisher." This clause could lock me in and prevent me from writing any book for anyone else.
Perhaps the most effective argument against publishers trying to invoke this sort of nonsense involves that great dragon in the sky -- the IRS. If a publisher wants to lock me in, does that not make me an employee in the eyes of the IRS? Should I not perhaps ask the IRS just to be sure? The suggestion of this ought to spook a publisher "real good." The IRS likes to reclassify contractors as employees given the slightest reason to do so; this could mean the publisher would be required to withhold income tax, perhaps retroactively with interest and penalties. They might also be bound by the laws of their state to provide benefits such as health insurance.
Would these sorts of restraint-of-trade clauses ever hold up in court? |
SA2 creates prize for textbook visuals| WINONA, Minnesota, June 4, 2002 -- The Society of Academic Authors established a new recognition for the excellence in visuals in textbooks and other learning materials. Nominations for the first William Henry Fox Talbot Prize, the "Talby," will accepted from SA2 members in September, said association founder John Vivian. The prize is named for the Talbot, a photography pioneer, who was the author of the important 1844 text The Pencil of Nature. The book is considered the single most important book of photographs ever produced, Vivian said. The Pencil of Nature, published in London by Longman, was the first commercially published book illustrated without the aid of an artist. |
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| Stephen Hart. "Producing a Great Textbook With the Help of a Developmental Editor," BioScience Volume 46 (October 1996), Number 9. Pages 691-694. Hart, a developmental editor, draws on interviews with fellow D.E.s to explain their important although often-invisible role in textbook authoring. He makes a point that the changing economics of publishing have given developmental editors more responsibility. |
| John McWhorter. "Cornel West Gives Black Scholars a Bad Rap," Wall Street Journal (April 16, 2002), Page A20. McWhorter, who prides himself as an academic writer who has a "second career" producing articles and anthologies for lay audiences, joins the fray about what are reasonable writing expectations for scholars. McWhorter says Cornel West, a popular speaker and mass-audience writer, abrogated his responsibilities by not producing anything scholarly in more than a decade. Under criticism over the issue at Harvard, West has moved to Princeton. |
| Franklin H. Silverman. Authoring Books and Materials for Students, Academics, and Professionals. Praeger, 1998. Silverman, a prolific author widely known for his authoring workshops, provides practical information on all aspects of academic book authoring and publishing, including some about negotiating contracts that publishers don't want
authors to have. |
Testimonials flow in for new siteWINONA, Minnesota, June 3, 2002 -- Since the SA2 site moved beyond beta-testing in May, the Society of Academic Authors has received an ongoing stream of congratulatory messages. John Vivian, the society's founder, said it has been especially gratifying to hear from veteran authors who belong to several authoring organizations. From the mailbag:"Congratulations on what looks like another exciting new venture."
"I did a quick overview of the site and liked what I saw. I have bookmarked the site and will return often."
"A great job! Please continue sending me sa2 news alerts."
"I am so grateful for this terrific new resource. I marked the site as a 'Favorite' on first skim."
"Please add my name to SA2's membership list. Information at the site is very helpful, but please change the lime green background. It's hard on the eyes!"
"Thank you for sa2.info."
"You are continuing to perform an invaluable service."
"Super new web site." |
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| ABOUT sa2 |
| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
| Laurie Brown, of Farrar, Straus, was named to the newly integrated position of senior vice president and director of sales and marketing at Harcourt, succeeding David Nelson as head of sales. |
| Christopher Cartwright, chief operating officer at CCH Legal Information Services, was named chief executive of Wolters Kluwer's Legal, Tax & Business North America Division. |
 | Stan Gibilisco (science and technology), Chippewa Falls, Wis., wrote Astronomy Demystified (McGraw-Hill). |
 | Antony C. Wilbraham (chemistry), Dennis D. Staley (chemistry), Michael S. Matta (chemistry) and Edward L. Waterman (chemistry) wrote Addison Wesley Chemistry 2002 (Prentice Hall). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
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Study: School book market share to growNEW YORK, June 3, 2002 -- Textbooks will assume more importance in the U.S. book business in the coming five years, the Book Industry Study Group reported. In projections to 2002, the respected research group reported that el-hi school books, which now comprise 17.6 percent of industry sales, will be at 21.1 percent in 2006. College books will grow to 15.1 percent. The market share of both professional and academic books will shrink. Also giving up margin share are the trade, mass-market paperback, book club, mail order and religious genres. Here are the projections for genres in which most academic authors write:
El-hi
Professional
College
University presses | 2001
17.6 percent
20.0 percent
14.6 percent
1.9 percent | 2006
21.1 percent
19.6 percent
15.1 percent
1.8 percent |
What this means for authors: Some trade book houses like Bertelsmann's Random House and News Corp.'s HarperCollins may want to enter the textbook business again. Harper once was a major player, Random less so.
DATA BANK INDEX
Text publisher pushes open-book tests| BOSTON, June 1, 2002 -- College publisher Allyn & Bacon has been inserting a recommendation for open-book testing in instructor manuals. The recommendation, quoting education scholar Kay Burke, says open-book testing introduces the type of thinking that students will use in the real world. Although A&B doesn't make the point explicitly, open-book tests encourage students to buy texts rather than sit through quizzes empty-handed. Burke's advice: "Educators who allow students to take open-book tests are not teaching for the test; they are teaching for understanding. Most students agree that open-book tests are more challenging than traditional objective tests because they require high-order thinking skills rather than recall skills. The greatest benefit from open-book testing may be that it encourages the type of thinking that will benefit students in the real world. Open-book tests focus on students learning important concepts rather than memorizing facts. They encourage students to utilize the lifelong learning skill of 'accessing information' rather than memorizing data. In most jobs, people do not have to memorize formulas or discrete bits of data; they have to know how to find the important information they need in order to solve problems and complete projects. Open-book tests encourage students to highlight the text and organize their notes so they can find the information they need. Open-book tests encourage students to apply the information they have learned and transfer it to new situations, rather than just repeat the facts." |
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Publishers support Braille textbook bill | WASHINGTON, June 1, 2002 -- The School Division chair at the Association of American Publishers, Margery Mayer, hailed a proposal in Congress to improve the delivery of learning materials to visually impaired pupils. "Educational publishers support this legislation because they know the critical role that textbooks and instructional materials play in a child's education," Mayer said. Her School Division has been working for two years on a workable solution to make textbooks available to blind students on a timely basis, Mayer said. It has been a joint effort with several organziations, including the American Foundation for the Blind; National Federation of the Blind; Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic; American Printing House for the Blind; American Council for the Blind. Mayer is a vice president at Scholastic. |
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Vivendi: Lines of credit secure| PARIS, June 1, 2002 -- The French conglomerate Vivendi, owner of U.S. textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin, said there is no reason to expect the banks to trim its lines of credit.. A clause in Vivendi's lines of credit has been renegotiated to eliminate a linkage with credit ratings, the company said. After recent revelations about off-the-balance sheet liabilities at Vivendi, the ratings service Moody's downgraded the company's credit worthiness to Baaa3 -- only one level above junk bonds. A further drop would have forced Vivendi to immediately repay several hundred million dollars in its debt. |
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"Principled" bookstore owner praised| WASHINGTON, June 1, 2002 -- The president of the Association of American Publishers, Pat Schroeder, said a Colorado Supreme Court decision in a bookstore case bodes well for the First Amendment. The Court ruled that a search warrant to get into records of the Tattered Cover bookstore was a violation of customer's expectation of privacy in choosing what they read. Schroeder, of AAP, said that store owner Joyce Meskis had taken a "principled stand" and deserved the publishing industry's admiration and gratitude. "Joyce has been fighting this particular battle for two years because she believes that government scrutiny of her patrons' book purchases would chill the exercise of their First Amendment rights," Schroeder said. "The ruling is particularly satisfying because of Joyce's fierce devotion to the First Amendment." Schroeder's publishers trade group and several author groups had joined in friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the Meskis. |
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 | Nebraska Book Company: Sales grew 12.3 percent to $338.9 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, compared to a year earlier. Used book sales were up 8.7 percent to $122.9 million.
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