New Comprehensive Guide Available for College Textbook Authors

LA CROSSE, Wis. - Oct. 14, 2016 - PRLog -- The updated and expanded third edition of Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide, published by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA), will empower authors to undertake textbook development by guiding them through the nuts and bolts of the development process, and providing essential background information on the changing higher education publishing industry, as well as how to choose a publisher, write a textbook proposal, negotiate a publishing contract, and establish good author-publisher relations. The book will be available for pre-order through December 1, 2016. Books will ship the second week of December.

Robert Christopherson, author of Geosystems (9e), said: "TAA and the authors have done a wonderful service to us all—textbook, academic, and even trade authors—with this seminal, blood-and-guts guide to the art, craft, and work of authoring. Even though I signed my first contract in 1987, I read every word of this valuable new book and took pages of notes to guide me forward!"

Divided into three sections, each written by a veteran in the higher education publishing industry, chapters include:

• The Evolving Higher Education Textbook Publishing Industry
• How College Textbooks are Published
• How to Capture Publishers' Interest
• Negotiate Your Contract
• Why Your Textbook Needs Development
• Write to Reach Your True Audience
• Establish an Effective Authorial Voice
• Why You Need Learning Objectives
• Why Heading Structure Matters
• View the Full Table of Contents at http://www.taaonline.net/writing-and-developing-your-college-textbook-table-of-contents

The book also includes 22 samples and templates, and a new feature called "Author to Author", which provides an inside look at how many of the concepts introduced in the book have been put into practice by successful textbook authors.

In this third edition, authors Sean W. Wakely, Founder and Principal Adviser at Academic Author Advisers, who wrote the first section on the higher education publishing industry, and Stephen E. Gillen, Partner at Wood Herron & Evans, who wrote the second section on contracts, joined Mary Ellen Lepionka, a retired publisher, author, editor, textbook developer, and college instructor, who wrote the first two editions and authored the third section of the book on writing and development.

For more information on Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide, visit http://www.taaonline.net/writing-and-developing-your-college-textbook. Pre-order by December 1, 2016, and get 15% off the cover price and an exclusive invitation to an online Q&A with the authors. Use promo code 5OFFPO.

Mary Ellen Lepionka of Gloucester, MA is a retired publisher, author, editor, textbook developer, and college instructor with a Master's in anthropology from Boston University and Ph.D. work at the University of British Columbia. In 1990 she worked in higher education publishing as a developmental editor of college textbooks, principally for Houghton Mifflin and Pearson Education. Between 2002 and 2011 she established Atlantic Path Publishing as a retirement business and published two editions of Writing and Developing Your College Textbook and related titles. She presently is an independent scholar writing a history of Native Americans on Cape Ann.

Sean W. Wakely is Founder and Principal Adviser at Academic Author Advisers, a literary agency and consulting service with a primary focus on advising higher education authors and educational technology startups. He began his career as a sales representative for Allyn & Bacon and was a top-performing acquisitions editor and editorial manager at Pearson Education and Houghton Mifflin's college division. In several senior executive roles at Thomson Learning and Cengage Learning, including president of Wadsworth Publishing and manager of National Geographic Learning, Sean successfully guided editorial, product, marketing, production, and digital media teams to achieve industry-leading growth.

Stephen E. Gillen teaches Electronic Media Law at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. He worked for nearly 20 years in publishing prior to entering private practice in the middle 1990's. He is presently a partner at Wood Herron & Evans (a 145-year-old Cincinnati law firm focused on intellectual property) where he concentrates his practice on publishing, media, and copyright matters. He is also the author of Guide to Textbook Publishing Contracts.

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) provides a wide range of professional development resources, events, and networking opportunities for textbook authors and authors of scholarly journal articles and books. www.TAAonline.net

For a digital media kit, visit http://www.taaonline.net/writing-and-developing-your-college-textbook-3e-media-kit