We are pleased to share the announcement for the 2014 Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) annual conference at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. This save-the-date for “the only national, nonprofit membership association dedicated solely to assisting textbook and academic authors” arrives hot on the heels of our announcement yesterday of the new open textbook Information Systems for Business and Beyond, part of our collection of free classroom-ready works penned by academics and industry professionals. New Yorker fans, see who’s keynoting this year…

Bob Mankoff to Keynote Textbook and Academic Writers’ Conference

St. Petersburg, FL, March 12, 2014 – Robert Mankoff, nationally renowned cartoon editor for The New Yorker, will be the keynote speaker at the Text and Academic Authors Association’s 27th Annual Conference with a presentation entitled “Taking Humor Seriously”. Mankoff will share his engaging and informative analysis of how and why humor works for making academic subjects come to life.

The conference, which will be held at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards June 20-21, 2014, will feature sessions on textbook and academic writing techniques, self-publishing, contracting, digital books, and industry issues. Jeffrey Beall, Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Colorado, Denver, will give a plenary presentation entitled, “Millions of Articles, Thousands of Journals: How an Individual Scholarly Author Can Thrive in Today’s Scholarly Publishing Ecosystem”.

The program will highlight four tracks, Writing Craft, Developments in Publishing, Self-Publishing, and Technologies to Connect, in the form of sessions, workshops, and roundtable discussions, including:

  • Bingo! It’s a Match! Selecting an Academic Journal for Publication, presented by Dannelle D. Stevens
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Author: How to Write a Book When You Don’t Like to Write, presented by Susan Robison
  • Academic Life Vests: Learning to Manage Multiple Writing Projects, presented by Tracey S. Hodges and Katherine Landau Wright
  • The Incredible Disappearing Royalties: Where Have They Gone?, by Michael Lennie and Steve Gillen
  • Open Access: Understanding the Force That’s Changing Scholarly Publishing, by Christopher Kenneally
  • Connecting with Students: Adaptive Learning Through Digital Media Text Support, by Don O’Neal

Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet one-on-one in mentoring sessions with a veteran author or an authoring attorney, and to take advantage of several networking opportunities, including an evening networking reception.

The first 30 conference registrants will receive a copy of the Subversive Copy Editor, by Carol Saller. To learn more about the 2014 TAA Conference or to register, visit http://www.2014taaconference.net/

The 2014 TAA Conference is sponsored by The New Yorker Cartoon Bank, the Copyright Clearance Center, and Inkubate.

The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) provides professional development resources, industry news and networking opportunities for textbook authors and authors of scholarly journal articles and books. www.TAAonline.net