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Math author's new edition wins visuals award| WINONA, Minn., March 15, 2003 -- A college mathematics textbook by John Webber won a William Henry Fox Talbot Prize for excellence in visuals from the Sociey of Academic Authors. The book, Math for Business and Life, issued by Webber's own Olympus Publishing, was praised by one member of the SA2 panel of judges for "interesting case studies that are well presented." Said other judges: "This book provides entertaining graphics that also illustrate the point being made. They are well-selected, incisive, and often entertaining." "There is nothing ordinary about these visuals." "This text uses color consistently, sparingly (a plus) and well to accent instruction and adds chapter-end visuals and humor to humanize math." "This text is original by the very inclusion of friendliness and humor, both enhanced by visuals." "The overall design -- the conceptualization of where and how to use color, the placement of chapter openers and chapter closers -- is instructionally sound, not overdone." Math for Business and Life is in its second edition. Webber teaches at Salt Lake Community College in Utah. |
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| First of the 2003 Talbys to be announced |
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| Margaret A. Blanchard. "On Writing Your First Book." Media Law Notes (Law Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication), Volume 31, Number 2 (Winter 2002, Pages 1, 5. Blanchard, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, tells freshly credentialized scholars that they need look no further than their dissertation for start in writing a good book. |
| William Germano. Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books. It has excellent chapters on contracts and using material from other authors in your work. |
| Albert N. Greco. "Mergers and Acquisitions in Publishing, 1984-1988: Some Public Policy Issues," Chapter 5 (Pages 121-140) in The Structure of International Publishing in the 1990s, Fred Kobrak and Beth Luey, editors. Transaction Publishers, 1992 (reprinted from Book Research Quarterly). |
| Joel Spring, "Textbook Writing and Ideological Management: A Postmodern Approach," in Philip G. Altbach, G.P. Kell, H.G. Petrie and L.W. Weis, editors. Textbooks in American Society: Politics, Policy and Pedagogy. State University of New York Press, 1991. |
New site links authors, libraries| WASHINGTON, March 15, 2003 -- A new web site to help book authors into libraries was launched by the American Library Association, Friends of the Library, the Association of American Publishers, and Library Journal. The sponsors described the site as "a new resource for connecting libraries around the country with authors and publicists who want to promote their books." The site, temporarily accessible at isa response to an oft-heard complaint that publishers do not book authors in libraries as often as librarians and patrons would like. Plans for the site will include practical advice for librarians who want to host author events as
well as advice for publishers looking to place authors in libraries. |
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LeapFrog, Franklin end patent spat| SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 14, 2003 -- The litigants in a patent suit, education publisher LeapFrog, and e-book developer Franklin Electronics, asked a federal judge to dismiss their claims and counterclaims. Terms of their agreement were not announced. LeapFrog's School Disision has more than 200 interactive titles in its inventory. | |
Wiley's higher-ed revenue up 4%| HOBOKEN, New Jersey, March 14, 2003 -- Revenues from Wiley's hgher-ed list grew 4 percent in its latest quarter, compared to a year esrlier, the company told sharholders. The growth was principally due to the life sciences program, Wiley said. Cited specifically was Gerard J. Tortora and Sandra Reynolds Grabowski's Principles Of Anatomy and Physiology, which was issued in a 10th edition. In all, 45 new textbooks were published during the third quarter, including Alex Himonas and Alan Howard's Calculus: Ideas and Applications; Marilyn K. Pelosi and Theresa M. Sandife's Elementary Statistics; Carl H. Snyder's The Extraordinary Chemistry of Ordinary Things; David S. Kidwell, Richard L. Peterson, David W. Blackwell and David A. Whidbee's Financial Institutions, Markets and Money; and Financial Statement Analysis. The company reported an agreement with XanEdu, a division of ProQuest, to build Wiley Business Extra Select, an online custom courseware program.This program will enable professors to create customized business course materials by combining Wiley's textbooks and learning materials with content from sources such as the Wall Street Journal and Fortune, the report said. Wiley's higher-ed web site has grown to more than 2,300 subsites, the company said. Virtual peer training through Wiley's Faculty Resource Network increased dramatically during the third quarter, the report said.. Wiley also formed an alliance with Content Connections to obtain feedback from the marketplace on new products. | |
Deal strengthens T&F's U.S. presence| LONDON, March 14, 2003 -- Britain-based publisher Taylor & Francis bought CRC Press, a publisher of professional reference books and journals in the sciences, engineering and medicine. CRC imprints include CRC Press and Parthenon Press, which together have a backlist of 6,000 titles. The company, owned by Information Holdings, publishes 32 journals and issues about 350 new books a year. CRC has offices in New York; Washington; and Boca Raton, Florida. The price: U.S.$985 million. The Taylor & Francis acquisition brings T&F's backlist to more than 26,000. The company will be publishing more than 800 journals and issuing 2,300 new books a year. | |
Rowecom bankrupcty eats at Wiley revenueHOBOKEN, New Jersey, March 14, 2003 -- The bankruptcy filing of a major journal subscription agency, Rowecom Inc., continues to ripple through the publishing industry. Journal publisher John Wiley & Sons estimated its revenues will be lessened by as much as $3 million in calendar 2003. Wiley and other publishers have maintained delivery of their journals to libraries even without receiving pass-through payments from Rowecom.
What this means for authors: Scholars continue to have their usual access to current journals through their academic libraries. The losses incurred by publishers, however, place pressure on these companies to offset the losses from elsewhere in their operations, including the book-publishing units. |
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Kaplan buys British test-prep company| WASHINGTON, March 14, 2003 -- Testing company Kaplan bought London-based Financial Training Company, a test-prep publisher in accounting and financial services. FTC sells mostly in Britain and Asia. Kaplan valued the acquisition at $89.1 million, the second largest in Kaplan history and the first outside the United States. | |
| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
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| Linda E. Graham (biology), University of Wisconsin, Madison, Jim M. Graham (biology), University of Wisconsin, Madison, Lee W. Wilcox (biology), University of Wisconsin, Madison, wrote Plant Biology (Prentice Hall). |
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| William S. Klug (biology), College of New Jersey, and Michael K. Cummings (biology), University of Illinois at Chicago, wrote the seventh edition of Concepts of Genetics (Prentice Hall). |
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| Carl S. Warren (accounting), University of Georgia-Athens, James M. Reeve (accounting), University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Philip E. Fess (accounting), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, wrote the 20th edition of Accounting Principles (South-Western). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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Santa Cruz libraries issue Big Brother warning| SANTA CRUZ, California, March 13, 2003 -- Santa Cruz public libraries have posted notices warning patrons that the records of what they borrow can be viewed by the federal agents under the 2001 USA Patriot Act. The warning noted that the law "prohibits library workers from informing you if federal agents have obtained records about you." The Patriot Act has rankled librarians and other book people who see the law as government intimidation of readers -- made all the worse by a lack of due process. Booksellers also have bristled because government agents who can tap into their records and bar sellers from alerting their patrons, the news media or anybody else. |
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Reports: Texas school book purchases in peril| AUSTIN, Texas, March 12, 2003 -- Reports persist in the Texas pess that the state could cut spending on new school books to help balance its budget. Cuts could severely affect el-hi publishers because of the size of the Texas market. The new reports were blamed in part for a 22 percent drop in the stock of Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer. London-based Pearson and Anglo-Duitch giant Reed Elsevier, which also own el-hi subsidiaries, have fallen about 8 percent. |
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Riverdeep to launch children's books| DUBLIN, Ireland, March 11, 2003 -- Educational software company Riverdeep announced a line of children's titles, Learning Company Books, to be sold through schools, direct mail, trade and the retail outlets beginning in June or July. The new books, to be marketed worldwide, will be designed for children from preschool through the upper elementary years, the company said. Riverdeep said it will exploit established Learning Company software brands, including Carmen Sandeigo, Clue Finders, Oregon Trail, Print Shop, and Reader Rabbit. Eric Stone, former manager of the Learning Company software division, which has been acquired by Riverdeep, will head up the new division. | |
McGraw enhances PageOut tool| NEW YORK, March 10, 2003 -- The PageOut web-based course management tool offered by McGraw-Hill has been upgraded for instructors to integrate pre-built courses into their personal account and customize them, McGraw announced. Another enhancement enables a faculty member to send course announcements as text messages to student cell phones. The test bank seection has been enlarged so instructors can choose questions from multiple test banks. Ed Stanford, president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education, said PageOut has 70,000 reghistered users and more than 1 million hits a day. |
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Publishers group tabs new officers| WASHINGTON, March 9, 2003 -- The Association of American Publishers elected Jane Friedman, president of HarperCollins, as chair of the AAP board of directors. Elected vice chair was Anthony Lucki, president and chief executive of Harcourt Education. Elected treasurer was John Sargent, chief executice Holtzbrinck, whose college units include Bedford, Freeman, and Worth, in addition to trade houses Farrar Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt, Picador, St. Martin's and TOR. |
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SchoolHouse targets struggling readers| SAN FRANCISCO, California, March 9, 2003 -- The SchoolHouse Divison of LeapFrog launched a series of books for struggling readers in Grades 3 through 5. SchoolHouse described the books as "high-interest, low-level." The books are comprised of non-fiction articles and stress strategic reading, word attack, vocabulary and phreasing, the company said. | |
Pearson creating new science lineBOSTON, Massachusetts, March 8, 2003 -- Textbook publisher Pearson Education is creating a new science unit that, if plans materialize, will issue about 20 titles a year. The books will draw on the existing network of professional scientists and educators whose works already are published by Pearson. Insiders said the unit will be housed within the Pearson Technology Group. A name for the unit will be announced in the spring with the first titles rolling out in the fall. In charge as executive editor is Stephen Morrow.
What this means for authors: Science authors whose works are already in the Pearson fold ahould ask their editors about possibilities for adapting their titles into the new series. |
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South-Western marks 100th year| MASON, Ohio, March 7, 2003 -- A venerable name in textbook publishing, South-Western, is celebrating its 100th birthday. It was in 1903 that school-teacher James W. Baker issued his book, 20th Century Bookkeeping and Office Practices. Still today South-Western has books in business. The company, now, part of Canada-based Thomson, has education products for the K-12, higher education and professional markets in accounting, business communication, business law, career readiness, decision sciences, economics, finance, keyboarding, management, marketing, office technology, real estate and tax. Many of South-Western's titles, including Carl S. Warren, James M. Reeve and Philip E. Fess' Accounting, in its 20th edition, are considered standards in their fields. It's been calculated that the Warren, Reeve and Fess book has been used by 11 million students. |
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McGraw creates performance tracking tool| NEW YORK, March 7, 2003 -- A new product that allows elementary teachers to use the Internet to improve student performance, called Yearly ProgressPro, was launched by McGraw-Hill Digital Learning. The research-based tool provides teachers the data needed to assess mastery and retention of an entire year's curriculum to help students prepare for standardized tests required by No Child Left Behind law, McGraw said. Brad Onken, president of McGraw Digital Learning, said: "The need for research-based solutions proven to raise student achievement, coupled with growing accountability demands, makes it critical for teachers and administrators to instantly know where to focus instruction and where their students rank within state and national standards." Yearly ProgressPro uses 15-minute weekly tests to assess the entire grade level curriculum and prevent slippage of student skill mastery. |
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New England Book Show winners announcedBOSTON, Massachusetts, March 6, 2003 -- An advance announcement on the winners of the 46th annual New England Book Show awards included numerous works by academic and scholarly authors. These included:
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| Chris Botello: Botello's Adobe Illustrator 10, published by Course Tchnology, won in the college textbook catgeory. This computer software book is part of Course Technology's Design Professional Series. |
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| Richard P. Gabriel: Gabriel's Writers' Workshops & the Work of Making Things, published by Addison Wesley, won for its interior design and cover design in the professional nonillustrated category. Gabriel, poet and computer scientist, introduced the software patterns apprach to the software comunity and builds on that work in this book. |
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| Leslie Lamport: Lamport, a software engineer now with Microsoft Reserarch in Mountain Air, California, won for the cover design of Specifying Systems: The TLA+ Language and Tools for Hardware and Software Engineers, published by Addison Wesley. |
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The books will be displayed at the show March 11. |
Columbia Press in red ink| NEW YORK, March 5, 2003 -- The departure of Columbia University Press director William Strachan came amid continuing deficits, according to the student newspaper the Daily Spectator. The newspaper quoted Press chairman John Davis that the Press had fallen short of its budgetary goals. Davis declined to state the size of the losses beyond that the Press has failed to break even for two years. "Ideally," Davis said, "what the press would like to have is a surplus each year. We were not in that position." The losses came despite a 12 percent increase in net sales last year and a 6 percent increase so far this year. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
| Lilly Ghahremani, a law graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and an English graduate of the University of Michigan, joined the Lennie Literary Agency in San Diego, California. |
| Jack Lynch, founding chief executive at Bigchalk, was named president and chief executive officer at Pearson Education Technologies. |
 | Michael M. Madigan (biology), Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, John Martinko (biology), Southern Illinois, University (biology), Carbondale, and Jack Parker (biology), Southern IllinoisUniversity, Carbondale wrote the 10th edition of Brock Biology of Microorganisms (Prentice Hall). |
 | Ernest Zebrowski Jr. (education), Southern University, wrote The Last Days of St. Pierre (Rutgers University Press). |
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tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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Nebraska Press launches Holocaust series| LINCOLN, Nebraska March 5, 2003 -- The University of Nebraska Press, its list already a leader in Jewish and Holocaust studies, will issue the first title in the Comprehensive History of the Holocaust project. The series begins with Christopher Browning of the University of North Carolina, who is writing The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942. Fifteen to 20 scholarly books by an international team of historians is planned over the next 10 to 15 years in English. |
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Report: Family vs. management at Bertelsmann| GÜTERSLOH, Germany, March 5, 2003 -- Nothing less than "regime change" underlies the back-stabbing, power-grabbing and blood-letting at German media giant Berteslsmann, according to the business magazine Business Week. Executives fear that patriacrh Reinhard Mohn will appoint son Christopher, who now runs Lycos Europe, to run the whole company even though, the executives' opinion, the younger Mohn, age 37, is "not yet ready for the job and lacks his father's charisma." The drama is playing out against an anticipated drop in earnings, down about one-quarter for 2002, Business Week said. Also there is the backdrop of Reinhard Mohn's recent article criticizing the company's management. Said Business Week: "Mohn has been saying this for years, but repeating it in print was considered a slap at (fired chief executive) Middelhoff, who cultivated an international reputation. It was also a signal that Mohn wanted to end the days of flashy deals and reassert family stewardship of the company." Meanwhile, new chief executive Gunther Thielen has reemphasized the company's traditional decentralization. Middelhoff tried to get divisions to cooperate more closely. In all of this, said Business Week, "the challenge for Thielen is to keep the mop-up from becoming a brawl." |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | Albert R. Roberts (criminal justice), Rutgers University, wrote Critical Issues in Crime and Justice (Sage). |
 | Steven Daniel Garber (biology), formerly Cornell University, the City University of New York, and Rutgers University, wrote the second edition of Biology: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley). |
 | Michael L. Spangle (communication), Regis University, wrote Negotiations: Communication for Diverse Settings (Sage). |
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| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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2002 U.S. book sales near $27 million| WASHINGTON, March 4, 2003 -- Book sales totaled $26.9 billion in the United States last year, a 5.5 percent increase, according to figures just released by the Association of American Publishers. The figures matched end-of-the book data published on the SA2 site on February 5 from year-to-date AAP through December. Sales of professional and scholarly books grew 8.5 percent to $5.1 billion. El-hi sales fell 5 percent to $4.1 billion. Higher-ed sales rose 12.4 percent to $3.9 billion. University press fell 3.8 percent to $392.6 million. Standardized test sales grew 7.2 percent to $268.2 million. |
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Book people rally against Harry Potter ban| FORT SMITH, Arkansas, March 3, 2003 -- A dozen national author and book organizations asked a federal judge to let Harry Potter back onto school library shelves. The organizations, including the Association of American Publishers, support a lawsuit challenging a school board decision to require parental permission for kids to check out books in the Harry Potter series. The board was responding to a parent's complaint that the books promoted witchcraft and sorcery and that they encouraged children to question authority. The suit challenging the decision, filed last summer, is based on pupils' free speech rights and the right to receive information under the First Amendment. Although the Harry Potter books have been challenged around the country for years, this is the first time that the issue has reached the courts. Pat Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, said: " The book-banners might not like it, but the Supreme Court has said that our kids have First Amendment rights too." Among other signatories on the friend-of-the-court brief: American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN American Center, bestselling author Judy Blume, and People for the American Way.
The Harry Potter books, by English author J.K. Rowling, are published by Scholastic. |
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Vermont booksellers in resistance mode| BURLINGTON, Vermont, March 3, 2003 -- No Vermont booksellers have gone as far as Michael Katzenberg and destroyed their customer records to avoid confrontations with federal agents under the USA Act, but, according to a survey by the Burlington Free Press there is wide support for what he's done. Josie Leavitt at Flying Pig Books in Charlotte, Vermont, said she will refuse to give up customer records if federal agents show up. The Patriot Act, which allows agents to take records to see who's reading what, has spawned wide objections among book people. "Books represent freedom," said Leavitt in an interview with the Free Press. "If people can't read, they're not free." Other booksellers said they will delete their record of customer purchases if customers request. |
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| Pearson Education: Revenue grew 6 percent despite a 5 percent decline in el-hi sales. Profits grew 19 percent.
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| Reed Elsevier: Sales in 2002 grew 10 percnt to U.S.$7.9 billion. Operating profit grew 14 percent to $1.8 billion. Harcourt Education sales grew 71.5 percent to $1.6 billion. Science and medical publishing grew 26.5 percent to $2.0 billion. El-hi sales made "a good showing" despite reduced state spending and a weak adoption cycle.
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| Thomson: Sales in 2002m grew 7.0 percent to U.S.$7.8 billion. Earnings grew 15 percent to $1.8 billion. Thomson Learning sales grew 24 percent to $2.3 billion, mostly due to acqusition of part of the Harcourt list from Reed Elsevier. Science and healthcare sales grew13 percent to $780 million..
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| Wiley: Revenues grew 6 percent to $221.2 million for the third quarter that ended January 31, compared to a year earlier Net income grew 13 percent to $24.2 million. Higher-ed revenues in the United Stated grew 4 percent. Professional and trade revenue grew 2 percent.
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U.S. publisher group condemns Cuban ban| WASHINGTON March 2, 2003 -- The president of the Association of American Publishers, Pat Schroeder, condemned the Cuban seizure of books en route from the United States to Cuban libraries and dissidents. "Books represent a serious threat to all authoritarian regimes," Schroeder said. "Otherwise they wouldn't go to such lengths to suppress publication and intimidate authors and publishers." She noted that among the interdicted works was a book by the late U.S. comedian Groucho Marx. "I guess the official line in Cuba is 'Karl, si! Groucho no!'" she said. Schroeder noted that Cuba frequently points with pride to claims that illiteracy has been virtually wiped out in Cuba: "What they still doesn't get is that teaching people to read is meaningless unless they are given the freedom to read what they want." |
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Lehigh renames digital press plant| PENNSAUKEN, New Jersey, March 1, 2003 -- Textbook printer Lehigh Press changed the name of its production facility from Lehigh Press Colortronics to Lehigh Digital to reflect new services, competencies and culture. The company has installed a 74 Karat digitally integrated press for short-run and medium-run color jobs. |
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SA2 site carried 83 February itemsWINONA, Minnesota, March 1, 2003 -- The Society of Academic Authors kept members abreast of breaking news in their field with four e-mail news alerts during February, according to the society's monthly report to members. In all, the site carried 83 items in February. Added to the site was an extensive discussion by Paul Rosenzweig, who audits royalty statements for authors, on accounting problems he encounters. Also, SA2 founder John Vivian shared his thoughts in a column on exciting students about textbooks. The monthly report also said that SA2 membership had passed 1,400, making it the largest U.S. author organization of its sort.
Navigating the SA2 site: The latest news is reported at the top. Scroll down to earlier news or click the link under each news items for earlier items. Your gateway to all SA2 online services, including contract discussion and authoring advice, is at the site map. |
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