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School sales on rocky roadNEW YORK, February 29, 2004 -- These data are extracted from a report on el-hi textbooks sales, including projections to 2005, from the investment firm of Goldman Sachs:
BUST
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
BOOM
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
ROCKY
2002
2003
2004
2005 |
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|
+ 2.1%
+ 1.4%
+ 2.3%
+ 11.4%
+ 14.4%
+ 6.2%
+ 14.8%
+ 10.3%
+ 3.3%
+ 13.3%
+10.5%
+ 2.0+
+ 10.0% |
|
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- 7.0%
- 5.0%
- 6.0% |
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R.I.P.: Historian Daniel Boorstin| NEW YORK, February 28, 2004 -- The retired Librarian of Congress historian and social critic David Boorstin, died at age 89. His tenure at the Librray of Congress spanned 1975 to 1987, he served as Librarian of Congress. His The Image, in 1961, won acclaim. In 1974 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for history for The Americans: The Democratic Experience. Twice he was nominated twice for the National Book Award. |
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Idaho Press closes due to finances| MOSCOW, Idaho, February 27, 2004 -- The University of Idaho Press will be shutting down between now and July 1 because of a "chronic deficit," university Provost Brian Pitcher announced. Director Ivar Nelson has been relieved. Pitcher said reorganization initiatives had failed to bring the Press into black ink, with the deficit projected to be $386,000 by the end of the fiscal year. The Press, founded in 1972, issues eight to 10 titles a year. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | Harold Cox, Indiana State University, wrote the 16th edition of Aging (McGraw-Hill). |
 | Michael C. Knap (business), University of Oklahoma, wrote the fifth edition of Contemporary Auditing: Real Issues and Cases (South-West). |
| John Sherer, marketing manager at Basic Books and also at Counterpoint, was named marketing director at Brookings Institution Press. |
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Please
tell
us
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project:
EDITOR |
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Report: Third of Georgia budget at risk| ATHENS, Georgia, February 24, 2004 -- The University of Georgia Press could be facing budget cuts that could lead to layoffs and title reduction, a newspaper reported. The report, in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, was challenged in part of John McLeod, Press publicist. McLeod said the Press is bracing for cuts of as much as $300,000, a third of the budget, but, he said, dire consequences won;t necessarily follow. "It's definitely a tough situation, but we've got plans," McLeod said. Also, he said, the funding cuts being discussed may not occur. He said funding to offset a loss in a state review could come from elsewhere within the university, which McLeod says the provost has agreed is a possibility. |
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| | UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS |
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Britannica issues youth encyclopedia| CHICAGO, Illinois, February 21, 2004 -- Encyclopaedia Britannica published a 13-volume set of full-color reference books for children My First Britannica. The series is aimed at children 8 to 13. The books combine text with color photography and illustration. Subjects include science, religion, folklore, geography and history. |
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Tom Snyder launches reading program| NEW YORK, February 20, 2004 -- A new reading improvement program for struggling and special needs students in grades 6-8, called Thinking Reader, has been introduced by the Schoastic unit Tom Snyder Productuions. The program is dgeared for "struggling readers into strategic readers," the company said. Features is authentic literature, comprehension skill building activities immediate corrective feedback and provides for differentiated instruction and individualized support. The company said the program has been research-validated with software from the Center for Applied Special Technology. |
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Nascorp to sell Ingram titles| OBERLIN, Ohio, February 18, 2004 -- A distributor of books to college stores, Nascorp, signed a multi-year agreement with Ingram Book Company to add 1 million Ingram titles to its inventory. The deal, effective this summer, will expand Ingram's sales to college stores. Nascorp currently has 200,000 titles available through its Oberlin, Ohio, distribution center. |
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Pearson unit expands EasyTech territory| PORTLAND, Oregon, February 17, 2004 -- El-hi publisher ScottForesman, part of Pearson Education, signed a third exclusive statewide sales and distribution deal with Learning.com of Portland, Oregon, to represent EasyTech products that are designed to help teachers teach technology skills in the context of core curriculum subject areas. The technology integration system is geared to the state's K-8 content standards. ScottForesman and Learning.com have similar distribution agreements in Texas and Florida. EasyTech is available in English and Spanish. |
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FORESMAN |
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Wiley, Merck in distribution deal| NEW YORK, February 16, 2004 -- The academic and scientific publishing house John Wiley & Sons signed an agreement to distribute Merck Publishing Group's four professional medical handbooks exclusively in the United States. The deal involves Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, Merck Manual of Geriatrics, Merck Index and Merck Veterinary Manual. Merck will be responsible for editorial control, production, public relations activities, electronic rights and subsidiary rights. |
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Kentucky governor restores text funds| FRANKFORT, Kentucky, February 15, 2004 -- After dropping state textbook support to local school districts from his budget, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher restored nearly $22 million. Fletcher, a Republican, is among few the governors who have given textbook purchasing any priority. Most governors have left it to local districts to go another year, maybe two, with books that need updating and replacement. |
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Pearson, Wharton create imprint| BOSTON, Massachusetts, February 14, 2004 -- College publisher Pearson and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania plan to launch a new imprint in the competitive business education market. The imprint, Wharton School Publishing, will feature authors who are recognized business education and corporate leaders, Pearson said. Books will be in a variety of formats, including print, audio, electronic, and video. Full-text will be available on the web. The Wharton imprint will be directed by Tim Moore, vice president and editor-in-chief of Financial Times Prentice Hall, and Jerry Wind, a Wharton marketing professor. The imprint will publish about 12 titles over the next two years and eventually 20 to 25 books a year. The first title will be released in July. Books will be in 10 langauges. |
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| | PEARSON
EDUCATION |
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Judy Bachrach. "John Ashcroft's Patriot Games," Vanity Fair (February 2004), Pages 106-108, 156-160. This unflattering portrait attempts to get inside the mind of George Bush's attorney general. Bachrach deals in depth with the events that led to the 2001 USA Patriot Act, in whic so many book people see a threat to free inquiry. Ashcroft comes across as intelligent but muddled and mired in superstition. Oddly, he sees calico cats as "instruments of the Devil." In fairness, he denies any antipathy toward calicos, but Bachrach's sources seem impeccably knowledgable about oh-so-many quirks.
Christopher A. Reed. "Just Say No to Exploitive Publishers of Science Journals," Chronicle of Higher Education (February 20, 2004), Page B16. Reed, a chemistry professor at the University of California at Riverside, says the scientific journal culture, controlled by commercial publishers, is fiscally unsustainable and unconducive to the best and most efficient research. He calls for a do-not-submit, do-not-subscribe, do-not-review policy by authors, libraries and senior scholars. |
Suit filed over digital coursepacks| AUSTIN, Texas, February 13, 2004 -- Six journal publishers filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Austin copyshops that sell packages of course materials online -- the first suit over digitally distributed coursepacks. The suit, in federal court, names two copy shops near the University of Texas, as well as a service that distributes coursepacks over the Internet. It accuses the owner, Samuel Odunsi, of reproducing academic material for a profit without permission. The plaintiffs are Elsevier, Wiley, Pearson, Princeton University Press, Sage, University of Chicago Press, and their licensing agent, the Copyright Clearance Center. Named in the suit are Odunsi's Abel's Copies, Speedway Copying, and NetPaks. Odunsi said his attorney is working to resolve the dispute. Under federal copyright law, infringements can carry fines of $750 to $150,000 per item. The total for which he is liable, said the publishers, is $8.5 million. |
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Hawkins award to evolution scholarWASHINGTON, May 29, 2004 -- February 10, 2004 -- The systematic reassessment of evolution by Mary Jane West-Eberhard, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution, won the R.R. Hawkins Award as the outstanding professional, reference or scholarly work of 2003 from the Association of American Publishers. West-Eberhard's work was chosen by a nine-member expert panel consisting of librarians, academics, and working publishers who are themselves former academics. The book was published by Oxford University Press. Here are other recipients of awards from AAP's Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division:
Architecture and urban studies: Maryrose McGowan and Kelsey Kruse, Interior Graphic Standards (Wiley). Honorable Mention: John Beldon Scott, Architecture for the Shroud: Relic and Ritual in Turin (University of Chicago Press).
Arts: Anne Wilkes Tucker, Dana Friis-Hansen, Kaneko Ryuichi and
Takeba Joe, The History of Japanese Photography (Yale University Press), and Julian Cox and Colin Fox, Julia Margaret Cameron: The Complete Photographs (Getty Publications).
Biography and Autobiography: R. Larry Todd, Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (Oxford University Press). Honorable Mention: Lawrence Buell, Emerson (Harvard University Press), and Don Rayno, Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, Volume I (Scarecrow Press).
Biological science: By: Thomas Eisner, For Love of Insects (Harvard University Press).
Business, management and accounting: David G. Messerschmitt and Clemens Szyperski, Software Ecosystem ( MIT Press). Honorable Mention: : Daniel Litvin, Empires of Profit: Commerce, Conquest and Corporate Responsibility (Texere).
Clinical medicine: James E. Tibone, Felix H. Savoie III and Benjamin S. Shaffer, Shoulder Arthroscopy (Springer). Honorable Mention: Noel Weidner, Richard J. Cote, Saul Suster, and Lawrence M. Weiss, Modern Surgical Pathology (Elsevier).
Computer science: Davide Maltoni, Dario Maio, Anil K. Jain and Salil Prabhakar.Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition (Springer). Honorable Mention: Soumen Chakrabarti, Mining the Web: Discovering Knowledge from Hypertext Data (Elsevier).
Economics: By: Michael Woodford, Interest and Price (Princeton University Press). Honorable Mention: Robert J. Shiller, The New Financial Order (Princeton University Press), and Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore, The Size of Nations (MIT Press).
Engineering:: Myer Kutz, Standard Handbook of Biomedical Engineering & Design (McGraw-Hill).
Geology and earth science: Thomas D. Potter and Bradley R. Colman, Handbook of Weather, Climate and Water (Wiley). Honorable Mention: Patrick E. McGovern,Ancient Wine (Princeton University Press), and Michael Williams, Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis (University of Chicago Press).
Government and political science: Amy Gutmann, I>Identity in Democracy (Princeton University Press). Honorable Mention: Sheldon Krimsky, Science in the Private Interest (Rowman & Littlefield).
History: John R. Clarke, Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans: Visual Representation and Non-Elite Viewers in Italy, 100 B.C. - A.D. 315 (University of California Press ). Honorable Mention: Carville Earle, The American Way (Rowman & Littlefield), and Peter Charles Hoffer, Sensory World in Early America (Johns Hopkins University Press).
History of science: Anton A. Huurdeman, The Worldwide History of Telecommunications (Wiley). Honorable Mention: Jan Sapp, Genesis: The Evolution of Biology (Oxford University Press).
Law: By: Daniel Farber, Lincoln’'s Constitution (University of Chicago Press).
Literature and language: Dennis Tedlock, Rabinal Achi: A Mayan Drama of War and Sacrifice (Oxford University Press). Honorable Mention: M.A. R. Habib, An Anthology of Modern Urdu Poetry (Modern Language Association).
Math and statistics: John A. Adam, Mathematics in Nature: Modeling Patterns in the Natural World (Princeton University Press). Honorable Mention: Judith Singer and John Willet, Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis (Oxford University Press).
Medical science: Paul W. Glimcher, Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain(MIT Press). Honorable Mention: Larry W. Swanson, Brain Architecture (Oxford University Press), and J. Michael Bishop, How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science (Harvard University Press).
Multi-volume reference (humanities): Irving B. Weiner, Handbook of Psychology, 12 volumes (Wiley), and Jaroslav Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition (Yale University Press).
Multi-volume reference (sciences): István Horváth, Encyclopedia of Catalysis (Wiley).
Nursing and allied health: Mike W. Ross and Sue J. Dyson, Diagnosis and Management of Lameness in the Horse (Elsevier). Honorable Mention: BTener Goodwin Veenema, Disaster Nursing and Emergency Preparedness for Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Terrorism and Other Hazards (Springer Publishing).
Philosophy: Scott Soames, Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volumes I and II. (Princeton University Press), and Robert Fogelin, Walking the Tightrope of Reason (Oxford University Press).
Psychology: Zenon W. Pylyshyn, Seeing and Visualizing (MIT Press). Honorable Mention: Richard J. McNally, Remembering Trauma (Harvard University Press).
Religion: Frank Peters, The Monotheists (Princeton University Press). Honorable Mention: Bruce J. Evensen. God's Man for the Gilded Age: D.L. Moody and the Rise of Modern Mass Evangelism (Oxford University Press).
Single volume reference (humanities): Brian Lalor,The Encyclopedia of Ireland (Yale University Press). Honorable Mention: Joshua Mostow, Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature (Columbia University Press).
Single volume reference (sciences): Vincent H. Resh,
Encyclopedia of Insects (Elsevier). Honorable Mention: L. David Mech and Luigi Boitani, Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation (University of Chicago Press).
Sociology and anthropology: Meave G. Leaky and John M. Harris, Lothagam (Columbia University Press). Honorable Mention: : Richard Alba and Victor Nee, Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration (Harvard University Press).
Best single issue of a journal: Barbara K. Gold, editor, and John F. Donahue, guest editor, American Journal of Philology Volume 124, Number 3 (Johns Hopkins University Press). Honorable Mention: IEEE, Proceedings of the IEEE (October 2003 / Volume 91, Number 10) (IEEE).
Electronic product (humanities); Alan Brinkley, Eric Foner, Kenneth T. Jackson and Casey Blake, Columbia American History Online (Columbia University Digital Knowledge Ventures). Honorable Mention: Niko Pfund, Oxford Scholarship Online (Oxford University Press).
Electronic product (science): Organic Syntheses, Organic Syntheses (Wiley).
Electronic product (social science): CQ Press, CQ Congress Collection & CQ Voting and Elections Collection (CQ Press). |
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Book sales 2003 growth modestNEW YORK, February 12, 2004 -- Sales of books in the genres in which academic authors write grew modestly 2003, according to data compiled by the Association of American Publishers. Even univerity press sales, while up from a year earlier, are far from the genre's peak. Here is the year-to-date data through December as extrapolated from 92 reporting publishers:University press (soft)
University press (hard)
Professional, scholarly
College
El-hi | 11.4 percent
7.4 percent
3.6 percent
3.6 percent
2.5 percent |
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Can university bar textbook info site?| GRAND FORKS, North Dakota, February 11, 2004 -- The Barnes & Noble-operated bookstore at the University of North Dakota has pressured university administrators to shut down a web site where professors can post their required textbooks before classes begin. With advance knowledge from the site, students can seek bargains from online textbook vendors and other sources, undermining the B&N on-campus monopoly. The university gets a commission on B&N sales. |
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Haights Cross eyes supplemental deal| WHITE PLAINS, New York, February 12, 2004 -- The acquisition-minded Haights Cross book publishing company offered senior notes to raise $50 million. The company said some of the borrowed funds would go toward buying a print-based curriculum supplement publisher, which it declined to name. The company, said, however, that it had signed nonbinding letter of intent to buy the supplement publisher for $25 million to $30 million. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | George E. Dickinson (counseling), College of Charleston, and Michael R. Leming (counseling), St. Olaf College, wrote the seventh edition of Dying, Death, and Bereavement (McGraw-Hill). |
 | Edward Bernard Fry (English) wrote the second edition of The Vocabulary Teacher's Book of Lists (Jossey-Bass). |
| Evan Schnittman, Oxford University Press, was named senior director for online product and business development. |
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Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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Study: English, 2nd tongue better together| BALTIMORE, Maryland, February 10, 2004 -- Children who speak other languages learn more effectively when taught in their own language and in English simultaneously, although at different times of the day, according to a new study. Researchers Alan Cheung and Robert Slavin reported that their conclusions contradict the conventional approach of teaching children first to read in their native tongue and later in English. the study was based on 30 years of data. There has been growing evidence from other researchers that's consistent with the Cheung-Slavin conclusions. |
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More bad news from book printers| MONTREAL, Quebec, February 9, 2004 -- A barometer of book industry health, how book printers are faring, took another dip. Printer Quebecor World laid off another 878 employees, or 2 percent of its global workforce. During the last three years, the company has cut 2,300 positions, 10 percent of its workers. |
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Scholastic changes financial chief| NEW YORK, February 8, 2004 -- Book publisher Scholastic went outside the industry for a new executive vice president. Mary Winston, formerly vice president and controller of automotive supplier Visteon Corporation, and before that with Pfizer and Warner-Lambert, was appointed executive vice president and chief financial officer. Winston replaces Kevin McEnery who left for "new career opportunities with a potential for broader responsibilities." McEnery had been CFO since 1995. |
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Kaplan deal adds four Houston campuses|
NEW YORK, February 7, 2004 -- The Higher Education Division at Kaplan bought the Texas School of Business, a postsecondary heath and business school. Terms were not disclosed. The Texas company has four campuses in the Houston area and 1,500 students. The purchase gives Kaplan a total of 62 campuses in 15 states with 42,000 students. |
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| McGraw-Hill Ryerson: Sales fell 6.9 percent to C$88.7 million for the latst fiscal year. Net income slipped slightly to C$$6.1 million. Why? Mostly declines in the school and trade and professional divisions.
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| Quebecor World: Sales grew 2 percent to $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter, with a net loss of $54 million in the fourth quarter, For the year, sales grew 1.9 percent to $6.4 billion, with a net loss of $31 million.
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Study: Frosh more politically consciousLOS ANGELES, February 5, 2004 -- Students are coming to college more politically engaged than in recent years, according to the latest annual study by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California-Los Angeles. The study, drawn from a survey of 276,000 freshmen at 413 colleges, found 33.9 percent regard "keeping up to date with political affairs" as a very important or essential life goal. Not since 1994 had the pecentage been at that level. A nadir was 28.1 percent in 2000.
What this means for authors: Tracking studies on student awareness are valuable to textbook authors, who deal with moving targets in terms of the information base and interests of students. |
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Quartet breaks up, Keedy solosWINTERHAVEN, Florida, Februay 5, 2004 -- With the dissolution of his Bye Bye Blues quartet, retired textbook author-activist Mike Keedy has gone solo. His first concert, in Winter Haven, for the Friendship Club, centered on variety. The program featured:"Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
"Danny Boy"
"Home on the Range"
"La Donna E Mobile" (From "Rigoletto")
"Let There Be Peace on Earth"
"Sweet little Jesus Boy"
"I Believe"
"God Bless America"
"Fly me to the Moon" (encore)"It went very well and I have come home very happy," said Keedy. "I was billed as Mike Keedy, bass-baritone, and nailed down four more bookings at the end of the gig. |
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Accompanist Carol Keen and Mike Keedy
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Publishers fault text "ripoff" report| NEW YORK, Feb. 4, 2004 -- Responding to a California report that suggested callousness in textbook pricing, spokesperson Judith Platt of the Association of American Publishers said publishers take student concerns seriously. The industry, Platt said, is working to find ways to keep textbooks affordable. It's unrealistic, however, to expect college texts will ever be in the price range of mass-market books, Platt said: "It can cost more than a million dollars over a couple years to bring a textbook to market." The cost has to be spread out over a limited number of students, she said. Platt was responding to a report, Ripoff 101, issued by the California Public Interest Research Group. Platt denied the charge that new editions are issued more often than necessary. New editions, she said, are designed to keep up with the changing body of knowledge in a field. What accounting prof, she asked, would consider a pre-Enron textbook? On average a new textbook is reissued within four years so students are up-to-date on research and world events, Platt said. She also said the professors are reluctant to assign textbooks perceived as out-of-date. To a charge that bundling CDs, videos and other study materials hikes cost, Platt said that bundled items cost less than if sold separately. Students who don't want bundled materials can always shop around or buy directly from the publisher, she said. |
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| Platt challenged data on which CalPIRG based its Ripoff 101 report. The statistical basis was 151 faculty question-
naires. "We can't look at this as represent-
ative because there are more than 44,500 faculty members in California," Platt said. |
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Genticist David Allis wins Wiley Prize| HOBOKEN, New Jersey, February 3, 2004 -- Biomedical researcher C. David Allis was awarded the Wiley Prize in the Biomedical Sciences for breakthroughs in the treatment of certain leukemias and possiblu other forms of cancer. Allis, who is at home in the scholarly journals of his field, is chair of the Rockefekeller University chromatin biology and epigenetics lab. The Wiley award includes a $25,000 prize. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
| Tim DeWerff, Oxford University Press, was named director, for reference development and production. |
 | William Lasser (political science), Clemson University, wrote the fourth edition of Perspectives on American Politics (Houghton-Mifflin). |
| Steve Pease, vice president of production and product development at Scholastic, was named vice president and general manager. |
 | David A. Sherris (otolaryngology), State University of New York at Buffalo, and Eugene B. Kern (otolaryngology), Mayo Clinic, wrote the second edition of Essential Surgical Skills (Saunders). |
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Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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Wiley adds plastic journals| BROOKFIELD, Connecticut, February 1, 2004 -- The Society of Plastics Engineers entered a partnership with academic publisher John Wiley & Sons, which will produce the society's technical journals Polymer Engineering & Science, Polymer Composites, and Journal of Vinyl & Additive Technology. The society retains ownership and editorial control. Wiley will add online editions of the journals to its Wiley InterScience package. |
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