4 Books for Textbook Authors to Read on National Author's Day

Greetings on National Author's Day!

What better way to celebrate than to begin a journey through a fellow author's work, eh?

Here are four books I recommend for textbook authors that have helped form my perspective on writing educational material.


Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott.

Besides the fact that I love Lamott's informal and humorous storytelling, this book is one of the best books by a successful writer on on authoring that I've read.  And I've read a few.

The title is based on advice given by Lamott's father to her overwhelmed brother when he realized that the report on birds that he had months to write was due the next day. Dad advised, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." What textbook author can't relate to that as we start a new project or revision?


Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel.

Written for students and teachers in an engaging, nontechnical style, this book identifies some key concepts in how we best learn for the long term. It turns out that there are some surprises revealed by recent learning research that turn some of the long-held ideas about learning upside down. Many of the techniques we have used help us learn for the next test, but do little if anything to help us "make it stick" in the long term.

When I was a new teacher, I was SO frustrated that my students seemed to remember nothing from their prior courses. Then I realized that no matter who their teacher or which school they attended before, this was just the way it is. I learned that my energy is better spent getting my students up to speed than to complain about their prior learning. And on changing my techniques to bolster long-term learning. After reading this book, I realized that it's the common methods of teaching and learning, not the failures of prior schools or teachers, that make my students underprepared. It confirmed some of the techniques I'd begun using in my courses and introduced me to others.

When we write textbooks, we teach. So I've been trying to adapt the emerging principles of learning science in my writing. This book has been a useful guidebook for that journey.


The last two (of four) books I'm recommending today have already been reviewed by me in recent posts, so I'll just list them here and link them to those previous posts.


Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide by Mary Ellen Lepionka, Sean Wakely, and Steve Gillen.

This new edition is available for pre-order for a December 2016 release.


Guide to Textbook Publishing Contracts by Steve Gillen

Short, well-illustrated book that every textbook author should use when reading, negotiating, or re-negotiating a publishing contract.

Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide

The title of this book says it all, it truly is as comprehensive a guide to getting a textbook project off the ground (and keeping it going) as one could imagine.

Honestly, I had some reservations about the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) jumping with both feet into publishing books themselves. But this is the second book I’ve seen come out of that effort and both are outstanding in their usefulness and their instructional design. I’m a believer now, TAA!

(See my previous review of Guide to Textbook Publishing Contracts.)

As a book of 320 pages, one is always concerned about whether it’s just too big to be very useful for a busy academic. Nothing to worry about, there!

First, the book is thoughtfully “chunked” into parts, chapter, sections, and subsections—making both reading and “raiding” the book easily accomplished. You can learn more about “the art of chunking” on p. 164.

Second, the internal design features many lists, tables, samples, graphics, and sidebars that organize the information visually. We all know that this helps any user find information and build a conceptual framework for how it all fits together.

Most importantly, perhaps, is that the text narrative is written in a direct, conversational style that tells the story of what’s involved in developing your own textbook. It’s like having a team of mentors sitting on your shelf, ready to give advice whenever you need it.

When I hear about a new guide or manual, I want to know who created it. Is it someone who can reliably be a virtual mentor to me? For this guide, we have three main authors who exceed usual expectations in that regard:

• Mary Ellen Lepionka has done it all: professor, author, editor, publisher. 
• Sean Wakely brings his wide and deep editorial and textbook development expertise. 
• Steve Gillen is a former publishing attorney who has been in private practice representing textbook authors for decades. 

I’ve experienced and benefited from the work of all three for a long time, so I’m not surprised that their collaboration has produced such a useful guide.

Besides the main authors, the guide is sprinkled with brief “Author to Author” essays written by textbook authors whose long experience ranges widely in discipline, publishers, types of textbooks, and personal style of authorship. They tell stories that clarify how textbook authorship isn’t simply something “on the side” of your main career, but is a profession unto itself—one that has all the intricacies, jargon, customs, and pitfalls of any professional endeavor.  In short, they tell you why you need this guide!

Of course, no guide like this can tell you everything, but I can’t find any important topic that isn’t considered (at some level) in its pages. And I really tried to find one!

I wish I’d had such a helpful and thorough guide when I started working on textbooks thirty years ago. But I’m glad to have it now. It will help me keep up to date on current trends in my profession—and get advice on specific topics from trusted colleagues.

I looked at a pre-publication copy for this review, but you can download a free 17-page sample by visiting this page at TAA's website:

Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: 

A Comprehensive Guide 

Fill out the form in the pop-up window, or click the circular "download" button on the page.

Occupational Hazard for Authors: Sitting

Over the last decade, there has been growing wave of scientific reports that shows us that what we've always feared to be true is now a proven fact—being an author can kill you!  Or at least can increase your risk of death.

There are probably many such risks associated with the writer's life, such as paper cuts that get infected, the stress of deadlines that adversely affect blood pressure, a set of Oxford English Dictionaries (OEDs) falling on our heads, and glare from our monitors that give us the insomnia that raises our risk of heart attacks. But the issue I want to address today is probably the worst of them all: prolonged sitting.

Most of us sit at a desk when we are doing our secretive and lonely job of writing and revising.  For hours and hours, for days and days, month after month.  And any time we are sitting, we are not doing any significant physical activity.  We know by experience it can cause neck and back pain and loss of muscle mass and bone density. Researchers also find that such sedentary behavior can increase our risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other life-threatening chronic conditions. In fact, just prolonged sitting—regardless of other physical activity level—can increase these health risks.

So what, if anything, can we do to save ourselves?  Besides giving up our passion of writing?

I'm sure that more studies are coming soon that will help us choose the very best strategies for our predicament.  In the mean time, I have some suggestions:

• Don't sit so much. Duh-uh. But how can we do what we do without sitting?  A lot? I suggest doing some of those tasks while standing up! Stand-up desks, and stand-up extenders for sitting desks, are becoming popular and easy to find. I've not found a good stand-up desk setup for my writing studio yet, but I have found that using an extender on a work table allows me to many of my writing tasks standing up.  The more of tasks I can find that could be done standing up, the less the risks to my health will be.


• Get up and move around more. Okay, this is just a corollary to "don't sit so much."  But I've made a conscious effort to get up out of my chair more often to get things (like a volume of that deadly OED I mentioned), take a short walk over to the aquarium to watch the fish (or maybe even scrape a bit of algae off the glass), or just step outside for a moment to catch a breath of fresh air (and perhaps refill the bird feeder).


• Add some activity to the daily routine.  Yeah, it's just a corollary to the other corollary to "don't sit so much."  But really, intentionally adding more physical activity to your day can counteract at least a bit of that deadly sitting effect.  Here are some ways I've found to add such activity without having to <groan> take up jogging—and without taking away much time from my writing.


• Walk up the stairs and back down every once in a while, just to get some steps in.


• Get a Fitbit or other type of pedometer, so you can see if you really are adding activity to your day.


• Build a daily walk or two into your routine.  I've begun taking my dog for a loop around the block after lunch and after dinner most days.


• Make "moving" choices.  When running errands, I now park in the back corner of the lot, so I have to walk more to get where I'm going. I take the stairs instead of the elevator.  Unless my appointment is on the 19th floor.



• Practice Tai Chi.  Yes, it's a corollary to the corollary "add some activity."  But this one deserves its own special mention. That's because I just finished reading some studies on the health benefits of Tai Chi and found out that it's phenomenal for reducing the same health risks caused by too much sitting—and provides additional wellness benefits.
  
  Although I enjoy hiking, biking, and even a few short resistance (weight) workouts each week, I really don't find anything enjoyable about other "exercise for the sake of exercise" activities such as treadmills, stationary bikes, ski contraptions, or rowing machines.  But Tai Chi?  I look forward to my daily half-hour of Tai Chi practice.  I find it way more relaxing, easy, and fun than yoga, exercise videos or classes, or anything else I've tried.
  
  Tai Chi is something I can do in smaller bits when I want to.  I can get up and do a quick 5 minutes of Tai Chi and then sit back down to that dreaded glossary I've been working on.  Not only does it add activity (and get me out of the chair), it also clears my mind and reduces stress so that I can "embrace" the glossary.  Well, maybe not that last thing.

Enough said.  You get the point.  If we want to reduce the serious occupational hazards of being an author (not the silly ones I mentioned before) by sitting too much, there are some steps we can take that don't require huge changes to our days—or to our productivity.

Want to know more?  Check out The health hazards of sitting.

Top photo: Dora Mitsonia
Bottom photo: Diana

Hello!

Welcome my new blog about the process of writing textbooks.

I've been writing textbooks for over 20 years, but would never pretend to be an expert.  However, I can claim to be a diligent student of the art and science of textbook writing.  So I thought I'd start a blog to keep track of what I've learned and what I continue to learn.

Blogging the learning process not only helps me but I hope that other textbook authors, or those considering taking that road, might get some ideas.  Even if the idea you get is, "THAT would never work for me," I hope you get something you can take away with you.

I don't plan on blogging here often.  But regularly.