WVU is an institutional member of Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA). This means our instructors, staff, and
grad students can claim their professional membership free of charge.
- Professional Development
- Get expert advice and insight from more than 250+ on demand presentations.
- Get up-to-date information on timely topics and participate in live Q&A with live webinars.
- Join the TAA Conversation Circle, live, open discussions with other TAA Members on various topics, held at 1 p.m. ET on the last Wednesday of the month.
- Browse our growing library of downloadable templates, worksheets, checklists and samples gathered from experienced textbook and academic authors and industry professionals to assist you with your own writing.
- Download more than a dozen eBooks on writing and publishing, social media, grant writing, and more.
- View the results of TAA’s 2022 Textbook Contracts & Royalties Survey, aimed at published textbook authors with the goal of providing a look into the range of royalties and contract options offered for print and digital textbooks.
- Stay connected to the textbook and academic authoring industry, and gain inspiration and insight from articles and member profiles with the TAA Blog, Abstract and TAA's member newsletter, The Academic Author .
- Watch a 5-10 minute how-to video on scholarly writing, time management, productivity, publishing, online presenting, and more, and then get back to your writing project with new inspiration and insight!
- Learn and network with other textbook and academic authors at the TAA annual conference, on TAA's social media channels and its an Online Bulletin Board, where you can post messages seeking coauthors or mentors, offering publishing opportunities and more.
- Grants and Discounts
- Offset your out-of-pocket expenses with publication grants or maximize your royalty potential with a textbook contract review grant.
- Browse a list of academic coaches, editors, consultants, intellectual property attorneys, indexers, accountants and tax advisors, and more, offering discounted rates exclusively to TAA members in TAA's Professional Directory.
- Take advantage of special offers from TAA Industry Professional Members, including discounts, downloads, white papers, and more.
- Writing Programs
- Accomplish your academic writing goals by focusing on two areas of academic writing that many authors tend to struggle with - isolation and accountability – with TAA’s Month of Motivation program, now available by subscription! Open to members only.
- Flex your writing muscles in the TAA Writing Gym. This 6-week work-out-on-your-own gym time will serve as your writing accountability partner as you work to achieve your writing goals. The gym is open to those writing textbooks, scholarly journal articles, and dissertations. Open to members only.
- Get support on writing your first textbook with this new online course, Writing and Developing Your College Textbook. Writing and crafting a textbook and attending to authoring tasks is a time-consuming, complex—some would say monumental—project, even harrowing at times. Whether you are writing a textbook for a traditional publisher, self-publishing, or writing an open-access textbook, this course covers everything you need to be successful.
- Advocacy
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Resources
- Books
- Guide to Making Time to Write: 100+ Time & Productivity Management Tips for Textbook and Academic Authors
- Guide to Rights Clearance & Permissions in Scholarly, Educational, and Trade Publishing
- Writing and Developing Your College Textbook: A Comprehensive Guide
- Guide to Textbook Publishing Contracts
How to Claim Your Membership
- Begin by following this link to TAA’s website: Textbook and Academic Authors Association
- Enter your WVU email address into the text box to register
- Create a password for your membership and proceed to confirm it in the text boxes that appear on the screen
- Click the “Create Profile” button at the bottom right of the text box from step 3
- Proceed to fill in the required information for your account once you are redirected to the new page. All required information will be marked with a red asterisk
- Once you fill in the required information, click the “Next” button
- You will be redirected to a page that will ask if you have published either academic writing or textbooks. You will select either, “I am published” or “I am unpublished”. If you select “I am published,” a survey will pop up below to complete regarding the publication(s) you have been on. Fill out this survey and then click the “Submit” button. If you select “I am unpublished,” you will select “Submit” button.
- You have now completed your registration and will receive a confirmation email shortly