Accounting for Everyone

How a community college professor created the best-selling college textbook in the country and helped countless students become successful with his accessible approach to math.

 

Story and Photos by By Cindy Atoji Keene

How does a community college professor make a fortune off accounting textbooks? Ask Jeffrey Slater of Lexington.

The numbers don’t lie: a total of 2.2 million copies College Accounting and Developmental Math sold (both Pearson Publishing). And 1.8 million copies of Slater’s flagship book, Practical Business Math Procedures (McGraw Hill Publishing), the number-one-selling college textbook in the country for the last three decades.

Now in its 14th edition, the book incorporates The Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger throughout the text to reinforce real-world application of business math.

Early on, Slater negotiated a contract that included Wall Street Journal reprint rights, something the competition can’t afford to do. Now, in his quiet Harding Road home, he wakes up early and clips articles from the newspaper to include in the next edition of his book. A Wall Street Journal article “Coronavirus Daily Update,” for example, is used to show how to quickly estimate addition by rounding all the way.

Creating his own brand of college accounting textbooks hasn’t come easy.  For many years, Slater didn’t even have time to follow his beloved Boston Bruins or help raise his two children — “all I did was focus on my books.” The odds of succeeding in publishing were against him: For every 400-500 textbooks, only a very small percentage make it big.

Slater worked 18 hour days, connecting with sales reps to visit community and technical colleges. He manned booths at conventions, and flew across the country leading workshops. “A personal touch is key. Books don’t sell, you have to sell them. Whether a professor was going to order 10 books or 10,000, I’d personally call or visit him,” he said. “That makes the difference.” said Slater.

It wasn’t unusual for him to teach, run to the airport to fly across country for a conference, then take a red eye and be back in time for class at North Shore Community College, where he has taught for the last 52 years. He traveled to over 40 states and bounced around the country. Sometimes he wasn’t even sure what state he was in because it was all a frantic blur.

Slater, who has his MBA, tested his books contents at North Shore Community College. With a national drop out rate of 50 percent in freshman accounting, he felt the need to write his own book. “The students were my laboratory,” he said.

His books were the first to have a glossary —  accounting books in 70s didn’t have them — and a chapter organizer, quiz, and road map for readers to think out a problem step-by-step.

“Most accounting books were written by high-level authors,” said Slater. “My books were the first to be written by a community college teacher.” He ushered in technology at the textbook level and was the first in the country to have a DVD with a textbook. “I remember the publisher saying, ‘You can’t have a DVD, no one has a player for it.’ I said, “They will.” Now his books have adapted to the times, and are e-books connected to software and videos.

Slater was sitting in college one day, talking with a sociology professor who collected old tools. “I’d like to collect something to help me get away from all this stress,” Slater said. That’s when he started his animation collection, displayed in a small bedroom in his house. It includes a 5-foot Alvin the Chipmunk statue from an old movie theater; original sketches from Clifford the Big Red Dog; and a cherished photo of him and Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker. Before the advent of e-Bay, Slater visited flea markets and antique stores while he was traveling to add to his memorabilia.

Slater is also a car aficionado, having recently parted with his exclusive and rare Defender Land Rover, of which there were only 200 vehicles produced. Now he is the proud owner of a Ford Bronco in Area 51 blue. Having a blue car is a rarity for him, as many of his cars were yellow, including a Mercury Comet, Fj cruiser and Hummer H3. His wife Shelley of 52 years, who also loves car accessories, like roof racks and lights, is happy for once to have a non-yellow car. They drive around town with their golden doodles, Fedgie and Bernie. “There’s a saying about dogs: “You can only trust someone with four legs,” said Slater.

Slater is 75 now and he jokes that his publisher is very nervous about him dying. He still calls the shots on his books and now considers it his hobby rather than his career. There’s a new edition every three years, so he’s always thinking three years into the future. But he has no plans on slowing down.

Many of Slater’s students have gone on to become CPAs and he says that he relishes the fact that he’s helping a lot of students, especially those with math anxiety. “I used to tell students, if I can write this and I’m not that smart, you can read it and succeed.” And they do.