The University of Texas at Tyler on Monday announced the release of its first edition of A Patriot’s Guide to Success: Words of Wisdom from East Texas Leaders.

It’s the first book published by the UT Tyler Press. The book offers advice and inspirational stories from a diverse group of about sixty East Texas leaders. It was produced as a companion piece for UT Tyler’s annual Career Success Conference, which brings together business and industry leaders from across the nation, including UT Tyler alumni, to share their success stories.

“One of the things that students talked about most was wanting to have the advice of all of those who came out to speak on a very regular basis, and since we can’t invite 200-plus executives to campus every week to share their stories and success with our students, we decided to publish a book by those very same executives,” Michael Tidwell, UT Tyler president, told KLTV.

Having faculty members who want to publish work based on their field was one of the driving forces behind creating the UT Tyler Press, Tidwell said.

“There are a lot of individuals on campus already, doctorly-qualified faculty members with PhDs who are experts in their area of discipline and often times they publish books or write journal articles and they have to go to other organizations to publish their works,” he said. “Well, we’ve decided now with our great research focus here at the university to create a press so those books can now be published right here under the UT Tyler Press.”

The UT Tyler Press is working on projects from faculty and a couple of people outside the university. “Very soon we’ll go out into the marketplace and to Tyler and all of East Texas and seek works from the broader community,” Tidwell said.