UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 3 [19th-23rd Oct]

This week was our first week with all four of our modules with Samantha back from her illness (hooray!).

Tuesday morning was Publishing Skills again and this time we were looking at Adobe InDesign. Marita Fraser, co-creator of Framed Horizons - Norvik Press' first student-led publication - came in to guide us through it. For most of us this was our first time using this programme though, fortunately, a lot of the basics were relatively familiar from the, now horrendously expensive Microsoft Publisher and the various programmes used in school ICT and D&T classes that you thought you'd never need again. Marita made available to us the first few pages of a translation of Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey Through Sweden, Vol 1 published by Norvik Press. With this and the cover designed by Norvik Press, in order to test what we had learnt, we were asked to assemble an 8 page "book". It was a very interesting session and a programme that will no doubt come in handy for our Publishing Projects.
Next week: Copyediting and Proofreading with guest speaker Wendy Toole from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

We had our second Publishing Project session in the afternoon and we (finally!) had a real opportunity to speak to our group and figure out why we were put in a group together. While, for the most part, I do not suggest placing people in groups based solely on the results of some really very odd online personality tests, it seemed to work this time around. We are still fine-tuning our ideas and I don't know how much I'm allowed to give away but I can tell you this: it involves fairytales and legends and some (hopefully) gorgeous illustrations.

Thursday morning we had our second Author Management lecture with Mal, Rachel and special guest Hannah MacDonald from September Publishing on the role of the editor and how it has changed and continues to change in the digital age and as the channels between author and reader have become so prevalent. We were given an insight into what it is that editors are looking for (a difficult thing to really define) and what is involved in a structural edit. A very interesting lecture for those of us still interested in the editorial side of the industry.
Next week: "Commissioning: Show Me The Money" with guest speakers Francesca Main (Picador fiction) and Ingrid O'Connell (Sidgwick and Jackson non-fiction).

In the afternoon we had our first Theories of the Book lecture; the only properly academic module we have. With Samantha back from her illness she took us on a whistle-stop tour through the history of the book from the Diamond Sutra - the first printed book to present day. Once I got over the fact that I wasn't going to get a chance to rehash my knowledge of Homer and the oral tradition and literature in Ancient Rome I became aware of just how much I didn't know about the history of the book. Sam made what was a hefty load of information really interesting and exciting and has, I think, given us a lot to think about when it comes to ideas for our dissertations. 
Next week: History of Reading/Social Reading with guest speakers Dr Shafquat Towheed (Open University, Director of 'The Reading Experience Database, 1450-1945') and Dr Danielle Fuller (Birmingham University, Reader in Canadian Studies and Cultures of Reading).

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x