UCLPub2015 - Term 2: Weeks 3 & 4 [25th Jan-5th Feb]

This is super late. I have no excuse. I'm sorry.

Publishing Project
It's kind of difficult to say where we are with our project, mostly because I'm not entirely sure what I'm allowed to say. All of our submissions have been read and the successful authors have been notified. The shortlisted works have been sent to our judges (who we've still not even finished announcing) and we're excited to hear their feedback! Kara is in the process of designing our cover and they're looking really great, I'm excited to see how they turn out. This is when we start crunching the numbers too, and that bit is possibly the least enjoyable as you can imagine.  

Sales, Marketing & Promotion
Week 3 was on marketing theories and techniques by our own Daniel Boswell. We looked at the increasing direct-to-consumer nature of marketing books now that publishers no longer rely so heavily on the high-street booksellers and how this has changed the way we market. It's almost surprising the amount of theory behind marketing strategy: it is most definitely not as simple as just throwing together some posters for some train stations and posting about it on Twitter. There's almost a science behind it that begins at the beginning of the editorial stage.
Week 4 John Bond from Whitefox and Clare Somerville, the Deputy MD at Hachette Children's came in to discuss brand management with us. We learnt from John that the publishing industry still has a lot to learn when it comes to branding their books and their authors; it's all to clear that without the help of film, TV and, recently, YouTube, the publishing industry would not be where it is today because they cannot brand themselves. Clare on the other hand suggested that Children's publishing has got it right; there are a few key brands that drive the sales of the publishing industry using Rainbow Magic Fairy series as a case study. Through licence sales many brands in Children's publishing have grown exponentially.


Applied Creativity and Content
Week 3 we had a really great session on metadata; yes, I'm being serious. Azar Hussain, the Head of Data at Faber & Faber came in to talk to us. In speedy 10 minute segments, Azar gave us a quick rundown of metadata in 4 parts. And he made it interesting! He showed us the importance of metadata and the importance of getting it right first time. Incorrect metadata can break a book's sales. Well considered metadata can greatly improve the visibility of a book and thus positively drive sales.
Week 4's session was on paper! Steve Holmen of Holmen Paper came in to speak to us about how paper is made and how it affects the final product. It's the tiny details; mere millimetres can greatly affect a books sales: if it's too thick and the book looks too cumbersome, a reader might not buy it; too white and it becomes too difficult to read. They're things that, as readers, we kind of don't really think about it, but the wrong decision by the publishers could change everything.

Children's Publishing
Week three we had a fantastic session on diversity in Children's literature. It was really interesting to talk about and discuss the common assumptions when reading; more often than not, unless explicitly told otherwise (and even then, there are those who will chose to ignore it) we assume that the person we are reading about is white, straight, cis. Of course the black Hermione was mentioned, was it enough for J. K. Rowling to come out after and say well I never said she was white, or, in the position of power she was in as an author, should she have made it explicit. Juno Dawson, who has sort of become the poster girl for diversity in YA of late, says that children's literature is getting a bad reputation and it's doing far better than most adult genres in terms of presenting diverse characters. The only reason people think it isn't is because the big ones, the Divergents, the Twilights, the Hunger Games, they eclipse all of the diverse children's literature out there. We also spoke to Crystal Mahey-Morgan formally of PRH, now founder of OWN IT! London who shared her experiences as a WOC in the publishing industry. She also shared with us her own projects that tackle the lack of diversity in literature today.
Unfortunately, week 4's session was cancelled as Mel was ill; get well soon Mel!

UCLPub2015 - Term 2: Weeks 1 & 2 [11th-22nd Jan]

Possibly not the best start to my weekly round-ups of 2016 when I'm late with the first one! I'm going to blame it on the assignments; Author Management and Publishing Skills are now officially over. The assignments have been completed and handed in and the wait for my mark begins...
Term two has officially kicked off and thrown us right in the deep-end, here's my run-down of the first 2 weeks.

Publishing Project
Publishing Project, our only year-long module kicked us off on Tuesday morning. If you've been following us on Twitter and Facebook, you'll see that we've extended our submissions by a week so that they now close Friday 29th January, and we've announced 5 out of 7 of our judges:

1. Beatrice Masini - Italian translator of Harry Potter
2. Charlotte Eyre - Children's Editor at the Bookseller and chair of the YA Book Prize
3. David Owen - author of YA novel Panther (a fantastic read that tackles teenage depression and those it affects)
4. Annalie Grainger - commissioning editor at Walker Books (who publishes Patrick Ness!!) and author of YA novel captive
5. Bryony Woods - literary agent at DKW Literary Agency (who represents David Owen)

We've had quite a few submissions in and we're really excited to read what UCL students have to offer! We're also going to be building up our blog as the weeks go on in preparation for the release of the shortlist for the Bookseller's YA Book Prize!

Sales, Marketing & Promotion
Our first new module was Sales, Marketing and Promotion where each week we get to discover the wide and wondrous reach of Martin Neild's professional network. We've heard about several (top-secret) up and coming marketing campaigns and what goes into the designing of a marketing campaign. We've heard from both fiction and non-fiction marketing teams and it's very interesting to hear the different things that need to be considered for each book. It's amazing how much thought has to go into what, to the audience, seems so simple and easy; but I suppose that's the point. Each campaign is a gamble, and each on is a learning opportunity, and no two are the same. A job in sales and marketing would most definitely not be a boring one.


Applied Creativity & Content
This module is basically on production of the book. The stages from manuscript to print/ebook. The first week Will Hill came in to talk to us about typography and it was so interesting to see how important the typeface and font of a text is in book production. The wrong typeface can make reading really difficult and put a reader off. I think I've made it sound really dull but it was actually really interesting. That said, I still don't think I'm 100% clear on the difference between font and typeface...
Our second ACC session was on pre-press. So this outlined for us the steps that must be taken before a book is printed. It turns out that there are minor details that can massively affect the ease and speed of productivity in this late stage of book creation; from file format (MS Word .docx = bad, Adobe .pdf = good), to colour format (CMYK is the way forward for printed books).

Children's Publishing (aka Children's Publishing of JOY)
This is by far the most laid back and enjoyable of our new modules. This module is going to cover all kinds of children's publishing, from board and picture books to YA novels and everything in between. In our first session we took a trip to the Alice in Wonderland exhibition at the British Museum (everyone go before it ends, it's so much fun) to look at how many different versions and adaptations there have been over the years. When we got back to uni we had to, in groups, figure out how we would do a new adaptation; who would it be for, how would we present it, what made it different from what had already been done?
Our second session was on the relationship between the author, the illustrator and the editor (though really, we shouldn't forget the agent who plays a key role in the relationship). In some cases, the editor and author will be the same person, though the dream for all publishing houses would be to find a dream team like Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. After discussing this, we were split into groups and given different images. We had to come up with a story and a target market for a story from our group's images. I can't give too much away but hold tight for The Forever Five (and the Sometimes Six) and their arch-nemesis Master Lightbulb. Coming soon to a bookshop near you; or, you know, never, but we can dream!

UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 5 [2nd-6th Nov]

We're almost half way through already! This week was our last week before Reading Week (in which I will be doing my utmost best to get on top of all of the work we've been set in the first half of term. Though this was our last week before a fun (read: stressful) week off, our lectures did not let up.

We kicked off Tuesday morning's Publishing Skills lecture with every Publishing student's worst nightmare: finance. Fortunately our guest speaker Richard Balkwill from Copytrain did a top job of making it as understandable as possible and not horrendously confusing us for 3 hours. 

Tuesday afternoon was pitch time for our Publishing Projects. I think we were all quite pleased with the way it went and are very excited to find out which one of our pitches was successful.

Author Management on Thursday morning was on copyright and intellectual property. Once Mal and Rachel had given us an overview, Richard Mollet, lobbyist and CEO of the Publishers' Association, gave us a really interesting look at the importance and future of copyright in the digital age. Richard kept us all interested and made the subject - which had the potential to be ridiculously overwhelming and confusing to us novices - really accessible. With the rise of digital media, copyright laws and the need for revisions are becoming more and more important, so we were all very grateful to learn about it all from such a capable speaker.

Thursday afternoon was a great end to the week with a super interactive session with Mel on the evolution of authorship. Using what we'd learnt from our readings of Foucault and Barthes' works on the author, we had a mock debate with one half of the class arguing that the author is a collaborator while the other argued that the author is an original genius. I was on the side that argued that the author is an original genius and we took the stance that while an author's idea may not be entirely his own (a truly original idea is near impossible) every time he puts pen to paper - or finger to keyboard - he creates an original piece that only he could write. Unfortunately it was not the winning argument, though I would say that was more down to our sub-standard debating skills rather than an inadequate argument.

So as I've said we're at our reading week now so I won't be posting an update. Once I've done all my work I may be able to get a review up after I've (hopefully successfully) squeezed Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind in around my work.

Thanks for reading,

Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 4 [26th-30th Oct]

This week in Publishing Skills we looked at copyediting and proofreading practices. We looked at the differences between these roles, and how they have changed with the publishing industry as many publishing houses look to freelancers to fulfil these jobs rather than keep someone in-house. With the help of Wendy Toole, a freelance academic copyeditor and proofreader herself, we not only learnt about the intricacies involved in the job but also got to practice all of the weird and wonderful symbols used by proofreaders to edit and alter work; something we'll be expected to get to grips with if editorial is the route we're hoping to head down.
If you're interested in finding out more head over to the Society for Editors and Proofreaders' website: www.sfep.org.uk where you'll find more information and training options.
Next week: Publishing Finance with guest speaker Richard Balkwill (Proprietor at Copytrain and consultant and trainer at The Publishing Training Centre)

In our Publishing Project session this week we had our last opportunity to finalise our ideas ahead of our pitch on 3rd November; it was quite an intense three hours that involved a lot of back and forth, a lot of ideas being thrown around and a lot of repeating ourselves as we all sort of lost track of what we were working towards. In the end though, we've come up with two ideas that all seven of us are really excited to pitch next week! So by my next weekly round up I might just be able to give you a bit more than a hint about what we're looking to do for this module this year.

Author Management this week was on commissioning; what editors are looking for and how they go about commissioning it when they find it. As many of us are still holding on to the editorial dream it was something we're all very excited about. We had two guest speakers in this week both from trade but while Hannah Main (Picador) covered the fiction side, Ingrid O'Connell (Sidgwick and Jackson) gave us a really interesting insight into the non-fiction side of trade. Ingrid's coverage was a really new take on it as it was the first time we've really had someone share their experiences in the editorial side of trade non-fiction publishing. Now, non-fiction has never really been something I've been interested in - so far I've been very fiction-focused - but Ingrid's experiences sounded so exciting and really gave me something to think about.
Next week: Intellectual Property and Copyright with guest speaker Richard Mollet (Publishers' Association)

Theories of the Book was on the history of reading/social spaces. Though was a tad less intense than last week, it was a highly interactive session with Dr Shafquat Towheed and Dr Danielle Fuller who guided us through a discussion on the differences in reading spaces and habits in the 18th century compared to now. It was a very interesting and enlightening discussion that drew on more of our not at all creepy observations (read: stalking) of readers on public transport, in pubs, cafes and various other places. 
Next week: The Evolution of Authorship

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

UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 2 [12th-16th Oct]

So begins our first real week; "real week" meaning a 2-day week (joy of joys for those of us who came from Arts and Hums backgrounds and are only used to being in for 12 hours a week!). With Publishing Contexts over and done with, bar the assignment, we start our Publishing Skills, Publishing Project, Author Management and Theories of the Book modules.

We kicked things off Tuesday morning with the Publishing Skills, where we were introduced to the Nielson BookScan; a database that will become a key tool in our futures in the publishing industry. It allows the user to do something as simple as see both the volume and cost of sales of a particular book, and also identify sales patterns in a particular genre, or of a particular author. When it comes to identifying which books will do well at the commissioning stage, Nielson BookScan would allow us to track the trends and sales figures of similar books and help us to figure out how well a manuscript might do.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first Publishing Project and we (finally!) got to find out our groups. But not before a revealing session with the wonderful Anna Faherty of the Wellcome Collection on CREATIVITY. We started the session with a question on how we'd rate ourselves in terms of creativity in a scale of 1 to 10. It was only myself and one other who rated ourselves under 5 on the scale. It was decided that we merely hadn't found our sparring partners; we had not found the ideas creator to our ideas developers. Which is a nice thought.

So the Publishing Project module feels a little familiar to me. In my second year of the Classical Civilisation degree at UoN we had our Independent Second Year Project. Our brief: create anything on anything from the ancient world. Broad, that's for sure. Our brief, essentially, for the Publishing Project: publish something. A physical book, a digital book, whatever! And do this in a group of people you have never worked with before. So on the back of a series of personality tests, our lecturers put us into our Publishing Project groups and it all seemed a little daunting. As someone who rated themselves as below 5 in terms of creativity, I was (and still am) very worried about what I'd be able to bring to the table. Anna gave us little time to dwell on this as she quickly got us breaking down the ideas process and the process of creativity. Particularly at the beginning, the majority of us found ourselves constantly having to reign ourselves in as we got ahead of ourselves trying to figure out the feasibility of our ideas and trying to figure out how they worked. It was actually a surprisingly enjoyable session considering I fear this kind of creativity to my core.

After taking Wednesday as a day to relax, and maybe some of us do the reading for Thursday, we arrived Thursday morning (to yet another basement) for our first Author Management lecture with Rachel Calder and Mal Peachey. This lecture gives an insight into everything at the author level from copyright to what authors feel they do and don't need from publishers. Seeing how authors are (obviously) immensely key in the publishing process it is important for us, as future publishers and particularly for me who is considering the literary agent route, to understand how we can best benefit our authors.

Unfortunately, our lecturer for Theories of the Book came down with the flu so we weren't able to start this module this week so updates on this one to come next week!

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 We are LITERARY BLOOMSBURY

Bloomsbury is well known for being a hub of publishing and literary activity, and not just because of the publishing house of the same name (that was forced, I apologise). From specialist bookshops like the AA Bookshop (that's Architectural Association not Alcoholics Anonymous) to the powerhouse of Waterstones Gower Street; from niche publishers like Penelope Books, to both indie and big name trade at Faber & Faber and the Bloomsbury Group, Bloomsbury really does have it all.

To the uninitiated however, when walking around the area there's actually very little obvious evidence of this. The blue plaques are for architects, economists, the founder of Pakistan, and, of course, the mistress of Prince Frederick Duke of York.

The places that make Bloomsbury thrive as a hub of literary culture are often only known by those who are interested in knowing about them. You have to know that they are there to truly appreciate them. You could walk straight past the University of London Senate House and never know that it was the inspiration for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. The British Library is an intimidating creature to even the most bookish of worms and the beauty of the Charles Dickens Museum lies in the fact that it looks just like any other house.

There is, of course, the labyrinthine treasure-trove that is the Gower Street Waterstones. When charged with our #literaryme task in our first week it was, without hesitation, the first stop for the majority of us publishing students. It is our siren call; we cannot walk past without entering, and when we inevitably step through those glimmering doors, leaving, particularly without having made a purchase, requires an iron will. And perhaps also a heart of stone.

It is our love of books that brought us all to UCL, and thus to Bloomsbury. We, this new year of students to the masters course, have brought with us a our love of books and writing and publishing from all over the world, hoping to one day leave our mark in this literary community. We are the new generation of literary Bloomsbury. We are the future publishers, editors, designers, authors, and illustrators of the industry and we begin our journey in this hub of literary history with the hope that it's creativity and culture might rub off on us in our future careers.

You never know, maybe one of us will give UCLU's The Library the same reputation George Orwell gave The Fitzroy Tavern. That's the dream, right?

You can continue to shove us into the dark basements of the various buildings of University College London but you will not break our spirit. That is, unless you force us to dissect our beloved again. That one may not go down so well.

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 1 [5th-9th Oct]

So I suppose this is technically week two but induction week doesn't really count in my books. There's nothing interesting about me getting horrendously lost on more occasions than I would care to admit. This week we thundered through our intensive one week Publishing Contexts module (yes, that's right. A whole module in 5 days). The aim of this module was basically to get us all on the same level as far as our knowledge of the publishing process goes and also to open our eyes to the fact that editorial is most definitely not the only or even the most exciting part of that process.
The week was a tiring one and as it wore on, out came the backpacks as we all chose to forsake style for practicality; and out, in force, were the travel mugs - all of us so very unpracticed at enduring a full week. Looking good for the future, I'd say.

We'll take this day by day.


Monday. Being the first day, we covered the basics: the main areas of publishing, the main departments, the key players, and even touched on production - something that was new to the majority of us. We learnt about the new, more audience-focused publishing model than that of the pre-digital age. We were then asked to do a short presentation in groups of ten on a publishing house. We had thirty minutes to prepare a five minute presentation in which all ten of us had to speak. Suffice it to say, no group managed to stay within the tim constraints. I like to think Nosy Crow would have loved our enthusiasm. The day gave us a broad, and yet thorough overview of the industry; the basics that would allow us to delve more deeply into it in the course of the week.

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to be shown the ropes by none other than Sam Missingham, Head of Audience Development at HarperCollins. She informed us of the importance of hustling, and knowing how to market ourselves and encouraged us to get involved as much as possible both online and in person. She gave us an insight into some of the exciting projects she has been involved in during her time at HarperCollins and after her time was up, when the dreaded "how many of you want to go into editorial?" question came up, far fewer hands shot up than they did in induction week. In the second half of our morning session we heard from Mal who, I have to say, was far more doom-and-gloom than anyone else we heard from this week. I'm sure he burst a few editorial bubbles when he informed them of the average pay of an editorial assistant. Literary agent Rachel had a slightly more upbeat take on things and basically gave us a prep session to her Author Management module, one I'm definitely looking forward to. In the afternoon we heard from editors from publishing houses across the board; Two Roads (trade), Oxford University Press (academic), and ICE publishing (educational). They gave us an honest account of some of the challenges they faced and also what it was that made their jobs so enjoyable and many heads and hearts turned back to editorial.

Wednesday was production day with BIC; a hands-on day that literally broke down the production process of books for us. In the morning we learnt about operations and inventory management; the importance of keeping on top of your stock count. We also learnt about some of the procedures when publishing embargo titles - the super high-profile ones like Harry Potter have to have special measure to make sure no early copies find their way out of the warehouses. In the afternoon I was heartbroken to hear we were to take a scalpel to some Rick Riordan (The Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, and Magnus Chase series') and Derek Landy (Skulduggery Pleasant) books seeing how they would definitely still make it into my top authors. I was less heartbroken that scalpels were taken to Jeremy Clarkson's "book" as well. We did this so we could go through the physical elements of the book and the production processes that go into making the things we hold so dear. We also got to have a look at some uncut prints of books which was actually pretty cool as you can see in the pictures.

Thursday was marketing and rights day with our very own Martin Nield and some of his friends from Hachette. We learnt about the different sales strategies required depending on the retailer, and how marketing has had to change with the new digital era. The rights section of the day put into perspective the global nature of the industry; it is not at all about keeping your head above the sea of contracts I had thought it to be - it's all about the global potential of the book and involves a hell of a lot of travel, an exciting prospect for many. At the end of this day, that question was asked again: "who wants to go into editorial?" and so very few put the hands up, though by this point, I really couldn't be sure if this was actually the case or whether people were no just too scared to be honest.

By Friday most of us were just happy to get out of the basements we'd been consigned to for the rest of the week. We spent the morning at Faber & Faber where we heard from Helen, a success story as a Faber employee and alum from last year's MA programme. She helped us to put into perspective what it was we were doing there and was living proof that we had made the right decision. We learnt all about the SYP and the president of the Publishers Association and MD of Penguin General Joanna Prior helped us to consolidate what we had learnt from the week with some examples of books that she had helped publish and the marketing strategies involved in publishing them. We also heard from Jacks Thomas, the enigmatic woman behind the London Book Fair and London Book and Screen Week for what was  a really interesting insight into what goes into organising such large scale events. In the afternoon we went to the Wellcome Collection with Anna Faherty where we got to see IRL Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (as seen on GBBO 2015) and explore the wonder that is their reading room, a room I
think we will all be visiting with worrying frequency.

Overall, while an exhausting week, it was also one of the best weeks I've had for a long time and has really excited us all for the coming year. And while I think the speakers succeed in turning many of my classmates away from editorial, they didn't quite succeed in converting me.


Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x