What is it? Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA)* programs allow libraries to make eBooks discoverable to their patrons prior to purchasing. A title is triggered for purchase via significant use by patrons as defined by the library. (Source) To find out more read about DDA here and here. DDA is good for librarians and its patrons (there aren’t necessarily…
Month: October 2015
SYP North and Midlands Comeback Event in Leeds
Where: The Adelphi, Leeds, LS10 When: from 7 pm to 11 pm, Wednesday 28 October, 2015 What a night! Stephanie Cox, blogger and interviewer at the Bookmachine, organised a great comeback event for the Society of Young Publishers North & Midlands. As an event organiser for the SYP, she got two wonderful speakers on board:…
List management
List management involves ordering new print runs, putting titles out of print, etc. As a commissioning editor, Tony Mason has to keep track of all his titles and regularly give reports. What a typical report covers: We looked at sales analysis, backlist and frontlist sales; and then had to choose what our own decisions would be in…
Kevin Duffy from Bluemoose books – guest speaker at UCLan
Kevin Duffy of Bluemoose Books came to speak to us. Bluemoose Books is an independent publisher based in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Kevin Duffy comes from a sales and marketing background. Bluemoose books publishes 5-8 books a year. Kevin Duffy said that big publishers are getting risk averse, that they tend to try and replicate successes,…
Guest speaker: author Matthew Connolly
Matthew Connolly, a self-published author, came to speak to us. He told us about his background as a freelance journalist and his journey to self-publishing with his first book Dances with the Daffodils. Matthew had his manuscript accepted by a mainstream agent but ultimately rejected by publishers. He then decided to go the self-publishing…
Emailing authors in class (cont.) – A JN4403 module task
In commissioning editing, the author–editor relationship is what it’s all about. Which is why sending out the right email, with the right tone, is important. Last week, the class emailed two authors. Now we’re going to look at the authors’ responses, what are good ways to go about it, and examples of what not to do. Remember…
Internships at Creative Access
If you’re a UK national and from a BME background, there are great opportunities for (paid!) internships at Creative Access.
Building a list around a theme – A JN4403 module task
For this week’s task we were given a theme (the Rise of the Far Right) around which we had to build a list. The main questions to ask ourselves were: how to identify books and authors in that area? What are the gaps in the market? I decided to look at social media trends that…
List building
This week in our editorial module we learned about building a list. Important things to consider when building a list are: finding an area deciding on the book selection making a convincing list appraising other publishers List building needs to be in line with company strategy which is defined by the people above you. This can be…
Commissioning Editors – an overview
Have you ever wondered what an editor is exactly? Maybe they spend their time diligently pruning manuscripts or maybe they lounge around in coffee shops with authors until ideas come bright and hard. Well, no. Unfortunately. To start with, there isn’t just one type of editor: there are commissioning editors, production editors, copyeditors, line editors,…
Academic publishing, a few facts
Academic publishers sell monographs and textbooks. They usually sell monographs for £75 with print run of 2-300, but this may no longer be a viable financial model. Reasons to continue printing monographs might be: cheaper printing costs with print-on-demand (POD), going digital , selling chapter by chapter online, etc. They have to sell monographs in hardback to…
Emailing authors in class – a JN4403 module task
The class had great fun with this one! We had the choice of emailing two different authors, one informing him that his book wouldn’t be published in paperback despite his wishes and the other one replying as to why a copy of his book wasn’t available in his local Waterstones. Tom Mason wanted a range…
Reading between the Fonts 