digital publishing

By the Book: thoughts on the conference

June 2nd, 2014 by SCIPC | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on By the Book: thoughts on the conference
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Rachel Noorda, PhD researcher in the Stirling Centre for International Publishing & Communication, reports on attending the By the Book conference in Florence:

Rachel Noorda presenting her paper

Rachel Noorda presenting her paper

I had the great pleasure of attending and presenting at the “By the Book” publishing studies conference which was jointly organised by Benoît Berthou (Sorbonne Paris Cité University), Miha Kovač (University of Ljubljana) and Angus Phillips (Oxford Brookes University) and held on May 23 and 24. The conference location was beautiful—and it was my first time to Italy—but the best part was listening to the exciting research that is taking place internationally in the publishing studies field. The conference brought researchers from the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Croatia, Lithuania and even South Africa. The focus of the conference was “the book and the study of its digital transformation” but the presenters approached this wide topic from various angles relating to their own experiences in publishing and academic areas of expertise.

This was my first experience presenting a paper at an academic conference. It was a perfect conference to be my first because it was small and intimate, with researchers who were all interested in publishing. I spoke about books as souvenirs, using data I collected from observing the bookselling practices of gift shops at heritage sites in Scotland, particularly those sites run by Historic Scotland.

Stevie Mardsen, fellow PhD Publishing Studies student from the University of Stirling, also presentedFlorence at the “By the Book” conference. Not only was her presentation stellar, but it was comforting to have a friend at the conference right from the beginning. Stevie’s PhD research is focused on the Saltire Society’s literary book awards and so her presentation addressed the importance to some judges to have a physical copy of the book for judging and how this affects the judging process.

All in all, a wonderful experience! There was talk at the end of the conference about holding a similar conference next year, and if so, I will certainly be in attendance.

Showcasing our Publishing Projects

May 19th, 2014 by Amalia Koulakioti | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Showcasing our Publishing Projects
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After months of struggling with our publishing projects and various other assignments, it was only fair to celebrate the end of the year by showcasing our work.

And by drinking good wine and socialising of course!

The day started with a Round Table on Publishing Research, including PhD and MRes Publishing students like Maxine Branagh, Paul Docherty, Carol Mango, Rachel Noorda, Anna Kiernan, Stevie Marsden and Louisa Preston, who gave a talk about their respective fields of expertise and about the projects they are undertaking.

The Round Table was chaired by Claire Squires, Director of the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication.

Afterwards we had the chance to admire our publishing projects, while inspirational talks by our peers, Liam Crouse and Laura Jones and by Christoph Chesher were the finishing touch to a delightful day.

 My IMG_2442project is an illustrated collection of my fantasy fiction short stories, titled ‘Tales from the Moon’.

Keisha‘s project is a humorous approach on the teacher’s life and on various funny incidents that could happen inside a classroom.IMG_2432

 

Alexis project is a compilation of her ‘macabre’ poetry, which contains elements from an anatomy lecture!IMG_2435

Ana created a children’s book in Braille, with riddles that rhyme and with illustrations as the answers.IMG_2438

Fanny, paid a tribute to her beloved Jane Austen by creating an illustrated anthology of the ‘romances the acclaimed author never wrote’.

IMG_2443

Aija demonstrated with her project how you can fight post natal depression through the photographic lens.IMG_2450

IMG_2452Clem’s project is a First World War romance novel, written by her, while Laura (Jones) put together a literary tattoo project, full of wonderful pictures.IMG_2456

Jana developed her project as an app; a children’s book about the Arthurian legends.IMG_2460

IMG_2464Rosie created a children’s book as well, one full of flowers and bees!

Min wrote and published poems about autumn, while Lim created a delicious cookery book with Chinese recipes.IMG_2468

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IMG_2471Monidipa developed a web magazine about fantasy and sci-fi fiction and Liam created an app with Gaelic poetry.IMG_2474

Vidhya’s project is a travel book about her hometown, Chennai in India.

IMG_2477

IMG_2481Laura (Muir), developed a web magazine about tattoos, and lastly Dana created a children’s book starring the most iconic detective of all times, Sherlock Holmes!IMG_2483

Seeing the future through Google Glass

April 30th, 2014 by Liam Alastair Crouse | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Seeing the future through Google Glass
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WP_20140306_0012‘The future is now!’ I’ve always found it good practice to begin blog posts with overused clichés.

‘Google Glass haters attack woman’ – well, not a cliché, but as titles of articles go, pretty catchy. Google Glass, which takes technology to a whole new level, has been met with both excitement and suspicion. One the one hand, the Glass comprises one cool (that’s ‘student speak’ for revolutionary) bit of technological synthesis. On the other, people are saying, sometimes rather facetiously: ‘Google? I’m sure they’ll make sure that none of this material turns up in the wrong place…’ Google? Aye, right.

But seriously, future, now. As part of my internship with HarperCollins UK (in Bishopbriggs), I managed to get into one of the Google Glass demonstrations recently. The Glasses are only currently available in the USA, and even then, they’re only trialling 10,000. HCP got a few over to the UK through their US branch.

There are a few glitches in them yet: they would respond to anyone speaking (not helpful if in a busy café or street); they couldn’t tell me how to get back to Rhode Island; and they really like taking pictures (I see what you did there, Google…). Taking a photo is so easy, in fact, it’s as easy as blinking. Actually, blink, and Google Glass will take a photo. Videos are just as stress-free – I’ll get back to that later.

They’re operated through finger swiping, voice commands, head tilting and a few other animations. They’ll perform a number of simple operations, such as searching Bing (just kidding, Google), video conference calls, translating – most of the things Google’s well known for. It even knew where the closest prison was (answer, just across the field!). Voice recognition was a bit trickier; they needed the token American (that’s me!) to say ‘share to Twitter’, as the Scottish accent hasn’t been programmed in yet. I’ll let that one slide, as they are only supposed to be dealing with the American twang just now.

The translation feature was mind-boggling. A co-worker brought in a piece of Spanish poetry and when we looked at it through the Glasses, the English translation was superimposed over the text – as if the Spanish wasn’t even there. Just keep in mind, the translation’s only as good as Google Translate is – so a bit lacking. But for travel and the like (I’m thinking menus and road signs), you’d do worse then walking around being able to read everything in a foreign country! Consider the ramifications for foreign rights sales for publishing if these were to catch on…

So, videos. You’re out in a club, doing silly things, and someone’s recording. People already do that with cameras/smartphones, right? Well, you can’t really tell if someone’s taking a photo or recording you with these. It’s a bit invasive on a few fronts. Due to a range of questions concerning privacy, spying, and surveillance (something which Google is really good at doing at a profit), they’ve already been banned in a number of locations (and they’re not even on the market yet!).

Furthermore, a lady was fined in the US for driving while operating Google Glasses. Although technically not against the law, the authorities finagled the rules to charge her with operating a TV/monitor while operating a motor vehicle. As well, in February, a woman was ‘attacked’ by ‘haters’ in San Francisco when she refused to remove her glasses (Telegraph, 26 Feb). So begins the revolution.

Or rather, in a few months (?), when they’re released at long last. They’re currently upwards of $1,500 a glass, but they’re estimated to retail around $600. Battery power only lasts around 2 hours just now, but I think that with the rapidity of technological evolution which drives these things, that might be sorted out soon. Who knows, at the end of this year, you may be buying a Google Glass add-on for your loved one’s prescriptions for Christmas.

 

VISITING SPEAKERS FOR SEMESTER 2, 2013-14

February 26th, 2014 by Frances_Sessford | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on VISITING SPEAKERS FOR SEMESTER 2, 2013-14
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The Centre’s Visiting Speakers programme for this semester presents perspectives from academic and independent publishers from across the UK. In this academic year, the Centre’s teaching has encouraged students to look to small nation publishing across the world and to consider how the publishing landscape might look in an independent Scotland. We have been asking our speakers for their views on the subject at every opportunity, so come along for some interesting opinions and debate. All sessions are held at 2pm in Pathfoot B2. Attendance is free but there is limited space so please register via frances.sessford@stir.ac.uk to book a place.

The series begins on Thursday February 27 with sports journalists Martin Greig and Neil White, who founded BackPage Press five years ago to publish world-class sports books. Following this on March 6, Anna Glazier, Director of Sales & Marketing at Edinburgh University Press will talk about the challenges of keeping a small academic press in profile and profit. Duncan Lockerbie is a course alumnus and began Lumphanan Press almost as soon as he finished his studies. He now has around seven years’ experience in running a very small publishing company and on March 13 he will share his thoughts and views on how or if this might change should a vote for independence be attained. Moving over the border but not much, on March 20, another course alumnus and editor, Neil Simpson, and his MD, Jonathan Williams from Cumbria-based Cicerone Press will talk about how they manage the digital processes of their highly successful independent press which produces material for walking, cycling and outdoor enthusiasts across the world.

After the mid-semester break our speaker on April 3 is Mairi Kidd, Publisher at Barrington Stoke books in Edinburgh. Barrington Stoke is a very well-established publisher of fiction and other material for reluctant readers and has published many high-profile authors such as Malorie Blackman and Keith Gray. There is no session on April 10 because we will all be away at London Book Fair, but on April 17 we move to the other side of the country when editors Gill Tasker and Helen Sedgwick from Glasgow’s Cargo Publishing will give their take on working for a small independent trade press. After this on April 24, our penultimate speaker is Michael Malone,  who will give his dual perspective on the state of publishing as both a successful author of crime fiction and a regional account manager for Faber Factory. Lastly, our final speaker on May 1 is Jenny Niven, Portfolio Manager (Literature, Publishing & Languages) for Creative Scotland.

 

An Introduction to Oxford University Press

December 12th, 2013 by Min | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on An Introduction to Oxford University Press
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Min Yu reports on Vivian Marr (OUP)’s Visiting Speaker session:

Oxford University Press is a worldwide academic publisher. We were so lucky to have Vivian Marr, Head of Language Acquisition from the Global Academic Business to give us a presentation about OUP. According to Vivian’s talk, we know so much  information about the press and learned useful knowledge.

First of all, Vivian introduced the important history timeline of the OUP, for example, in 1478, first book printed in Oxford, first publication of Oxford English Dictionary (in instalments) in 1884 and OED online launched in 2000. With the develoment of OUP, it has enabled excellent research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. When Vivian introduce the range of publishing, we are surprised that OUP has 6500 employees in 60 countries and more than 4000 employees are outside the UK. It has more than 6000 new copyrights per year across 40 languages. We can see OUP is the largest and most successful University Press in the world.

Then, Vivian presented the structures of OUP and its governance. It is amazing that its publishing branches are in 13 countries, offices in another 50 countries and representation in more that 50 countries. OUP has 5 main business groups to maintain and extend the market: Global Academic Business,English Language Teaching, Oxford Education (Oxed), Asia Education and OUP Esp.

OUP also has rapid digital growth, with its digital sales doubling in the three years 2012. OUP now has more than 15,000 UK and US titles available as eBooks, and 250 mobile Apps for iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices-developed using OUP content. Finally, Vivian told us about the development of dictionaries at OUP in the future. Dictionaries are also very important because they provide new business and revenue opportunities because digital licensing income of the dictionaries will replace the lost print salses revenue. In the future, OUP would like to lead the global brand in the world, so it has some global language solutions, for example, it will use a global content brand to work with global technology companies.

After Vivain’s presentation, I learn so many useful things.She also gave us some useful websies and twitter presence, so if you want to learn more about OUP, you can visit these :

•www.oup.com: general information about OUP, also vacancies and internships
•www.oxforddictionaries.com: free dictionary service with premium subscription service
•www.oed.com: the full history of the English language, constantly updated
•www.oxfordreference.com: access to hundreds of Oxford’s reference titles
•www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com: French, Chinese, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish bilingual dictionaries

Twitter presence

•@oupacademic: info on OUP’s publishing, mainly from the Global Academic Business Division
•@oxfordwords: anything to do with words, new and old, grammar, writing, language and lots more
•@oed: the latest research from the Oxford English Dictionary

Conny Lenz, Cengage Learning

October 23rd, 2013 by Xiaolin Ma | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Conny Lenz, Cengage Learning
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Conny Lenz‘s visit to Stirling was impressive and meaningful for us. She is a Publishing Studies alumna and digital publishing assistant at Cengage Learning. Conny Lenz introduced her route into publishing and her current job at Cengage Learning.

First of all, she began by expressing her personal feelings about the Stirling publishing course. She thinks this course is very helpful, because it provides a sound overview of the publishing industry, teaches students how to finish marketing and sales tasks, trains students of all kinds of ability through dummy projects, and helps students accomplish their dissertation. Her words inspired us to move forward.

Conny then went on to talk about her route into publishing. She mentioned that internships are very important, and she advised us to contact as many publishing recruiters as possible. She also mentioned that we could use social networks like LinkedIn for our careers. She stressed the importance of competitor awareness in interviews.

Maybe because some of us are not familiar with library reference, Conny introduced the work that library reference does. It needs to source content from libraries and institutions, such as The National Archives, British Library and Royal Archives. It needs to assess, oversee and manage the digitisation of the content. It will determine design and layout of product and images. Providing marketing and sales teams with documentation and information on the product is also a part of its work.

Next, Conny presented how digital archives were created and how to use the search engine of the Daily Mail Historical Archive.

The next topic focused on her current work at Cengage Learning. Her first project was Nineteenth Century Collections Online. The second project was the management of the transfer of seven products from one platform to another. The third project was the State Papers Online, Eighteenth Century Part 1. The fourth project is Punch Historical Archive 1841-1992. She showed her projects by using a lot of images of raw materials and the process of designing these library references, and which fully showed her work at Cengage Learning.

This is an informative session about library reference, and I think the whole class will agree we learned a lot during this speaking. Thanks, Conny!

-Xiaolin Ma

Tweets from Conny’s Visiting Speaker session have been Storified here.

 

 

 

Visiting Speaker – Alastair Horne

May 2nd, 2013 by Laura Jones | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Visiting Speaker – Alastair Horne
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Alastair Horne‘s visit to Stirling on March 28th was much anticipated on Twitter, with talks the night before of red carpets and royal carriages on the 8:30am Edinburgh to Stirling train which students and tutors alike frequent to make the 10am start. Those of us lucky enough to take the Digital Process & Product module had a double dose of Alastair as he taught a class on digital start-up business models before taking up his position as visiting speaker at 2pm.

So as to avoid spilling the beans of our innovative, game changing business models (well, we hope) I will focus on Alastair’s visiting talk on the wonders of social media. Alastair himself has 10 years of experience in publishing, is the social media and communities manager at Cambridge University Press ELT with a personal Twitter account of 3.6k+ followers, a professional global Twitter account, a Facebook page for CUP ELT with 33k likes, fortnightly webinars… I could go on. Let’s just say Alastair knows what he’s talking about when it comes to social media.

His emphasis rested on building relationships with readers. Publishers need to let readers in, let them peek behind the curtain and feel part of the process. As the talk inevitably turned to Amazon, Alastair highlighted that their relationship with publishers is no longer mutually beneficial considering Amazon refuses to share stats and data. For this reason, publishers need to battle Amazon for reader loyalty. Nurturing a genuine relationship with readers is the best chance publishers have at reducing Amazon’s suffocating monopoly.

So, how does one go about shaping these vital relationships? Alastair offers two options.

1. Go to where the readers and conversations already reside and partake.
2. Create a new platform to start conversations and entice readers in. This option means not having to rely on a third party, particularly important if the conversation is, say, on Goodreads which is suddenly obtained by Amazon.* The rewards are greater for this harder option as Alastair pointed out that it took one year for CUP ELT to blossom from idea to actuality.

For publishers specifically, they need to learn to use social media effectively and to their advantage, for these 5 reasons.

1. Search visibility – Facebook Group graphs can offer great data about who is finding your page and how. Google+ brings together the social and the search by providing personalised search results through network lists.
2. Marketing – publishers must be stealthy with marketing and not post too many hard sales.
3. Customer support – Twitter can offer immediate customer support, turn a negative into a positive should someone be able to fix a problem quickly and efficiently.
4. Market research – where Goodreads was recommended as a valuable site for research.
5. Building relationships – the most important element. Trust must be built over time so publishers become part of readers’ lives. This kind of investment is long term and many publishers are too impatient to invest, especially as it’s time consuming and impossible to measure the direct effect.

And because Alastair loves a good list (who doesn’t?!) he also provided 12 suggestions for social media success.

1. Find home – you don’t need to be on every social media platform, find a platform that works best for your needs and make yourself at home.
2. Be regular – post daily on Facebook, 5x or more on Twitter, not too much, not too little. Spread out those posts.
3. Be prompt and responsive – you’re not a broadcasting station, engage with your readers, know when someone has mentioned you and don’t rely on scheduled tweets, you run the risk of looking mechanic and less human. Keep track of what your audience is discussing.
4. Involve the whole team – not just marketing, get everyone on board who is active and enthusiastic on social media, also get authors involved.
5. Share enthusiasm – let your audience know you’re excited about books. Let them see behind the scenes, the production, it can generate some very real excitement.
6. Involve the audience – get to know who shares and reads your content, make them feel valuable.
7. Encourage sharing – make it easy for your readers to share your content, create content that people will want to share.
8. Curation – you’re not the only source of good content, share other people’s content and involve the network you’re using. Add value by offering your voice to a retweet, don’t just mechanically RT something you find interesting, comment on it.
9. You’re a person – no one wants to talk to a corporation, introduce the team and open yourself up to your readers.
10. Re-purpose content – alter content for different platforms, make it applicable over the networks you’re using.
11. Take the conversation elsewhere – as above, don’t rely on those third parties.
12. Work out what’s working – all about analytics and tracking people. If it’s broke, fix it!

And so ends a crash course in social media. I was greatly encouraged by Alastair’s enthusiasm towards social media and the opportunities it can create for publishers, should they learn to use it to their advantage. I fully agree that publishers can’t create meaningful relationships with their readers fast enough. The sooner the better. Alastair was a fantastic guest and continues to be a fantastic presence on Twitter as he tweets valuable content from afar keeping true to his own advice.

*The day ended on a sour note as Amazon acquired Goodreads only hours after Alastair completed his talk, part of it recommending Goodreads as a valuable area of reader data and relationships for publishers. The irony was not lost.

– Laura Jones (cross posted to publishthings.com)

Revised Curriculum for the MLitt in Publishing Studies

April 1st, 2013 by SCIPC | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Revised Curriculum for the MLitt in Publishing Studies
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BEFORE READING THIS POST, PLEASE CHECK THE DATE OF PUBLICATION. (The REAL curriculum is here. At least for now…)

 

The Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication has been at the vanguard of publishing education for over thirty years. It has a forward-thinking approach to publishing studies, and has continually delivered cutting-edge, professionally-oriented degrees which have prepared alumni to work in publishing and publishing-related companies around the world.

The publishing industry is now undergoing an extremely rapid rate of change. Digital technologies have meant that new business models and structures are radically reshaping the industry. As such, we have entirely revised the curriculum for our industry-leading MLitt in Publishing Studies. The new curriculum will be delivered from 2013-14, and we are proud to announce it here.

The revised programme will be structured as follows:

Semester 1

Amazon 1: This compulsory module investigates different market sectors, introduces concepts of publishing business, finance and intellectual property, and analyses current publishing trends and issues. It also explores job roles and publishing processes, equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in an Amazon career.

Amazon 2: This compulsory module examines the processes by which publishing projects (including books, magazines, journals, and digital products) are conceptualised and created at Amazon. It explores the management of authors, intellectual property resources, and editorial workflow, including practical skills of project management and text preparation (copyediting and proofreading).

Amazon 3: This compulsory module introduces marketing theory and practical publishing examples in order to develop a range of strategies for effective promotion of publishing products, through traditional and digital media. The module also explores Amazon’s supply chain, distribution and sales management.

Arts Research Training: This compulsory module enhances students’ employability skills, professional social media, online writing and editing skills, and research methods and research project development. All elements of the module are specifically tailored towards or focused on Amazon.

Semester 2

Amazon 4: This compulsory module enables students to develop skills, understanding and aptitudes for digital (aka Amazon) publishing, its processes and products, including in compiling digital briefs, reviewing and evaluating digital products, management of social media and digital rights, understanding of e-business models and the digital economy, and deployment of analytics, keywords, SEO, metadata and XML.

Amazon 5: This compulsory module enables students to develop management and entrepreneurial skills crucial to publishing. Areas covered include strategic, operational, risk, financial and HR management. It also explores the global business of publishing, including growth strategies, murders and executions, legal tax avoidance, and inventing business models that at first glance make no sense whatsoever.

Internship at Amazon: This compulsory module enables students to undertake a work placement or internship at one of Amazon’s worldwide distribution centres, to incorporate their workplace learning through critical reflection on their and Amazon’s activities and processes.

Publishing, Literature and Society: This optional module explores the interactions between contemporary and historical publishing and society, approaching topics including authorship, readership and the literary marketplace, censorship, wartime publishing, and publishing and diversity (e.g. “not Amazon”). It enables students to develop a critical distance from Amazon.

Publishers’ Lunch (or, The Frankfurt School): This optional module will introduce students to the traditional, or legacy, model of publishing. It involves copious consumption of alcohol, face-to-face meetings and ‘gatekeeping’. Male students are in the majority on this module.

Summer

Dissertation: This is an intensive piece of research on a topic of Amazon’s choice, which is notionally approved by the Programme Director and student. Work extends over both semesters and into the summer.

Given our excellent industry contacts, we are confident that all students will, on successful completion of their programme, be placed at one of Amazon’s many international distribution centres (probably Dunfermline). In the very unlikely event that they are not immediately placed with Amazon or a sub-contracted company, less successful alumni still have ample opportunity to become authors via Amazon’s Kindle Direct programme, or act as highly valued unpaid prosumers in Amazon’s Kindle Directed scheme. Entrepreneurial alumni have the opportunity to develop Amazon-associated businesses and franchises which, should they survive the Kindle Dragon, will be examined by Amazon as acquisition targets.

Ms A. P. Rilfoule, the University’s Amazon Liaison Officer, commented that, ‘We’re very excited about delivering this new programme, which has been developed in close cooperation with our Industry Advisory Borg. Share the bold new future of publishing, writing, reading, and pretty much everything else: with Amazon, with us.’

Publishing Scotland Conference 2013

March 22nd, 2013 by Emily Ferro | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Publishing Scotland Conference 2013
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University of Stirling Publishing students with a guest from Edinburgh Napier's Publishing program. Image credit to Publishing Scotland and Sandy Young Photography www.scottishphotographer.com

On March 4, 2013 I attended the Publishing Scotland conference at the COSLA Conference Centre in Edinburgh with some of my classmates. It was an exciting experience to attend a conference with nearly 200 book publishers, booksellers, and other students to discuss some of the pressing matters in the industry. In addition to hearing from keynote speaker John Gordon Sinclair, who entertained the audience with his anecdotes, observing the trends in the market by Bowker, and learning the “20 Irrefutable Theories of Book Cover Design”, two aspects of the conference stuck out as quite memorable to me.

There are a few questions that are circulating in the air that everyone involved in publishing is asking. One of the big ones is where the high street book market is headed. We heard from a panel with representatives from both publishers and booksellers, and there was a unanimous agreement that things are certainly changing. Bob Kelly from Gardner’s Books made the point that bookshops have been changing since the introduction of book sales in supermarkets in the 1960s. He also believes that although there has been constant change, the current change to the bookshops is the largest we’ve seen.

The panel came to a few conclusions about high street bookshops. The first, suggested by Kelly, is that booksellers need to be a cultural hub in the community, and a place where people can come together to learn and share. Along the same lines, Neil Best from Waterstone’s suggests that bookshops need to offer something better than the easy, lazy online experience. David Prescott from Blackwell’s added that there is room for both online shops and high street shops, we just need to give customers a reason to visit and revisit shops.

The most influential comment made during the debate was that there is a disconnect between what people say they want and what they are buying. This is a good way of voicing what the recent sales statistics are showing. I have not personally heard anyone say that they want bookshops to close and for all sales to be made online, and that the suggestion is outrageous, sales still move more and more to online outlets. Even as a publishing student, the ease of use for online book buying is attractive, so it’s not so hard for me to believe that customers without knowledge of the struggling industry buy online without a second thought. There needs to be a more conscious effort to protect what we want, and if what we want is high street bookshops, then that is where we need to shop.

The second aspect of the conference that really struck me was the talk given by Lindsay Mooney from Kobo. I found this particularly interesting because although she was discussing pricing strategies for selling e-books, Mooney was also discussing the interactive advantages available with a Kobo e-reader. While there are benefits to having interactivity with reading apps for tablets, I find that the amount of interactive features available with the kobo may be taking things a step to far. While reading an e-book on the Kobo, any reader can see comments made by other readers and commentary by the author; they can highlight, tweet, and share to their newsfeed exactly where they are in the book, and tell friends whether or not the book is a worthwhile read. While I can see the value in this from a marketing standpoint, isn’t it more valuable to appreciate the book as just a book and not an opportunity to market every sentence? To me, reading should not come with so much noise. Perhaps I am just being traditional and stubborn, but personally if I want to share a book, I will tell my friends about it when I am finished and watch author interviews online in my downtime.

At the very end of the conference, the students at the conference were gathered together and had an opportunity to speak to a panel about any questions we have about the industry and suggestions for finding our way in upon graduation. It was a very useful session at the conference and I am grateful for it. Attending the conference was enlightening as a whole and a wonderful experience. A day well spent.

VISITING SPEAKERS FOR SEMESTER 2, 2012-13

February 19th, 2013 by Frances_Sessford | Posted in Blog | Comments Off on VISITING SPEAKERS FOR SEMESTER 2, 2012-13
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The Centre’s Visiting Speakers programme for this semester presents a broad mix of academic and industry experience. All sessions are held at 2pm in Pathfoot B2. Attendance is free but there is limited space so please register via publishing@stir.ac.uk to book a place.

The series begins on Thursday February 21 with an academic perspective from John Maxwell, lecturer in Publishing at Simon Fraser University in Canada. This is followed on February 28 by Emma House of The Publishers’ Association, the representative body of the UK publishing trade. Two small independent publishers based in Scotland follow: Mark Buckland of Cargo Publishing  in Glasgow (March 7) and Eleanor Collins and Helena Waldron from Floris Books  in Edinburgh (March 14). On March 21, John Seaton, Inventory Manager at Canongate Books will talk about what’s involved in good backlist management, while March 28 hosts Alastair Horne, Social Media and Communities Manager at Cambridge University Press, who will focus on digital publishing.

After the mid-semester break, on April 11 we welcome John Storey, Head of Literature and Publishing at the Gaelic Books Council. Another independent publisher, Vanessa Robertson of Fidra Books will speak on April 18, followed by the final session on April 25 with Timothy Wright, Publisher at Edinburgh University Press.

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