Subject

Publishing Industry Management

  • code 11551
  • course 1
  • term Term 3
  • type op
  • credits 3

Main language of instruction: English

Teaching staff

Head instructor

Lda. Maria Paz GASPAR - mpgaspar@uic.es

Office hours

To be confirmed.


Introduction

From clay tablets to e-books, different forms of publishing have guided humanity through many stages of civilization.

As an industry, we can consider that publishing began in 15th-century Germany with Johannes Gutenberg’s printing of the Bible. Johannes Gutenberg is nearly universally credited with being the inventor of the printing press, and the father of the modern printed book.

The invention of the printing press produced a veritable revolution by making the writing within texts easy to reproduce. For the first time in history, ideas were literally put in the general public's hands in the form of the printed word, and book publishing enabled knowledge, thoughts and culture to spread at a rate faster than ever before.

Since then, the business of books has grown at a steady pace and has been considered a “mature” industry during the last decades: no unsustainable highs, no devastating lows.

Nowadays, the publishing industry attempts to keep pace with the arrival of the digital age…


Professor: Paz Gaspar Pinillos

Executive with a solid professional experience in the Publishing, Marketing, Communication and Advertising industries for 28 years in national and international companies: Grupo Planeta, Orbis-Fabbri (RCS Group), La Pagina, Wunderman (Young & Rubicam group) and Teleaction, and institutions such as Comité Organizador de los JJ.OO. COOB’92.
Degree in Advertising, completed with a course in Professional Publishing (Stanford University) and a Management Program (IESE Business School).




 


Pre-course requirements

The same as for the Master's Degree. 


Objectives

  • The main objectives of this subject can be listed as the following:


    • To get into the publishing sector with an overall picture of the publishing industry, key-industry players and publishing market.

    • To deepen knowledge of the book publishing environment and business.

    • To know the different types of books publishing.

    • To understand the economic basis of the traditional book business model.

    • To reach a global overview of the traditional value supply chain: network of companies, professional profiles and roles, from the creation of content all the way down to sales.

    • To learn another publishing business models as partworks and digital books.

Competences / Learning outcomes of the degree programme

Competencies


Basic competence

  • To have and understand knowledge which provides a grounding or opportunity to be original in terms of the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research-based context.

  • To know how to apply the knowledge acquired and the ability to resolve problems in new or unfamiliar environments within broader or multidisciplinary contexts related to the area of study.

General competences

  • To know how to communicate, encourage and mediate between the various agents who take part in a project, programme or cultural service.

  • To act responsibly, and produce good quality rigorous and efficient work that is placed at the service of society.

Cross-disciplinary competence

  • To design, direct, produce and evaluate projects, programmes, strategies, policies or cultural actions which involve a wide variety of different professional profiles, agents and institutions.

Specific competence

  • To identify business structures in creative cultural industries, in the visual arts and cultural heritage at a national and a global level and manage the processes and work procedures involved in their creation, programming, management and production.


Learning outcomes of the subject

The student:

  • Understands knowledge which provides a grounding or opportunity to be original in terms of the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research-based context.

  • Knows how to apply the knowledge acquired and the ability to resolve problems in new or unfamiliar environments within broader or multidisciplinary contexts related to the area of study.

  • Knows how to communicate, encourage and mediate between the various agents who take part in a project, programme or cultural service.

  • Acts responsibly, and produces good quality rigorous and efficient work that is placed at the service of society.

  • Designs, directs, produces and evaluates projects, programmes, strategies, policies or cultural actions which involve a wide variety of different professional profiles, agents and institutions

  • Identifies business structures in creative cultural industries, in the visual arts and cultural heritage at a national and a global level and manages the processes and work procedures involved in their creation, programming, management and production.


Syllabus

MODULE 1. Introduction

 

Objectives:

Getting into the publishing sector with an overall picture of the publishing industry, key-industry players and publishing market.

 

Contents:

  • Main categories within the publishing industry: books, newspapers, magazines and partworks.

  • Overview of the global publishing market: categories (books, newspapers and magazines), platform (traditional-print/digital/audio) and geographic segmentation and main players.

  • The traditional publishing value supply chain and how technology have reduced supply-chain costs and eliminated steps in getting editorial content from manufacturers to consumers.

  • Occupations, professional profiles and roles in the publishing industry:

    • Writing and editing occupations: writers, authors and translators; reporters and correspondents and photographers; editors and packagers; correctors and art designers.

    • Intermediaries: literary agents and scouts.

    • Production and related occupations: industrial production and planning managers; prepress technicians and printing machine operators.

    • Sales, promotion, and marketing occupations: advertising and promotions managers; public relations specialists; advertising sales agents and sales representatives.

    • Publishing-content-sellers in bookstores, newstands and online retailers.




MODULE 2. Book publishing Industry & Types of book publishing

 

2.1. Book publishing Industry

 

Objectives:

Deepening knowledge of the book publishing environment and business.





Contents:

  • Highlights and some figures: worldwide and geographic publishers market shares; number of titles published, books units produced and sold; sales channels, employment and reading habits.

  • Traditional business model and value supply chain: network of companies from the creation of content all the way down to sales, from author/publisher to retail bookstores and newstands.

  • The publishing company's management, structure and organization.



2.2. Types of book publishing

 

Objectives:

Understanding the different types of books publishing, on the basis of their market, intended readership and editorial program.

 

Contents:

  • Trade Publishing: fiction and nonfiction works designed for a general consumer target of children, teenagers and adults.

  • Professional and Scholarly Publishing

  • Educational Publishing




MODULE 3. A traditional book publishing company project

 

3.1. Publishing strategy & policy

 

Objectives:

Decide what and how to publish is a very important key consideration. Develop a publishing strategy & policy will help guide the decision making.

 

Contents:

  • Defining the editorial line.

  • Selection and contracting criteria.

  • Content sources: International Publishers, Agents, Scouts, Book Fairs, Professional Magazines and Internet.

  • Building up a publications catalogue: new launches and backlist.

 

3.2. Business model and P&L

 

Objectives:

Knowledge and understanding of the economic basis in the creation of a book publishing company project.

 

Contents:

  • In-depth analysis of the Profit and Loss Account.



MODULE 4. The flow of editorial process: from acquisition to an edited book manuscrip.

 

Objectives:

Introducing the whole team of people involved in selecting, creating and editing a book.

 

Contents:

 

4.1 The content:

  • Book proposals, manuscripts, books on commission and ghostwriters.

  • Readers reports.

  • Offers, auctions and pre-empts.

 

With Valerie Miles (Founding Editor at Spanish Granta Magazine and former Publishing Director at Duomo, Alfaguara and Emecé).

 

4.2 Publishing legislation:

  • Publishing rights: print, digital and other subsidiary rights.

  • Different models of publishing contracts.

  • ISBN: The books identity number.

  • Fixed book price.

 

4.3 Translators.

 

4.3 The editorial director and the editorial department staff.

 

 

MODULE 5. The flow of production process: from an edited book manuscript to production

 

Objectives:

Introducing the whole team of people involved in helping to "set up" a book for publication.

 

Contents:

  • Copyediting: the first stage of book production.

  • Book page design and layout.

  • Book jacket, series and collections design and branding.

  • Book printing, binding, and shipping.



MODULE 6. Marketing and promoting books

 

Objectives:

Introducing the whole team of people involved in creating awareness for books among booksellers, media and consumers and generating book sales.

 

Contents:

 

6.1. Marketing:

  • Determine the potential readers for each individual book. Nielsen and FGK Consumer Panels.

  • Price policy.

  • Book sales materials.

  • Point-of-Sale promotional materials.

  • Social Media & Blogger campaigns.

  • Online and offline advertising.

  • Stock control and reprinting.

 

6.2. Publicity:

  • Book publicity press materials and book media follow-up.

  • Book review.

  • Pre-Publication or ARC (advanced reader´s copy) mailing.

  • Author readings and book signings.




MODULE 7. Selling and distributing books.

 

With Jordi Sánchez (Grupo Planeta).

 

Objectives:

Introducing the whole team of people involved in approaching wholesalers and retailers with the aim to generate orders; fulfilling books orders and monitoring sales.

 

Contents:

 

7.1. Sales:

  • Trade sales department and sales network.

  • Sales channels and types of booksellers.

  • Sales plan and trade discounts.

 

7.2. Distribution:

  • Orders fulfillment process.

  • Online and offline distribution.




MODULE 8. Another publishing business models

 

8.1. Partworks publishing industry: a different publishing business model and market.

 

With Monica Casetti (Founding Partner at Boldletters, former Managing Director at Editorial Salvat and Managing Director at Ediciones Orbis).

 

  • Highlights figures.

  • Business model and P& L.




8.2. New business models for books publishing in the digital age.

 

With Santos Palazzi (Head of Mass Market and Digital Business of the Book Division at Grupo Planeta).

 

  • Digital book reading and reader´s profile.

  • Digital reading devices (pros and cons picture).

  • Digital book formats. What is it and what is the metadata for.

  • Business models in the digital book environment: “à-la-carte”, suscription, library loan and B2B2C

  • National and International retailers (who is who). Sales territories of the Spanish digital book.

  • The relevance of self-publishing.

  • Chat stories and other relevant digital initiatives.  

  • The audiobook: a publishing phenomenon in the USA that has reached Spain.

  • Hypermedia: a new way to generate content.



MODULE 9. Key challenges for the 21th Century book publishing industry

 

  • Managing and protecting content rights, royalties and income.

  • Growing demand for digital content.

  • POD (Print on demand).

  • Be creative and drive growth to new horizons.


MODULE 10. Presentation of the Final Projects

 

From the module 3 on, the students will form working teams to develop a Final Project, consisting in setting-up a new publishing company. Every project will be presented to the rest of the class during the last session/s.

 

 


Teaching and learning activities

In person

The Management of the Publishing Industry subject consists of 20 classes which combine theoretical lectures and the study of practical cases. Students are encouraged to participate as much as possible.

Some guests of the publishing industry will also share their professional experiences and knowledge as part of the activities.

Evaluation systems and criteria

In person

In order to be assessed, student needs to attend at least 80% of classes.

 

Assessment criteria will be as follows:

  • Continual assessment (individual and teamwork activities and assignments): 50%

  • Final Project evaluation: 50%


Bibliography and resources

  • Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century, John B. Thompson (Polity Press, 2012)

  • The Publishing Business: From p-books to e-books, Kelvin Smith (AVA Publishing,

  • 2012)

  • Publishing: Principles and Practice, Richard Guthri (Sage Publications Ltd, 2011)

  • The Business of Books, André Schiffrin (Verso, 2001)

  • Book Business, Jason Epstein (WW Norton, 2001)



Teaching and learning material

      Material
             bookpublishingcompanybusinessplan.docx 
             bookpublishingpalstatement.xls 
            2018- managmentforthepublishingindustrypresentation.pdf 
            2018- partworks_monicacasetti.pdf 
            2018- uicmayo2018_santospalazzi.pdf 
            2018- uicsellinganddistributingbooks25052018forstudents_jordifernandez.pdf 
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