Publishing Industry Management
Main language of instruction: English
From clay tablets to e-books, different forms of publishing have have accompanied the humanity throughout history.
As an industry, we can consider that publishing began in 15th-century Germany with Johannes Gutenberg’s printing of the Bible, who 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 represented a significant step by making the writing within texts easy to reproduce. Printed books, leaflets and newsletters enabled culture, knowledge and thoughts to spread at a rate faster than ever before.
Since then, the publishing industry has been growing steadily until the last decade when the global economic crisis, together with the digital era and piracy had obliged it to to face new challenges.
The same as for the Master's Degree.
General competences
To have and understand knowledge which provides a basis.
To have the learning skills necessary to continue studying in a largely self-directed or autonomous manner.
To lead, coordinate and form part of interdisciplinary work teams.
To act responsibly, and produce good quality rigorous and efficient work that is placed at the service of society.
Specific competences
To identify business structures in publishing industry and manage the processes and work procedures involved in their creation, programming, management and production.
To design and implement an efficient and viable business plan within the publishing industry.
To identify business structures in publishing industry and manage the processes and work procedures involved in their creation, programming, management and production.
To design and implement an efficient and viable business plan within the publishing industry.
MODULE 1. Introduction
Objectives:
Getting into the publishing sector with an overall picture of the publishing industry, key-industry players and publishing market.
Contents:
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:
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:
MODULE 3. A traditional book publishing company project
Objectives:
Decide what, how many and how to publish is a very important key consideration. Develop a publishing strategy & policy will help guide the decision making.
3.1. Publishing strategy & policy
Contents:
With Valerie Miles (Founding Editor at Spanish Granta Magazine and former Publishing Director at Duomo, Alfaguara and Emecé).
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:
MODULE 4. The flow of editorial process: from acquisition to an edited book manuscript.
Objectives:
Introducing the whole team of people involved in selecting, creating and editing a book.
Contents:
4.1 The content: With Valerie Miles (Founding Editor at Spanish Granta Magazine and former Publishing Director at Duomo, Alfaguara and Emecé).
With Valerie Miles
4.2 Publishing legislation:
4.3 Translators.
4.4 The editorial director and the editorial department staff.
With Valerie Miles
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:
Visit to a Printing House
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:
6.2. Publicity:
MODULE 7. Selling and distributing books.
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:
7.2. Distribution:
With Jordi Sánchez (Grupo Planeta).
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).
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).
MODULE 9. 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.
The Management of the Publishing Industry subject consists of 18 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.
In accordance with the UIC rules, in order to be assessed, student needs to attend at least 80% of classes.
Assessment criteria will be as follows:
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)