Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Help to Publish Canada’s Books and Magazines For Mass Consumption

The book and magazine publishing industry plays a very important role in the release of your favourite books or magazines. Professionals in this field handle everything from book acquisition, design and production to editing, sales, marketing and advertising of both books and magazines.

Essentially the steps taken for magazine publishing and book publishing are the same, with a few variations. For example, for book publishing, you may take on the role of a commissioning editor, which will see you negotiating the purchase of intellectual property rights and agreeing on royalty rates. If your forte is more words then you may be a copy editor (for both book and magazine publishing), which entails helping the author or journalist with small rewrites, maintaining a house style and proper grammar. In addition, these editors have the important job of choosing or refining titles and headlines. Another career route in book and magazine publishing is that of a designer. In book publishing this means commissioning artists for cover work and selecting photographs, as well as typesetting, dust jacket composition, specification of paper quality as well as binding method and casing. In magazine publishing, it involves photo selection and page layout. Yet another job is that of sales and marketing. These professionals find out where the most interest for a book lies (overseas, locally, or not at all). From there, they discuss co-publishing deals, reduce or increase printing number (if necessary) or cut the budget. After the publication is printed there is one more stage: distribution. Books are most commonly sold through booksellers and other retailers, while magazines are sold directly through publishers to subscribers and then distributed through other outlets. It is up to the distribution professionals to arrange the details.

As you can see, the options in book and magazine publishing are extremely varied. Centennial College offers a one-year program that covers all facets of the field. The accelerated undertaking is for those with previous post-secondary education. To apply for the Book and Magazine Publishing program, you must submit an official transcript that demonstrates proof of successful completion of a post-secondary diploma or degree program. You may also be accepted if you are able to present a combination of partial post-secondary education and relevant work experience. In addition, you must attend a program admission session that includes editing exercises, presentation of a portfolio of writing and a resume.

The focus of the Centennial College program is on both book publishing and magazine publishing, through a combination of practical training and theory. The curriculum of Book and Magazine publishing includes courses such as: Writing for Publication, Editing, Copyright Contracts and Permissions, Magazine Marketing and more. To supplement these lecture-based courses are two very hands-on components. The first is participating on the publishing of the bi-yearly On The Danforth magazine. The other is an industry field placement at a book or magazine publisher in Toronto, where you’ll acquire work experience, industry knowledge and professional relationships.

No comments:

Post a Comment