Editorial Project Management

This hands-on course is based on real case-studies and, where possible and appropriate, will focus on delegates' actual issues and problems. So, at the end of the two days, you will leave with some immediately applicable solutions and strategies. There will also be a range of more generic checklists to take away and use as tools in the future.

The course looks at each of the four aspects of successful editorial project management in turn. You’ll learn how to deliver books and other resources:

• to the agreed specification
• within budget
• on time
• at the right quality.

In each case you will consider how and where things can go wrong and how you can prevent this.

Programme

• How to evaluate the resources required for successful delivery
  • People
  • Budget
  • Schedule
• Sticking to the specification
  • Being clear about what the specification should cover
  • Whose responsibility – both doing the work and bearing the cost?
  • Effective briefing
  • Working with authors, editors, designers, production – in-house and freelance
  • Being aware of the implications of change, especially for budgets
• Sticking to the budget
  • Overview of basic costing and gross margin calculations
  • Impact of changes to fixed costs on gross margin
  • Negotiating fees
  • Cost vs. time dilemmas
• Sticking to the schedule
  • Creating workable schedules
  • Progress chasing – systems and tools
  • Managing workloads
  • Working with authors, editors, designers, production – in-house and freelance
• Ensuring quality
  • Why feedback is important and how to deliver it
• Troubleshooting session on specific problems

Who will benefit from this course?

Editors, Desk Editors and Managing Editors in book or journal publishing who are taking on the management of complete editorial projects.

Heather Morris has over twenty years’ experience in the educational and children's publishing industries. She was English Publisher at Heinemann Educational Books for nine years. She then left to become Director of Educational Publishing at the BBC where she was responsible for building a business which developed print, audio, video and CD products to support TV and radio broadcasts.

Since 1996 she has been running her own publishing consultancy and has been involved in a wide range of projects – from the Teletubbies to the National Numeracy Strategy. Other ventures have included in-house training for a publishing company in Jamaica and writing and co-publishing her own children’s books. She continues to work with a variety of clients – both commercial and non-commercial – covering a mix of markets and media.

"Course was extremely helpful and covered all my requirements."
Reality Publishing delegate

Please note that most of our courses can be run as in-company training events.
Contact The Publishing Training Centre to learn more about in-house training.

Our in-company training offers you a bespoke service with the backing and expertise you already expect of the Publishing Training Centre.

We can run courses at your own offices, at our premises in Wandsworth or at another venue of your choice.

In-company training falls into three categories:

• Buying in short courses - We can run most of our standard short courses for your team, with exercises, references and case studies adapted to suit your business.
  • One way to check the quality and relevance of a particular course is to enrol one delegate on the equivalent short course. Should you then go on to commission your own version, we will refund the cost of this enrolment.
• Commissioning customised training - Customised training is the best choice when you want a higher degree of specialisation or for us to construct something unique.
• Consultancy - From an open-ended or wide-ranging brief, we will review either specific or more general aspects of your business, and help you identify areas where training would help.

Contact The Publishing Training Centre to learn more about in-house training.

Funding and discount information can be obtained by contacting The Publishing Training Centre and completing an Information Request.

Excellence in training for the publishing sector

Celebrating 30 Years of Training Publishers

For over 30 years The Publishing Training Centre at Book House (PTC) has been firmly established as the pre-eminent training organisation within publishing. We provide high quality yet cost-effective training for publishers both in the UK and overseas. Previously known as Book House Training Centre, PTC is an educational charity dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in publishing. 

The Publishing Training Centre grew from a small department at The Publishers Association and remains at the heart of the industry. All of our tutors are practitioners first and foremost, which means that they bring their real-world experience with them to the courses they teach, enriching the experience for students and making the courses more practical. PTC's work is overseen by a dedicated Board of Trustees, who have a broad range of experience and expertise in the publishing industry.

Offering over 70 short courses covering the complete range of publishing skills, as well as distance learning programmes and in-company training opportunites. PTC also cater for non-publishers who still need some of the core editorial skills.

We are always happy to hear from you with any ideas for a course, or from potential tutors!

Send us an Information Request; we'd love to hear from you.