First off, on a bit of a self-serving note, if you would like to do my survey for course that would be awesome, it'll really only take a minute or two - just click here!
So its officially the end of week five, and my fourth full week of classes (we had a week off last week). Its going really good, and since I've had a couple people say I'm not talking much about my actual school, I figured I'd give a run down of how all my classes are going. Feel free to skip this post. There will be no pictures, just lots of discussion of my program.
Overall, I'm finding the program isn't really what I was expecting, but then again I didn't really have any idea what to expect from it, so maybe thats a bit of a misnomer. There is certainly less reading than I would have expected... which is actually kind of nice. No essays either. I could use a break from both of those things though, after my undergrad.
Publishing in context is my first lecture of the week, and is taught by a rotation of my lecturers, covering a variety of topics. I then have the tutorial for that class that same day, where we usually look at publishing in the news, as well as various assignments (the other week we were asked to create our own magazine, including accounting for market, advertising, distribution, price, etc. - this week we had to research Bloomsbury, how the company is doing and what are its pros and cons). There is then the media monday lecturers, which are optional, and as they are put on by the journalism department they are, while interesting, not super relevant to my program.
Tuesday I have Magazine Business, the topic of which is fairly evident. After that, the magazine publishing students go to their tutorial for that class while the publishing students head to Publishing in Practice taught by Avril. We've been looking at various forms of marketing in that class for the last couple of weeks - in the tutorial for that class, which is in the evening of that same day, we generally continue on from the lecture, usually having some kind of larger assignment as well as little things that we complete in the tutorial. The other week we did a group assignment where we picked what we saw as a successful book marketing campaign, and discussed what we thought did and didn't work. My group went with my suggestion, which was Neil Gaiman's newest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
While I don't have class Wednesdays, we do have a movie night where we view movies that are vaguely related to publishing.
Thursday I have creative toolkit, which is probably still my favourite class, just because it is so practical and hands-on, and I'm starting to get the hang of InDesign, which is a really nice feeling (as well as a super useful skill to have).
Overall, I'm finding the lectures are often fairly obvious or self-explanatory. They aren't exactly wowing me or rocking my world. The tutorials and the assignments, on the other hand, are very practical and challenging - there is definitely a lot that is left for us to figure out on our own. Which is really good - really working those problem solving skills.
The two major assignments that we have for this semester is to do a case study on a publishing house and to pitch a book to be published. For the case study, I've chosen to do Harlequin Enterprises, which is Canadian, and also operates on a very different business model than most publishing houses, so I think it will be quite interesting to look at them. For the book pitch, as you might have picked up if you did my survey (less-than-subtle-hint) I'm proposing a reprint of Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw. Out of the class, several books will be chosen to actually be published through the school's publishing house, Merchiston Publishing. I don't particularly expect mine to be chosen, as it would be a bit of a departure from them, but its something that I'm interested in and care about, which I figured would be a better thing to go with than something that I didn't care about but would work with the Publishing house (our grade isn't dependent on being picked anyways - its dependent on us doing our research and putting together a good proposal). Both of those are due in their entirety after Christmas, but there are a couple bits that are reviewed beforehand.
And that is what is going on at school!
Overall, I'm finding the program isn't really what I was expecting, but then again I didn't really have any idea what to expect from it, so maybe thats a bit of a misnomer. There is certainly less reading than I would have expected... which is actually kind of nice. No essays either. I could use a break from both of those things though, after my undergrad.
Publishing in context is my first lecture of the week, and is taught by a rotation of my lecturers, covering a variety of topics. I then have the tutorial for that class that same day, where we usually look at publishing in the news, as well as various assignments (the other week we were asked to create our own magazine, including accounting for market, advertising, distribution, price, etc. - this week we had to research Bloomsbury, how the company is doing and what are its pros and cons). There is then the media monday lecturers, which are optional, and as they are put on by the journalism department they are, while interesting, not super relevant to my program.
Tuesday I have Magazine Business, the topic of which is fairly evident. After that, the magazine publishing students go to their tutorial for that class while the publishing students head to Publishing in Practice taught by Avril. We've been looking at various forms of marketing in that class for the last couple of weeks - in the tutorial for that class, which is in the evening of that same day, we generally continue on from the lecture, usually having some kind of larger assignment as well as little things that we complete in the tutorial. The other week we did a group assignment where we picked what we saw as a successful book marketing campaign, and discussed what we thought did and didn't work. My group went with my suggestion, which was Neil Gaiman's newest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
 |
| So pretty. |
While I don't have class Wednesdays, we do have a movie night where we view movies that are vaguely related to publishing.
Thursday I have creative toolkit, which is probably still my favourite class, just because it is so practical and hands-on, and I'm starting to get the hang of InDesign, which is a really nice feeling (as well as a super useful skill to have).
Overall, I'm finding the lectures are often fairly obvious or self-explanatory. They aren't exactly wowing me or rocking my world. The tutorials and the assignments, on the other hand, are very practical and challenging - there is definitely a lot that is left for us to figure out on our own. Which is really good - really working those problem solving skills.
The two major assignments that we have for this semester is to do a case study on a publishing house and to pitch a book to be published. For the case study, I've chosen to do Harlequin Enterprises, which is Canadian, and also operates on a very different business model than most publishing houses, so I think it will be quite interesting to look at them. For the book pitch, as you might have picked up if you did my survey (less-than-subtle-hint) I'm proposing a reprint of Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw. Out of the class, several books will be chosen to actually be published through the school's publishing house, Merchiston Publishing. I don't particularly expect mine to be chosen, as it would be a bit of a departure from them, but its something that I'm interested in and care about, which I figured would be a better thing to go with than something that I didn't care about but would work with the Publishing house (our grade isn't dependent on being picked anyways - its dependent on us doing our research and putting together a good proposal). Both of those are due in their entirety after Christmas, but there are a couple bits that are reviewed beforehand.
And that is what is going on at school!
Kyra Jensine - What is going on at school!!! - You caught Me by surprise; I was so enjoying Your blogs about Scotland, (and lets not forget "Hallowe'en") and thinking You are a "Marvelous Tourist Guide", (and You are). Your program looks very interesting; keep up the good work.... (I know You will) Love You
ReplyDeleteThanks Kyra! What an interesting assignment to pitch a book for actual publication. I'm kind of proud of you for choosing a classic! I haven't read it but will now.
ReplyDelete