Polished Printing

The Denver Publishing Institute. What an amazing four weeks of lectures from Publishing professionals from all aspects of the publishing world. I’ve created an abridged version of the lectures as a supplement to the course’s itinerary to show you a fragment of the publishing process.

Only write a book if you truly feel compelled to tell the story.

-Peter Osnos

• Overview of Publishing (keynote address): Peter L.W. Osnos, Founder and Editor-at-Large, PublicAffairs. The first week started off with hearing from Peter Osnos, whose past experience included working with President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter, Sam Donaldson, President Obama, President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan, and President Clinton… just to name a few.

• The Role of the Editor/Acquisition of the Manuscript/Making the Publishing Decision: Andrea Schulz, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Publishing Institute graduate

• The Role of the Literary Agent: Sandra Bond, Owner, Bond Literary Agency, discusses how agents work with authors to represent their books to editors. Sandra Bond gave the cut-and-dry of how to write a book proposal in addition to the role of a literary agent.

Parts of a Book Proposal:

overview: making case for merits of publication. about the author: credentials and expertise. market for book: who’s going to buy your book? promo for book: what does the author bring to the table? comparable books: similar books that sold well and how your book is better. Include the books Table of Contents. Chapter Summaries: include in a brief 1 or 2 paragraphs. Sample Chapters: Choose a chapter or two that best showcases writing ability

• How the Novel Is Born: A discussion between Stephen White, Author of Line of Fire, Dutton, 2012 and Karl Weber, President, Karl Weber Literary, former Editor and Publisher with McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, Times Business/Random House, Inc. We had the opportunity to listen to Stephen White’s experience as a writer of psychological thriller fiction at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in LoDo.

• An Author’s Perspective: Peter Heller on his books, from non-fiction to fiction. The Dog Stars (pub. August 2012). Peter Heller’s onstage performance when he got up to talk to the institute was incredibly entertaining and captivating. His career began writing for an outdoors magazine as an extreme kayaker, and later switching to fiction writing as he would write without a plot or knowing the ending. Peter Heller noted three things most valuable to writers being 1) literary intelligence, 2) flexibility and capacity of risk, and 3) commitment.

• The Economics of Publishing: Robert Follett, President, Alpine Guild Inc., formerly Chairman and President, Follett Book Company. Selling books is the most difficult part of the publishing process according to Robert Follett. 

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers. 

– T.S. Eliot

• Karl Weber, freelance editor, Scholastic, AMACOM, Wiley Publishers, Random House. Karl Weber directed a two-week Editing Workshop for the institute in addition to Nan Gatewood Satter. 

An Editor’s Bookshelf: Editors on Editing, The Element of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., The Modern Researcher, Follow the Story, Language in Though and Action

What an Editor does:

editorial evaluation- yes/no decision with support

editorial critique- written to guide and instruct author to make manuscript the best as it can be

developmental editing- going through manuscript deleting, suggesting, adding, marking up the ms with detail suggestions

book doctoring- manuscript needs substantial editing

line editing- detail editing of manuscript grammar/word choice/ polishing

copyedit- editing in detail to catch grammar/ punctuation/ house style guide

• University Press/Scholarly Publishing, a Micro-workshop: Peter Dougherty, Director, Princeton University Press.

• College Textbooks/Role of the College Sales Representative: Roth Wilkofsky, Senior Publisher, Pearson Higher Education; Reid Hester, Senior Editor, Psychology, SAGE Publishing and former Executive Editor, Political Science, Pearson Higher Education, 1995 graduate of the Publishing Institute

• Copyediting and Proofreading: Alice Levine, Freelance Editor, formerly Copy Chief, Westview Press.

• Book Packaging, a Micro-workshop: Jim Becker, President, becker&mayer!

• Multi-Media Publishing: Jamie Bogner, Vice President and Group Publisher, Interweave + Martha Pullen/ F+W Media

• Book Design: Rebecca Finkel, Graphic Designer, F + P Graphic Design

• Production: Stacy Schuck, Production Manager, The Perseus Books Group

• Reference/Information Publishing in Digital Age: Larry Baker, Senior Content Project Editor, Gale/ Cengage Learning; Publishing Institute graduate

• E-books from a Library Perspective: Chris Brown, Reference Librarian and Coordinator for Government Documents, University of Denver

• Children’s Book Publishing, a Micro-workshop: Virginia Duncan, Vice President, Publisher, Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, with commentary from the bookseller’s point of view from Judy Bulow, Children’s Books Buyer, Tattered Cover Book Store

• International Publishing and Subsidiary Rights: Kristin Kliemann, Vice President, Subsidiary Rights, John Wiley and Sons, Inc

• Metadata: Bill Newlin, Publisher, Avalon Travel and Vice President, The Perseus Books Group

• Digital Publishing: Todd Stocke, Vice President, Editorial Director of Sourcebooks

• Digital Publishing: Mary Cummings, Editorial Director, Diversion Books

• Social Media Strategies: Erica Barmash, Associate Director of Digital and Trade Marketing, Bloomsbury Children’s and Walker Books for Young Readers

• Publicity: Scott Manning, President, Scott Manning and Associates

• Press Releases: Karen Hemmes, Press Release Publicist, Publicity Connections

• Scholarly Journals: John Tagler, Vice President and Executive Director, American Association of Publishers’ Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division

• Legal Aspects of Publishing: Jon Tandler, Attorney, Ryley Carlock & Applewhite

• Wholesalers: Kent Freeman, Chief Technology Officer, Ingram Digital Book Group and President, VitalSource Technologies, Inc

• A Day with the Independent Publisher. A panel of experts from several houses across the country. The 2013 panelists: Chip Fleischer, Steerforth Books, Hanover, NH; David Godine, David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston, MA; Gary Groth, Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, WA; Jack Jensen, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA; Carolyn Sakowski, John F. Blair, Publisher, Winston-Salem, NC; and Marina Tristan, Arte Publico Press, Houston, TX

• The Role of the Sales Representative and Bookstore Buyer: Cathy Langer, Lead Buyer, Tattered Cover Book Store and Deirdre Dolan, Vice President, Sales Manager, W.W. Norton & Company

• The Bookstore and Censorship: Joyce Meskis, Director, Publishing Institute, and owner of Tattered Cover Book Store

• Religious Publishing: Joel Fotinos, Vice President, Publisher, Jeremy P. Tarcher, an imprint of Penguin Group USA

• A morning with JP Leventhal, Publisher, Black Dog & Leventhal followed by awarding of certificates and a graduation brunch