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Editorial Processes and Practices: Creating Products

Module description

What are the editorial processes involved in moving from initial idea, proposal or submission to publication? What editorial practices enable a book to find its final form? What impact do interlinked questions of technology, social justice, sustainability and value have on the selection and shaping of texts? In this module you will explore the multiple roles of an editor from commissioning to project management, structural editing to copyediting, and multimedia content creation to list building. A core element of the module involves collaboratively editing a new issue of a literary anthology: at the start of the module you will have a chance to pitch and shape ideas;  by the end of the module—working collaboratively with editors, seminar conveners, and peers—you will have an edited manuscript ready to be typeset through the linked Publishing and Production module.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Through assigned readings, seminars, practical workshops and small group tutorials, this module will build a critical understanding of, alongside the practical skills needed for, the role of an editor in the contemporary publishing industry. Through the processes of creating and editing material for a new publication, you will develop strategies for assessing, project managing and responding to ideas and texts while working closely with authors on submissions. Through practical workshops linked directly to work on your own ‘live’ curatorial or editorial projects, you will develop and reflect on your own editorial practice at a macro and micro level. This module will also introduce you to the broader processes of commissioning and editing new print and digital products, moving from understanding the market, to presenting material for publication,  to building a sustainable list of titles. Across the module you will consider the ways in which editorial decisions shape both the production and marketing of books, and build an approach to editorial processes that is consistently grounded in historical context and critical debates.  Including sessions on sensitivity reading and proofreading, this module has been designed to develop fundamental skills for working in the publishing sector today.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate advanced knowledge of and aptitude in core skills and practices associated with the role of the editor in the contemporary publishing industry
• 2. Through module work, show critical appreciation of the relation between a text’s editorial production and its status as both a literary and commercial object.
• 3. Demonstrate a conceptual and strategic understanding of publishing as a dynamic and evolving industry and the impact of this on editorial processes.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse the strategies, inequalities, strengths, and weaknesses of specific publishing initiatives.
• 5. Demonstrate a sophisticated knowledge of the ways in which the publishing industry embraces complex and interrelated issues of commissioning, production, marketing and distribution.
• 6. Demonstrate an advanced approach to the study of the publishing industry in terms of the inter-relation of various commercial, technological and aesthetic factors.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. By working collaboratively and constructively on tasks, understand the dynamics of project management within the context of publishing as a creative industry.
• 8. Through individual and group work both within and beyond the seminar setting, demonstrate independent thinking and communication skills
• 9. Pitch and present ideas to different audiences using appropriate media.
• 10. Work critically with texts and writers to enrich and develop work for publication.

Syllabus plan

Although the module’s content might vary from year to year, it will balance practical publishing work with readings on conditions and histories that inform contemporary publishing. The module will consistently cover the following:

• The role of the editor
• Reading critically and decision making
• Structural editing, copyediting and proofreading
• Creating a strong and equitable publishing list
• Communicating and building relationships with authors and agents
• Editors and marketing
• Editors and production decisions
• Sensitivity reading, censorship and editorial responsibility
• Digital technologies
• Readings by practitioners on challenges and opportunities of publishing today.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative secondary sources:

• Bhaskar, Michael. Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess. (2017)
• Butcher, Judith, Caroline Drake and Maureen Leach. Butcher’s Copyediting: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders (2006).
• Foley, Abram. The Editor Function. (2021)
• Ginna, Peter. What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing (2017)
• Greenberg, Susan. The Poetics of Editing (2018)
• Gross, Gerald. C. Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know about What Editors Do.
• Groenland, Tim. “Stuff that editors do.” The Art of Editing, pp. 1-9
• Grundy, Alice.  Editing Fiction: Three Case Studies from Post-War Australia.(2022)
• New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (2014)
• Phillips, A. and Bhaskar, M. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Publishing (2019)
• Smith, Kevin and Ramdarshan Bold. The Publishing Business: A guide to starting out and getting on. (2018)
• Withers, D.M. Virago Reprints and Modern Classics (2021)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Spread the Word. 2015. Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Marketplace. www.spreadtheword.org.uk/writing-the-future/
• Saha, Anamik and van Lente, Rethinking Diversity in Publishing (2020) https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Rethinking_diversity_in-publishing_WEB.pdf
• Thompson, Luke and Abram Foley. The Lit Issue 2: Stories from the Slipstream (2020) https://theliteraryplatform.com/issues/issue-two/

Key words search

MA Publishing; Editorial Processes; editing; publishing