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Digital Book World 2013: Change and Cooperation

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NYU M.S. in Publishing students David Stuzin, Nicole Estrin, Michelle Cashman, Pam Majumdar, and Lorna Field volunteer at Digital Book World.
NYU M.S. in Publishing students David Stuzin, Nicole Estrin, Michelle Cashman, Pam Majumdar, and Lorna Field volunteer at Digital Book World.

During a Digital Book World 2013 panel discussion so crowded that some attendees sat on the floor, Matt MacInnis, Founder and CEO of the interactive book company Inkling, made a particularly perceptive comment: “It’s a miracle that the book was a thing the whole world agreed on.” That is, up until recently, it is fair to say that “the book” as we know it has retained the same static, linear structure across various nations and fields of study since the invention of the printing press 500 years ago. Going forward, MacInnis continued, “It’s not gonna be one monolithic thing serving the med. school book and serving the novel.” [Read more…] about Digital Book World 2013: Change and Cooperation

Eats and Feats at Every Day with Rachael Ray

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Tracey Seaman (right) talks to students
Tracey Seaman (right) talks to students in the Every Day with Rachael Ray test kitchen.

The delectable aroma of herbs, spices, and Mexican cooking greeted M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media students as they arrived at the test kitchens of Every Day with Rachael Ray for an industry visit. Naturally, at a food magazine, the test kitchen is key–and the perfect place to start our tour! Christine Guilfoyle, the magazine’s Group Publisher, who graciously set up the student visit, explained that a goal of Every Day with Rachael Ray is to help readers understand the everyday practices of good cooking. [Read more…] about Eats and Feats at Every Day with Rachael Ray

Pop Culture Publishing: Liars, Werewolves, and Mockingjays

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Moderator Justin Chanda, Vice President & Publisher, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, and Margaret K. McElderry Books

A sea of familiar faces greeted attendees of the thirteenth NYU Media Talk, sponsored by the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing Digital & Print Media. Sure, students and faculty filled a jam-packed Rosenthal Pavilion at the Kimmel Center, but what instantly got the crowd buzzing were the displays of book cover blow-ups featuring today’s most beloved characters of young adult fiction, including Bella Swan, Sebastian Verlac, and Emily Fields. The latest NYU Media Talk was titled “Pop Culture Publishing: Young Adult Megahits,” and everyone in attendance wanted the answer to one particular question: “What is the secret sauce to producing hits like Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, or Pretty Little Liars?” Indeed, as young adult books continue to transcend their traditional audience and shape a new generation of readers (including plenty of adults!), the publishing industry is actively trying to understand how and why children’s books succeed in acquiring their blockbuster-level status. [Read more…] about Pop Culture Publishing: Liars, Werewolves, and Mockingjays

Frankfurt Adventure: Three Views of the Fair

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Volunteering at international book fairs has become a tradition at the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing. Here’s an inside look at the Frankfurt Book Fair from three students who recently traveled to Germany to put their publishing knowledge to work…and came home with some insightful impressions reported in Publishers Weekly.

Connections, Chance, and Content Deck the Halls

Frankfurt Diaries

Oct 26, 2012
Monica Odom, KeriLee Horan, and Julia Blyumkin at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Last year, students in the Master’s program in Publishing: Digital and Print Media at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies were volunteers at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair—and shared their thoughts with Publishers Weekly. This year, the destination for three different student volunteers was the Frankfurt Book Fair, thanks to generous support from the Oscar Dystel Research Fellowship Fund and literary agent Jane Dystel. Student volunteers Julia Blyumkin, a freelance writer and designer; KeriLee Horan, digital production editor at Commonweal magazine, and Monica Odom, literary assistant, Liza Dawson Associates, discovered that three themes emerged: the value of the personal connection; a certain serendipity that was mentioned time and again; and, finally, a call from conference speakers to return to the basic fundamentals of a good story.

To read the full story, please click here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/international/Frankfurt-Book-Fair/article/54529-connections-chance-and-content-deck-the-halls.html.

App-titude for Apps

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Radhika Nayak and Chris Sanborn at an NYU Center for Publishing moderated conversation

How do you produce a successful app? And what is a successful app, anyway? These were some of the questions asked recently at the moderated conversation on “The Art of the App” sponsored by students and alumni of the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing. The event featured Radhika Nayak, Vice President for Product at Simon & Schuster, and Chris Sanborn, Founder and President of Sanborn Media Factory, a 30-person interactive agency that produces digital campaigns and products for companies such as Condé Nast and Hearst. Both panelists were asked to give the publishing industry a grade in terms of their app creation to date. Nayak, who has deep experience in building user-centered product strategies for websites and mobile applications, gave book publishing “about a C,” saying that publishers seem to be stuck on the idea of long-form content, and that they think of apps as nothing more than marketing tools for books, which is not what an app really is.  [Read more…] about App-titude for Apps

Networking? Here’s How With YPG and Ed2010

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Young to Publishing’s Sara Sargent and Ed2010’s Chandra Turner

One of the greatest perks of being a student in the M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program at NYU-SCPS is the industry events we are frequently invited to attend. I was delighted to be able to go to a brown-bag lunch with speakers Chandra Turner, Executive Editor of Parents magazine and founder and president of Ed2010, and Sara Sargent, Assistant Editor, Balzer+Bray (an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books) and the chair of the Young to Publishing Group (YPG) Planning Committee. [YPG is part of The Association of American Publishers (AAP), which has more than 300 publishing organizations as its members.] Both speakers offered valuable insights on how to break into the industry, as well as all the opportunities for entry-level publishing professionals to connect with each other. The lunch was informative, interesting, and a great opportunity to listen to the wisdom of people who have gone through exactly what we are going through now as we attempt to get a foot in the door of publishing. And they have come out on top!

[Read more…] about Networking? Here’s How With YPG and Ed2010

NYU Advanced Publishing Institute: Ebook Education for Execs

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Day 1: Let’s Get Digital

J. P. Eggers, Andrea Chambers, Carolyn Pittis, & Peter Balis at NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute

On September 20th, publishing professionals became students at the new NYU Advanced Publishing Institute (NYU API) sponsored by the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing. This two-day executive education program, titled “Studies in Digital Book Strategy,” was jam-packed with fantastic sessions—and people! Best of all, NYU API offered attendees (mid- to senior-level publishing professionals) a hands-on classroom and computer-lab based learning experience designed to help them expand their digital knowledge and better manage digital teams. As Andrea Chambers, Director of the NYU-SCPS Center for Publishing, noted at the outset: this was a course, not a conference.  [Read more…] about NYU Advanced Publishing Institute: Ebook Education for Execs

Meet the Faculty… Inside and Outside the Classroom

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Marketers, lawyers, “transformation” experts, oh my! The new faculty members teaching in the NYU M.S. in Publishing: Digital & Print Media program this fall are an eclectic and highly experienced group joining our full roster of 70 top media executives. To tell you more about them, we decided to give you not only the official bios of our latest faculty members, but some insights into their passions outside the classroom:

Jeff Barish (Magazine Advertising: Print and Online) is Senior Executive Director of Digital Sales at Condé Nast, where he is responsible for web, mobile and tablet advertising sales across all Condé Nast brands. Previously, he was Associate Publisher and VP of Advertising at Newsweek/The Daily Beast and before that, Advertising Director of Condé Nast Portfolio. He has also held senior management positions at Tribune Media Net, Thomson Financial Media, Fresh Baked Studios, and Metal Bulletin. Jeff received his degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Green-blooded Jeff Barish lives and breathes for the New York Jets. [Read more…] about Meet the Faculty… Inside and Outside the Classroom

Amy Einhorn on the Author/Editor Relationship: “Marriage, Not Dating”

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VP, Publisher, & Editor Amy Einhorn and author Lyndsay Faye discuss the collaborative journey from first draft to final

During the intense six weeks of The NYU Summer Publishing Institute (SPI), we’ve listened to many speakers, panel discussions and attended countless workshops, but we’ve never sat in on a conversation between an editor and her author. Not until the great Amy Einhorn, Publisher and Vice President of Amy Einhorn Books, and Lyndsay Faye, author of The Gods of Gotham, appeared together on one of the final days of SPI to enlighten us about the unique symbiosis between an author and an editor.

“It’s a team effort. What I say to my authors is: ‘These are all suggestions’,” said Einhorn to illustrate the collaborative, not imperative, way to propose changes to an author. And some authors may be amazed with how much freedom they have: “Authors who are also journalists are often surprised [when going through the book editing process] at how much autonomy they have; they are used to far heavier editing,” revealed Einhorn.

Faye agreed and praised the subtle work of book editors whose job is to gently help authors improve their work and provide moral support during the sometimes long, and rarely easy, path to the shelves. In fact, when asked about self publishing, Faye noted the importance of the editing process in improving a literary work. “I have nothing against self-publishing… if you can find your audience on your own [without the help of a mainstream publisher], it’s bloody fantastic! Still, you have to have a stone cold eye about your own work. You need outside feedback. It can work without it, but you need to be extremely focused,” she summarized.

Even if authors have great control over their manuscripts, a good editor is one who is committed and engaged: “When publishing, you’re getting married, not dating. It’s a long, interactive relationship for years and years,” said Einhorn.

Students work together to create book publishing imprints

As SPI draws to a close, we have come to realize that this statement describes not just the relationship between an author and editor, but among the members of the entire publishing team. This has been emphasized repeatedly throughout SPI because publishing at its very heart is a team business. While making books may begin with a solitary author like Faye, the combined efforts of dozens leads to a successful final project that reaches and engages an audience.

Collaboration was a buzzword as well in our final SPI projects. By working on intensive group projects, meeting with human resources directors to revamp our resumes, attending Book Expo America, networking with alumni, visiting bookstores, magazine and book publishing companies, and meeting with the 250 (!) publishing professionals who came to share their expertise with us, the 116 of us truly learned that publishing is about content just as much as it is about the people who work to create, perfect, and distribute content. As we finish the program and reflect on all that we have learned, it is with great enthusiasm that we look forward to a stable marriage with this industry we love so much.

by Laura Sangrà Herrero