JOINThe Editorial department within an STM Publishing company is responsible for the management and development of a list of products (primarily books and journals), usually within a dedicated subject area.
Main responsibilities of the department usually include:
- Portfolio Management: Managing book and journal programmes in accordance with company standards and deadlines, focussing on increasing readership, quality and profitability.
- Commissioning and Content Development: Delivering growth of book and journal programmes in line with Publishing company strategy and market demands, achieved via
- launching new journals
- commissioning new books and new editions
- driving growth of existing titles
- acquiring and publishing on behalf of societies and associations
- Contract Management: Overseeing society, editor and title contracts, including drafting new contracts and negotiating contract renewals.
- Networking and relationship development:
- maintaining and expanding relationships with external authors, editors, editorial boards, societies and associations.
- arranging and chairing editorial board meetings
- attending and presenting at subject conferences
- visiting university departments to increase market knowledge and meet prospective authors
- Product Development: Developing products in line with the Publishing company strategy and industry developments (i.e. digital innovations, Open Access) and ensuring high quality content relevant to the requirements of the subject community.
- Industry Standards: Ensuring that all guidelines and procedures are followed when handling publication ethics situations.
The Production department within an STM Publishing company is ultimately responsible for the end-to-end management of content (primarily books and journals) from the point of supply through to publication (print and online).
Key responsibilities of the department include:
- Administrating the production process from the point of receiving copy through all of the production stages to printing, online hosting and final despatch. This usually involves overseeing content through an electronic editorial office system into an in-house content management system
- Editorial workflow co-ordination and management, which may involve managing online supply chain systems (i.e. ScholarOne, Editorial Manager)
- Liaising with external editors and authors to ensure content is delivered to schedule, is in the required format, and contains all necessary permissions and copyright assignment forms
- Managing publication schedules and pagination budgets, ensuring all products publish to schedule and budget
- Copy editing and proof-reading content at various stages through the production workflow as well as overseeing the management of proof corrections
- Overseeing electronic publication of books and journals to an online platform and supply to third party aggregators and print on demand partners
- Vendor management – managing relationships with external vendors i.e. printers, typesetters, illustrators, freelance copyeditors and proof readers, indexers
- Ensuring adherence to external industry standards
Increasingly, the remit of the production department is also expanding to include overseeing some post publication initiatives i.e. tagging, semantic enrichment, enhancing discoverability of content.
Working with all parts of the business, the role of the digital product management team is to develop, deliver and support digital products and solutions within organisation. Typically they are people who are enthusiastic about technology and how it can best utilised to improve scholarly and scientific communication.
Responsibilities include:
- Developing digital products and launching them to an agreed plan — time, quality and profitability
- Performing research to assess new opportunities for digital solutions
- Building and developing stakeholder relationships, both internal and external
- Analysing data to produce clear and comprehensive reports to be used by the business
- Gathering and defining of user and system requirements
- Perform system testing to validate solution to requirements
In the scholarly publishing industry, marketing supports the publisher’s activities through:
- Driving new sales opportunities by lead generation and raising the visibility of products
- Retaining existing revenue by driving product usage and customer outreach
- Supporting content acquisition by author marketing, supporting key conferences and events and engagement with the scholarly community
- Promoting the publisher with activities from brand management, to circulating news releases and listening to feedback
These objectives are achieved through effective communication of messages about the publisher as a whole, as well as specific products, using a range of media. These media include traditional advertising avenues, such as print and online banner ads in relevant publications, as well emerging approaches such as social media and content marketing activities (video, user reviews, etc.). The work requires a combination of creative skills to produce innovative marketing campaigns, strong communication skills, and analytical skills to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of campaigns.
A general overview of skills used in various stages of a career in marketing is noted below. However, it is important to note that the scope of each role varies greatly depending on the company profile.
The sales team aims to generate sales revenue for a publisher’s products and services. This may be achieved through a variety of sales channels: direct selling to libraries and other institutional customers; working with intermediaries such as subscription agents, distributors and aggregators; developing business through direct-to-consumer channels such as Amazon or Apple.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing sales plans and strategies for achieving revenue targets
- Generating leads and opportunities through close contact with new and existing customers
- Monitoring customer, market and competitor activity & communicating to colleagues
- Working closely with marketing to develop and execute on specific campaigns and territory/market plans
- Working with other departments (e.g. customer service, sales support, editorial) to maximize customer engagement & satisfaction through the sales cycle from pitch to delivery and after-sales service
Rights & licensing is also focused on developing revenue streams the publisher’s products and services, but through secondary sales channels. Traditional rights sales include permissions for re-use of published material, translations of book or journal content, and licenses with reproduction rights organizations. As STM content becomes increasingly online-focused, opportunities for rights & licensing continue to grow through the development of new licensing models for digital re-use of content in electronic products, for use on aggregator platforms or sales through transactional services (e.g. document delivery or article rental).
Responsibilities may vary depending in which area a role is located, but in general, key responsibilities include:
- Developing sales plans and strategies for achieving licencing revenue targets
- Generating leads and opportunities through close contact with new and existing customers
- Monitoring customer, market and competitor activity & communicating to colleagues
- Working with legal/contracts department to draft licenses, permissions and other agreements
A good understanding of copyright law and intellectual property is essential in rights & licensing roles.
Listen to Abigail Sawyer, Digital Editor at Future Science Group, talk about how she got into publishing and what she enjoys about her role. Click here to download the podcast.
How would you describe your current role and your key responsibilities?
Because we are a small team and everyone has to have one’s fingers in several pies, my job has 2 main components. There is the production side, where I look after the production of our range of business and IT titles, from the final reviewed manuscript, to the published paper copy and ebook versions; and there is the editorial management side, where I look after the running of a web-based submission system for our flagship journal, the Computer Journal.
I am also responsible for the publication online of an open access health journal published by the organisation.
How did you get to this point in your publishing career? What path did you take?
I just fell into it so to speak, while looking for a job shortly after finishing my studies (in a subject that had nothing to do with it!).
Was publishing always your chosen career or did you ‘fall into it’?
See above!
What kinds of skills will the industry need from its workforce in the future?
Flexibility and adaptation will be the key skills I guess, as the industry evolves all the time, even more so since the development of its digital side. Some IT skills will probably help too.
What excites you about the publishing industry?
The transmission of knowledge. That it allows people to dream, travel, live another life, from the comfort of their living room, during the few minutes/hours they spend delving into a book.
What is the biggest challenge currently facing the industry?
Discoverability. You can have the best book in the world, how can you make sure that people will find it within the millions of similar other products around?
Another one is the competition brought by the development of the internet and other media. When one has easy access to films, games, news feeds, social media etc, when does one have the time and the desire to start reading a book?
Training versus experience: what’s more important in advancing a career in publishing?
It’s a mixture of the two I think. And the chance of being at the right place at the right time as always. The willingness/readiness to learn new things, even if they don’t really seem to be part of your job at first, is quite important too.
What advice would you give your younger self, starting out in a career? What is your top tip for advancing a career in publishing?
Perhaps to seize any opportunity you can find as there aren’t many around. And maybe not be afraid to move and change jobs until you find the perfect fit for you.
What do you like about professional publishing?
What I love about publishing is having the finished product in my hands at the end. The product I contributed to.
What I like about professional publishing is the fact that these books and journals I have worked on, helped to put together, will be disseminated around the world and perhaps help people in their life, their career, or may even be a breakthrough for some.
It is a profession that potentially changes lives!
How would you describe your current role and your key responsibilities?
Leader of distance education; leading a team, developing courses in distance education and cooperation with universities.
How did you get to this point in your publishing career? What path did you take?
Study of Biology/Geography; Book Editor starting in 1989; team leader; smart move to distance education as developed in my team, retaining responsibility in the book development/program. I would like to add that I have two children, always worked, but only part-time to combine family and job – that is one of the excellent things about working in the publishing business.
Was publishing always your chosen career or did you ‘fall into it’?
Chosen during study at university as support to scientists as book authors with proofreading, copy editing, searching for information etc. First year I worked as a freelancer, then I started as an employee.
What kinds of skills will the industry need from its’ workforce in the future?
Digital competence; innovative ideas including structuring, analysis, implementation, and networking. Without that all digitalization does not work.
It has a very broad approach in contrast to working as a scientist with in-depth work; a team working approach versus an individual and competitive approach.
What is the biggest challenge currently facing the industry?
The loss of print books which is not compensated by ebook usage and the competition with internet and other media which means we live in the midst of a grand revolution we have never seen since the invention of printing by Gutenberg.
No decision for one or the other, both should fit together and be done. Training allows you to get new experience; even very experienced people may profit from training.
What advice would you give your younger self, starting out in a career? What is your top tip for advancing a career in publishing?
Try to figure out what your personal skills are and work on them to become better. Be aware of your weak skills, but do not try to fight against them. Try to broaden your network to get not only new contacts, but also try to be involved in new ideas. Be yourself and trust what you are doing, but always say thank you to those who gave you a hand.
What do you like about academic publishing?
It is must-have literature and so opens up many exciting opportunities with regard to e-learning and future opportunities for publishers.
What is your top tip for getting into a career in publishing?
My top tip is to diversify your basic knowledge and develop a working understanding of different aspects of the industry. You never know when that knowledge will be beneficial or open a new door.
How did you get to this point in your publishing career? What path did you take?
I began my career on the sales team in a supporting role. I knew I didn’t want to move up in the sales path, so I became more familiar with the publishing/editorial side of things through conversations with co-workers and friends. I then applied for a supporting role on the publishing team when one became available and was promoted to my current role about 6 months later.
What kinds of skills do you think are important for your role?
Diplomacy, critical thinking, time management, and mettle
What is the biggest challenge currently facing the industry?
The scholarly publishing industry is in a time of great change. This means that everything from large businesses to everyday practices to specific roles are dealing with a lot of uncertainty and need to be ready to adapt, whether that be in a proactive or reactionary way.
Training versus experience: what’s more important in advancing a career in publishing?
I would have to say experience. You can be trained on systems or processes, but that won’t prepare you for the everyday situations and problem-solving that make up the vast majority of the responsibilities and roles in publishing.
What advice would you give your younger self, starting out in a career?
Ask more questions of anyone. Don’t be afraid to approach people you don’t know or who are in upper management to learn from them.
What do you love about your job?
I love working with passionate academics and helping them achieve their research and career goals.
