Intro:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The history and art of book editing / publishing from the past through present, with an eye to the future--from Maxwell Perkins to Jason Epstein and Andre Schiffrin. (or even: from Maxwell Perkins to Judith Regan, via Jason Epstein). We will discuss different types of editors that one might find at a publishing house; the role of each editor, the skills required to be a successful editor at any publishing house (small, medium, or large), and the ways in which editors and agents are involved in other parts of the publishing process.
OBJECTIVE
The course objective is for each student to fully understand the process of publishing and shepherding a book from manuscript to finished work (the editor’s role in this process as it goes through each step) —that is, not only the process of book editing per se, but also the psychology of the editor-author relationship. Students will also be taught in the ways of diplomacy and the ethics of book publishing as it applies to book editing. More, students will learn how to make sound editorial decisions based on instinct, taste, sales potential. Through practical assignments, students will also learn how to manuscripts; write analyses, rejection and acceptance letters, catalogue copy; and how to line edit manuscripts. In-class activities will examine the many types of books published, including mainstream and “upscale” fiction and nonfiction, works in translation, scholarly and art books, and mass-market publications.
Students will come away from this course with a real-world understanding of how to work as a book editor or agent in various disciplines with a clear understanding of the history of line editing from Maxwell Perkins through the present technology of editing. The goal of this course is for each student to come away with this course with a fine understanding of how to edit a manuscript and see it from transom to finished book and the editor’s role in this process.
GRADING
Basics:
Grading will be based on class participation and discussion. Since interaction is essential to the editing process (as editors interact with authors and agents in the real world), the student’s interaction with the class will count for a good portion of the final grade. You are expected to attend class regularly; attendance will be taken.
Students will also be expected to evaluate manuscripts, write rejection letters, understand and negotiate contracts, understand the ethical issues of being an editor, and importantly, students are expected to participate in class lectures as this counts toward your final grade. Weekly emails concerning the reading will be part of your exercises and should be turned in every Friday afternoon before 5.00 p.m. without exception.
Note that contract negation will be a part of this course.
Final:
Will be to edit 10 pages of a manuscript (using traditional editor’s marks by hand) on paper, maintaining author’s voice, integrity of section of the book that they have, author’s voice, and to bring out the absolute best of the book, based on what you have learned from Maxwell Perkins and the reading in this class and classs lectures and discussions. This is a graded exercise & counts as your final .
* For further information, see the end of this syllabus – thanks.
http://emersonbookeditingclassnotes.blogspot.com/
Above is our class blog. Information about classes and notes will be posted on the blog and you will have the opportunity to comment. The blog is a useful tool, so make a note of it and bookmark it.
Tuesday 1 January 2008
Friday 26 January 2007
syllabus | overview
Emerson Graduate School of Publishing
Professor: Ranson-Polizzotti
Course # WP 685-9
180 Boyston Street, Room 50
Office Hours:
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., by appointment
180 Tremont Street, Room T-502
Cube 1218- B
Phone Number: 617 821 5452
Book Editing
Syllabus No 1.
January 22 – Class No. 1. –
General introductions all around & about the course.
Introduction to book editing, how it has changed, shepherding a book through the editing process.
How has editing changed from what it used to be in the past – say 20 years ago – through the present – Maxwell Perkins and more. General discussion of Perkins, expectations of students (participation, this course is a dialogue, not simply to sit and take notes, so please, speak up and participate – this is what editors do!). General overview of course. Baseline exercise of editing skills: you will be given a manuscript and expected to edit five pages of it. This is not graded, but serves as a baseline to measure your progress throughout this course.
Types of different editors at houses what types do you think there are? General assignment: delve into the Perkins and read more about him and how he changed the face of publishing and book editing after the phase of morality publishing.
See if you can find three or so books that you feel will be as twenty years from now as they are today. In short, books that would make good backlist books and be prepared to say why you feel this is.
Assignment | Reading:
Preface from the Andre Schiffrin book, “The Business of Books” and Chapter One, “Good Reading for the Few & for the Millions.
Preface and Chapter One of the Jason Epstein “The Rattle of Pebbles”
Dip into Maxwell Perkins bio beginning.
The Art of Literary Publishing P. 3-12.
Are Editor’s Necessary in Editors & Editing by Richard Curtis.
January 29 – Class No. 2
Discussion of last week’s reading – what do you feel the differences each author makes? Are they contradictory or the same?
Do you agree or disagree. What publishing is really like as you begin your Career.
Discussion of Mistah Perkins, He Dead by Gerald Perkins from Editors & Editing.
How Editing has changed.
In Class Assignment | Editing Exercise
Assignment | Reading:
Continue with Maxwell Perkins
Chapter two of Epstein & Schiffrin
An Open Letter to a Would Be Editor, Editors on Editing, p. 22
February 5 – Class No. 3
Discussion of Contracts & Contract Review – and subrights –
In-class exercise – to review contracts and have questions. Have questions ready for speaker next week. Set up office hours if you need to re: contract review.
What does it take to be an editor? Small presses versus large presses.
Guest Lecturer from the Museum of Fine Arts to discuss Ethics in Book Publishing. Mark Poizotti (Director of Publications at the Museum of Fine Arts publishing house and former Editorial Director of David R. Godine, Mark has worked at Random House, Wiley, and is the author of the book Revolution of the Mind; a Biography of Andre Breton and is well-known translator. He is also a judge for the Pen Awards.
Psychology of the Author | Editor Relationship
Guest Speaker Mark Polizzotti, director of publishing program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mark will speak a bit about.
1. How he got into publishing and as what.
2. Random house working with Jonathan Galassi
3. Working in New York in the 1980s
4. Anecdotal stories
5. Contract negotiation
6. Where he went next
Assignment
Doing Good & Doing it Right
The Ethics & Moral Dimensions of Editing-
pg. 75-82, Editors on Editing
Galassi reading, The Double Agent: The Role of the Literary Editor in the Commercial Publishing House. P. 79 The Art of Literary Publishing.
February 12 – Class No. 4.
The psychology of the author-editor relationship – veteran author versus new author.
How agents have changed how editors deal with their authors?
In-class exercise | Contract Negotiation
February 19 – Class No. 5
The Editorial Read – What you are looking for in a manuscript and what you can make or mold of it.
In class exercise – to review manuscript and give analysis of it.
February 28 – Class No. 6
Small Publishing, Is It Beautiful? by Simon Michael Bessie (p. 106) in
Hand out of manuscript to read (as an editor), you will be expected to edit this piece next week, so take notes. – in class assignment.
Guest Lecturer: - Carl Scarbrough from David R. Godine Publisher
A cover designer who works hand-in-hand with editors to help devise how a book looks to reflect the content of the book. This includes working with the author and the editor.
March 4 – Class No. 7
Discussion of last weeks hand-out editing assignment; how did you find the tone, voice, style of the piece? How did you manage to keep the tone of the author?
More editing in class, discussion of the production process.
production and the small press/larger press
guest speaker – Terry McAweeny from the Museum of Fine Arts who manages all of the production for the museum’s fine books and who goes on press all over the world. Terry Knows Production insight and out.
ASSIGNMENT:
Editors on Editing:
Begin thinking about ethics and what you have learned about morality in editing from Maxwell Perkins and before through the present day. Take notes and be prepared to discuss in class.
Some Personal Notations by Hadyn Carruth the Art of Literary Publishing
March 18 - Class No 9
Discussion about Ethics and Morality in book editing. How does morality figure into publishing or editing?
In class exercise: come up with ethical issues that may occur and how you would handle them. We will be spending the class discussing editing matters and hypthetical ethical issues that do occur in the real world.
March 25 - Class No. 10
Discussion of Small book publishing
Continue reading Birkerts -
April 1 - Class No. 11
Discussion of Small book publishing
Continue reading Birkerts -
April 8 - Class 12
Working with sales and marketing; believing in your book as an editor, seeing that it gets the most sales and reaches the right market for the best of the publishing house for both yourself, the author, and the good of the publishing house (and/or series if it is part of a series, you want to keep the series going.)
Assignment: Read Sven Birkerts
April 8 - Class 13
Writing and editing for the web – e-books – houses that are publishing e-books and electronic rights, which brings us back to contracts and electronic rights – who held onto electronic rights? – who foresaw this? Based on what you have read from all of the various sources, what have you learned about electronic publishing? What is the future of books?
Continue with Birkerts
April 15 - Class 14
After your author’s book is published, what is your role as an editor?
April 22 - Class 15
Co Branded Books – overview – niche publishing – other matters you need to know as an editor
Managing multiple works on a list – co-branded books, color books
Guest Lecturer: TK
April 29 – class 16
ASSIGNMENT:
Study for finals – study editors marks for your final and practice line-editing, transposing, hard-core editing on the five-page hand-out.
May 6 - Finals
Final will be to edit 10 pages of a manuscript (using traditional editor’s marks, which you will do by hand using the marks based on Chicago Manual of Style. This is a graded exercise.
Do Note: Reading assignments will be assigned as we move through the term as appropriate. Please read the grading process and syllabus for Book Editing if you want to be a Book Editor. This is a fun class, and although there is a lot of ground to cover, we will keep it interesting and you will come away from this course, the objective, is for you to come away with a real understanding of how to really be a true book editor in the real world – not just in theory or in academia, but with real world experience. If this is you, then this is the class for you.
The Professor reserves the right to change or alter the syllabus at any time (while keeping within the theme of Book Editing.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will be immediately reported to the dean. It is the responsibility of all Emerson students to known and adhere to the college’s policy on Plagiarism. If you have any questions concerning the Emerson plagiarism policy or documentation of sources in work you produce in this course, please speak to your course instructor. I’d be happy to help.
Disability Statement: If you believe you have a disability that may warrant accommodations in this class, I urge you to register with the disability Services Coordinator, Dr. Anthony Bashir at 216 Tremont Street, 5th Floor, (617.824.8415) so that together you may work to develop methods of addressing needed accommodations in this class.
Professor: Ranson-Polizzotti
Course # WP 685-9
180 Boyston Street, Room 50
Office Hours:
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., by appointment
180 Tremont Street, Room T-502
Cube 1218- B
Phone Number: 617 821 5452
Book Editing
Syllabus No 1.
January 22 – Class No. 1. –
General introductions all around & about the course.
Introduction to book editing, how it has changed, shepherding a book through the editing process.
How has editing changed from what it used to be in the past – say 20 years ago – through the present – Maxwell Perkins and more. General discussion of Perkins, expectations of students (participation, this course is a dialogue, not simply to sit and take notes, so please, speak up and participate – this is what editors do!). General overview of course. Baseline exercise of editing skills: you will be given a manuscript and expected to edit five pages of it. This is not graded, but serves as a baseline to measure your progress throughout this course.
Types of different editors at houses what types do you think there are? General assignment: delve into the Perkins and read more about him and how he changed the face of publishing and book editing after the phase of morality publishing.
See if you can find three or so books that you feel will be as twenty years from now as they are today. In short, books that would make good backlist books and be prepared to say why you feel this is.
Assignment | Reading:
Preface from the Andre Schiffrin book, “The Business of Books” and Chapter One, “Good Reading for the Few & for the Millions.
Preface and Chapter One of the Jason Epstein “The Rattle of Pebbles”
Dip into Maxwell Perkins bio beginning.
The Art of Literary Publishing P. 3-12.
Are Editor’s Necessary in Editors & Editing by Richard Curtis.
January 29 – Class No. 2
Discussion of last week’s reading – what do you feel the differences each author makes? Are they contradictory or the same?
Do you agree or disagree. What publishing is really like as you begin your Career.
Discussion of Mistah Perkins, He Dead by Gerald Perkins from Editors & Editing.
How Editing has changed.
In Class Assignment | Editing Exercise
Assignment | Reading:
Continue with Maxwell Perkins
Chapter two of Epstein & Schiffrin
An Open Letter to a Would Be Editor, Editors on Editing, p. 22
February 5 – Class No. 3
Discussion of Contracts & Contract Review – and subrights –
In-class exercise – to review contracts and have questions. Have questions ready for speaker next week. Set up office hours if you need to re: contract review.
What does it take to be an editor? Small presses versus large presses.
Guest Lecturer from the Museum of Fine Arts to discuss Ethics in Book Publishing. Mark Poizotti (Director of Publications at the Museum of Fine Arts publishing house and former Editorial Director of David R. Godine, Mark has worked at Random House, Wiley, and is the author of the book Revolution of the Mind; a Biography of Andre Breton and is well-known translator. He is also a judge for the Pen Awards.
Psychology of the Author | Editor Relationship
Guest Speaker Mark Polizzotti, director of publishing program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Mark will speak a bit about.
1. How he got into publishing and as what.
2. Random house working with Jonathan Galassi
3. Working in New York in the 1980s
4. Anecdotal stories
5. Contract negotiation
6. Where he went next
Assignment
Doing Good & Doing it Right
The Ethics & Moral Dimensions of Editing-
pg. 75-82, Editors on Editing
Galassi reading, The Double Agent: The Role of the Literary Editor in the Commercial Publishing House. P. 79 The Art of Literary Publishing.
February 12 – Class No. 4.
The psychology of the author-editor relationship – veteran author versus new author.
How agents have changed how editors deal with their authors?
In-class exercise | Contract Negotiation
February 19 – Class No. 5
The Editorial Read – What you are looking for in a manuscript and what you can make or mold of it.
In class exercise – to review manuscript and give analysis of it.
February 28 – Class No. 6
Small Publishing, Is It Beautiful? by Simon Michael Bessie (p. 106) in
Hand out of manuscript to read (as an editor), you will be expected to edit this piece next week, so take notes. – in class assignment.
Guest Lecturer: - Carl Scarbrough from David R. Godine Publisher
A cover designer who works hand-in-hand with editors to help devise how a book looks to reflect the content of the book. This includes working with the author and the editor.
March 4 – Class No. 7
Discussion of last weeks hand-out editing assignment; how did you find the tone, voice, style of the piece? How did you manage to keep the tone of the author?
More editing in class, discussion of the production process.
production and the small press/larger press
guest speaker – Terry McAweeny from the Museum of Fine Arts who manages all of the production for the museum’s fine books and who goes on press all over the world. Terry Knows Production insight and out.
ASSIGNMENT:
Editors on Editing:
Begin thinking about ethics and what you have learned about morality in editing from Maxwell Perkins and before through the present day. Take notes and be prepared to discuss in class.
Some Personal Notations by Hadyn Carruth the Art of Literary Publishing
March 18 - Class No 9
Discussion about Ethics and Morality in book editing. How does morality figure into publishing or editing?
In class exercise: come up with ethical issues that may occur and how you would handle them. We will be spending the class discussing editing matters and hypthetical ethical issues that do occur in the real world.
March 25 - Class No. 10
Discussion of Small book publishing
Continue reading Birkerts -
April 1 - Class No. 11
Discussion of Small book publishing
Continue reading Birkerts -
April 8 - Class 12
Working with sales and marketing; believing in your book as an editor, seeing that it gets the most sales and reaches the right market for the best of the publishing house for both yourself, the author, and the good of the publishing house (and/or series if it is part of a series, you want to keep the series going.)
Assignment: Read Sven Birkerts
April 8 - Class 13
Writing and editing for the web – e-books – houses that are publishing e-books and electronic rights, which brings us back to contracts and electronic rights – who held onto electronic rights? – who foresaw this? Based on what you have read from all of the various sources, what have you learned about electronic publishing? What is the future of books?
Continue with Birkerts
April 15 - Class 14
After your author’s book is published, what is your role as an editor?
April 22 - Class 15
Co Branded Books – overview – niche publishing – other matters you need to know as an editor
Managing multiple works on a list – co-branded books, color books
Guest Lecturer: TK
April 29 – class 16
ASSIGNMENT:
Study for finals – study editors marks for your final and practice line-editing, transposing, hard-core editing on the five-page hand-out.
May 6 - Finals
Final will be to edit 10 pages of a manuscript (using traditional editor’s marks, which you will do by hand using the marks based on Chicago Manual of Style. This is a graded exercise.
Do Note: Reading assignments will be assigned as we move through the term as appropriate. Please read the grading process and syllabus for Book Editing if you want to be a Book Editor. This is a fun class, and although there is a lot of ground to cover, we will keep it interesting and you will come away from this course, the objective, is for you to come away with a real understanding of how to really be a true book editor in the real world – not just in theory or in academia, but with real world experience. If this is you, then this is the class for you.
The Professor reserves the right to change or alter the syllabus at any time (while keeping within the theme of Book Editing.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will be immediately reported to the dean. It is the responsibility of all Emerson students to known and adhere to the college’s policy on Plagiarism. If you have any questions concerning the Emerson plagiarism policy or documentation of sources in work you produce in this course, please speak to your course instructor. I’d be happy to help.
Disability Statement: If you believe you have a disability that may warrant accommodations in this class, I urge you to register with the disability Services Coordinator, Dr. Anthony Bashir at 216 Tremont Street, 5th Floor, (617.824.8415) so that together you may work to develop methods of addressing needed accommodations in this class.
Tuesday 16 January 2007
what you can expect to learn |
The course objective is for each student to fully understand the process of publishing and shepherding a book from manuscript to finished work (the editor’s role in this process as it goes through each step) —that is, not only the process of book editing per se, but also the psychology of the editor-author relationship. Students will also be taught in the ways of diplomacy and the ethics of book publishing as it applies to book editing.
More, students will learn how to make sound editorial decisions based on instinct, taste, sales potential, and understanding of publishing as a business environment. Emphasis will be placed on the promotion and “packaging” of book projects, and how to describe a book concisely and convincingly, as well as on ways of weighing market considerations and the “bottom line.”
Through practical assignments, students will also learn how to evaluate various types of manuscripts; how to write analyses, rejection, acceptance letters, and catalogue copy, and how to line edit manuscripts. In-class activities will examine the many types of books published, including mainstream and “upscale” fiction and nonfiction, works in translation, scholarly and art books, and mass-market publications. Other in-class activities will include reading and judging manuscripts, including some that have been published, others - rejected, or put under consideration, and as well as examining the reasons for each.
More, students will learn how to make sound editorial decisions based on instinct, taste, sales potential, and understanding of publishing as a business environment. Emphasis will be placed on the promotion and “packaging” of book projects, and how to describe a book concisely and convincingly, as well as on ways of weighing market considerations and the “bottom line.”
Through practical assignments, students will also learn how to evaluate various types of manuscripts; how to write analyses, rejection, acceptance letters, and catalogue copy, and how to line edit manuscripts. In-class activities will examine the many types of books published, including mainstream and “upscale” fiction and nonfiction, works in translation, scholarly and art books, and mass-market publications. Other in-class activities will include reading and judging manuscripts, including some that have been published, others - rejected, or put under consideration, and as well as examining the reasons for each.
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