Book Industry

Answer the following questions:

Can you guess what major departments a publishing company has?

Do you know what sources editors use to get their books?

What is editorial work like?

Guess the meaning of the following words:

Study the following words and expressions:

Read and translate the text using a dictionary if necessary:

There are four major departments in the publishing company: (1) editorial, (2) production, (3) marketing, and, (4) general administration or business.

The editorial department is in charge of dealing with authors. Essentially, it has a twofold task: the selection of manuscripts to be published and their preparation for publication. It is in the performance of the first task that editors and authors initially meet. Some editors specialize in procurement and visit potential authors to solicit their work. Other editors read manuscripts, write reports on them, and recommend acceptance, rejection, or revision. Once an accepted manuscript is completed, copy-editors sift through it, checking grammar, punctuation, language, internal consistency, and accuracy.

As the name implies, the production department oversees the planning and design of the physical book. Type style, composition, paper, printing, and binding are the responsibilities of this division. Since many books might be entering production at any given time, the production manager and staff must keep track of many tasks, not the least of which is keeping the book on schedule.

The marketing department supervises several activities, including sales, promotion and publicity. The actual type of sales activity depends upon the kind of book being marketed. Publishers of elhi textbooks sell mainly to school systems; college text publishers to individuals or committees of professors. Mass market paperbacks must be sold to retailers, who in turn must sell them to the general public. Promoting the book begins long before the book is finished and can take several forms. Advertising in trade magazines, listings in publishing catalogs and posters are common promotional methods. For trade books, ads in literary magazines and reviews in respected publications can be influential. Publishers wishing to promote mass market books use other techniques, such as an author tour, a national print and TV advertising budget, an extensive floor display for bookshop owners.

The publicity section spreads the news of the book to as many potential customers as possible. There are many tools available to this department: early review copies of the book, press releases, news conferences, publisher's parties, and author appearances on radio and TV talk shows. Getting the book reviewed by a reputable publication is also a tremendous help. This is a challenging task, however.

The business manager at a publishing company is responsible for several functions. One of the most important is accounting. This department oversees processing orders, controls credit, and provides balance sheets on the firm's overall operation. Further, it prepares budgets and makes long-range financial forecasts. The business department's responsibilities include dealing with internal personnel policies and supervising the general day-to-day operational needs of the company.

Editors get their books from three main sources: those submitted by agents, unsolicited books sent in by authors, and book ideas generated by the editor. Most trade manuscripts are submitted through literary agents. Editors prefer to receive them this way since agents will not generally submit manuscripts that they know are unacceptable to the editor. Unsolicited manuscripts are given an unflattering name in the business: "slush." As they come in, these manuscripts are put in the slush pile and eventually read, if the author is lucky, by an editorial assistant. Most of the time they are rejected with a form letter, but every once in a while an author gets lucky. Editors also generate ideas for books. If an editor has a good idea for a book, he or she will generally talk to one or more agents, who will suggest likely candidates, for the assignment. This is another good reason why writers should have agents. In any case, the author typically submits a proposal consisting of a cover letter, a brief description of the planned book, a list of reasons why it should be published, an analysis of the potential market, an outline or a table of contents, and perhaps one or two sample chapters. The proposal usually goes to an acquisitions or procurement editor and is evaluated. If the publishing decision is favorable, then a contract is signed and the author begins work in earnest.

Editorial work starts as soon as the author submits chapters to the publisher. Editors look at the overall thrustof the book to make sure it makes sense and achieves original intent. Moreover, the mechanics of the book are checked to make sure that the generallevel of writing is acceptable, that all footnotes are in order, that all necessary permissions to reproduce material from other sources have been obtained, and that all artworkis present. Eventually both author and editors will produce a manuscript that is mutually satisfactory. While all of this editing is going on, other decisions are being made about scheduling,designing the interior "look" of the book, and the cover design. When everything is in order, the production phase, consisting of typesetting, printing, and binding, begins. Photocompositioninvolves taking pictures of pages of print. The film is developed and used to make the forms for offset printing. The most recent form of typesetting involves computers and is generally known as electronic publishing. In this system, the author uses a computer with a word processing program and writes the book on floppy disks instead of paper. Using a modem, a device which permits computers to exchange information over phone lines, the manuscript is transmitted electronically to the publisher, where it is edited on another computer. When the editorial process is completed, the publisher can then typeset the manuscript and make up the pages using other computerized equipment.

Once the text has been typeset, the printing process begins. Most books are produced using the photo-offset method since it is usually faster and less expensive. The images to be printed are lightly etched in the surface of a metal plate and ink adheres to these areas. These images are then transferred (or offset) onto another drum covered with a rubber blanket. This rubber-covered drum rolls against and prints onto the paper.

After the sheets of the book are printed, they are fed through a series of machines that fold them into the proper order and trim them to the correct size. The actual binding of the book can be done in a number of ways. The traditional method uses a special sewing machine to thread all of the pages together. This method is still used in some large reference or art books that are expected to receive heavy use. A more common process is "perfect" binding. In this technique, the pages are held tightly in place while a special knife shaves away part of their back edges. Next, special glue is applied and the cover is wrapped around them and everything is joined together. The finished books are then sent to the warehouse to await distribution.

Ex.1. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the ways of the book binding?

2. Where do editors get their books?

3. Why should writers have agents?

4. What is editorial work like?

5. What functions is the business manager responsible for?

6. What tools are available to the publicity section?

7. Which departments do the publishing company consist of?

8. Which department is in charge of dealing with authors and how?

Ex.2. Give Russian equivalents to these expressions:

Ex.3. Give English equivalents to these expressions:

Ex. 4. Complete the table with the appropriate forms of the words given:

Ex. 5. Match the words with their definitions:

Ex.6. Insert the words and phrases into the sentences in their correct form:

1. The editorial department ___ dealing with authors.

2. Some editors specialize in ___ and visit potential authors to ___.

3. Other editors read manuscripts, write reports on them, and recommend ___, ___, or__.

4. The publicity section spreads ___ of the book to as many potential customers as possible.

5. Editors get their books from three main sources: those ___ by agents, ___ books sent in by authors and book ideas generated by the ___.

6. If the publishing decision is ___, then a contract is ___ and the author begins work in earnest.

7. Eventually both an author and editor will produce a manuscript that is mutually ___.

8. The finished books are then sent to the ___ to await distribution.

Ex.7. Translate from Russian into English:

1. В издательской компании существует четыре основных отдела: редакторский, производственный, маркетинговый и административный.

2. Редакторский отдел решает двойную задачу: выбор рукописей для публикации и их подготовка к публикации.

3. Стиль, композиция, бумага, печать и переплёт являются обязанностями производственного отдела.

4. Продвижение книги начинается задолго до того, как книга будет завершена и может принимать различные формы.

5. Редакторы получают свои книги из трёх основных источников: те, которые предлагают агенты, представленные и высланные добровольно авторами и идеи книг, генерируемые самими редакторами.

6. Автор без агента обычно представляет на рассмотрение предложение, состоящее из сопроводительного письма, краткого описания запланированной книги, перечня причин, почему её следует напечатать, анализа потенциального рынка, оглавления книги и, возможно, одной или двух глав в качестве образца.

7. Редакторы смотрят на общее направление книги, чтобы удостовериться, что она является нужной и достигает изначальных целей.

8. Если издательское решение благоприятно, подписывается контракт, и автор начинает настоящую работу.