MPub
The following are projects and assignments completed during the course of my studies in Simon Fraser University’s Master of Publishing Program, which I began in September 2011. This intensive, 16-month program offers instruction in publication design, marketing, technology, policy, management, and editorial theory and practice, culminating in an internship and project report.
Note: for reasons of confidentiality and copyright, some of the PDF files linked below are password protected. Prospective employers and clients are kindly asked to contact me to request the password.
PUB 600: Marketing
I developed a hypothetical marketing plan (password protected) for a newly launched regional Canadian magazine. Using the popular seven-sentence framework, the plan identifies the magazine’s audience, niche, and market competitors, and articulates specific marketing objectives, strategies, and key performance indicators.
PUB 601: Editorial Theory & Practice
One component of this course involved evaluating an early draft of a real-life book-length manuscript. I prepared a reader’s report, annotated outline, letter to the author proposing structural and stylistic changes, an advance book information sheet, catalogue copy, and jacket copy. I also completed a structural and stylistic edit for one section of the manuscript. Download my editorial portfolio for this project (password protected).
PUB 602: Design & Production Control in Publishing
View my book redesign of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (password protected), which includes front and back covers, title pages, opening chapter spread, and design rationale.
PUB 605: Book Publishing Project
In this nine-week book publishing simulation, MPub students create new imprints and are tasked with developing a season’s titles, advance book information sheets, P&L statements, marketing plans, and cover and catalogue designs.
Three other students and I launched InkSpark Press, a (fictional) imprint of House of Anansi. View the InkSpark Press Spring 2012 catalogue (password protected).
PUB 606: Magazine Publishing Project
In this five-week magazine publishing simulation, groups of six students come up with a magazine concept and develop a business plan that includes projected financials, target audience demographics, circulation and marketing strategies, and potential advertisers.
I served as advertising director for grassroots, a magazine that joins its eco-conscious readers in their quest to live sustainably in an urban Canadian environment without sacrificing their city-influenced style, taste, and schedule. View the design mockups for the launch issue of grassroots (password protected).
PUB 607: Publishing Technology Project
In this six-week applied research and development project, our team was tasked with developing a WordPress-based editorial workflow for an online, peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Amodern. We ventured into the open-source development community after deciding to adapt Annotum, a WordPress theme developed for scholarly journal management, to build in the double-blind review process required by Amodern. Read more about this project and download our project documentation on the Thinkubator blog.
PUB 800: Industry
Research paper: “Survival of the Lit-est: Canada Reads, Public Broadcasting, and Book Publishing in Canada”
The CBC’s Canada Reads is a literary kingmaker, produced by a Crown corporation with a nation-building mandate. Offering commentary on the Canada Reads sales phenomenon, BookNet Canada data, writings on blockbuster culture and the prize economy, and cultural policy, this paper recommends increased funding for the federal broadcaster in order to support the cultural symbiosis it enjoys with the Canadian book publishing industry.
PUB 802: Technology & Evolving Forms of Publishing
“Amazon’s @author: Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Publisher?”
Have reports of the death of the author been greatly exaggerated? A critical look at Amazon’s @author feature.
“Small Demons: A Never-Ending Choose-Your-Own-Adventure?”
Richard Nash’s latest venture takes inquiring readers down the metatextual rabbit hole. It also offers an opportunity to reinvent the hypertext book and facilitate collaborative modes of authorship and transmedia storytelling.
“Read Between the Angle Brackets: Decoding the Value Proposition of the Text Encoding Initiative”
An investigation of the value proposition of TEI reveals that it may be time for the markup language to pack up and move back in with its less scholarly, more well-rounded cousin, HTML.
