Program Committee
Gita Manaktala, MIT Press, Chair
Becky Clark, Johns Hopkins University Press
Frederic Nachbaur, Fordham University Press
Mark Saunders, University of Virginia Press
Eric Schwartz, Princeton University Press
Jill Shimabukuro, University of Chicago Press
Program
The Next Wave: Toward a Culture of Collaboration
Thursday, June 2
Pre-meeting Workshops and Events
Marketing and Publicity for E-books
This e-book marketing workshop will cover, at the most basic level, ways to get the word out about our e-book publications; how to access the viability of various channels for e-book sales (institutional, library, course adoption, and retail); how to work with e-book vendors; and how to best promote and publicize our e-books in the channels we want to target.
Organizer: Carol Kasper, Marketing Director, University of Chicago Press
Design Managers and Production Managers Meeting
Organizers: Jill Shimabukuro (University of Chicago Press); Maya Rhodes (Wayne State University Press); Tim Jones (Harvard University Press); Marianne Jankowski (Northwestern University Press); Martha Sewall (Johns Hopkins University Press)
Third Party Permissions: The Practical and Philosophical
Scholarship is based in large part on academics expanding on their own ideas or building on the work of others to advance their own theories. The writings of these academics, the bread and butter of university press publishers, usually contain some sort of third party material. Effective management of third party permissions by a publisher is crucial to a successful publishing plan.
Organizer: Stephanie Vyce, Subsidiary Rights Manager, Harvard University Press
1:00 – 2:30 p.m. AAUP Press Directors Meeting
Directors of AAUP member presses only.
Organizers: Steve Maikowski (NYU Press); Meredith Babb (University Press of Florida)
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. AAUP Business Meeting
5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Newcomers’ Reception
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Opening Reception
Sponsored by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
7:00 – 9:30 p.m. Opening Banquet
Speaker: David Simon, MacArthur Fellow; author and producer, “The Wire” and “Homicide: Life on the Street”. Mark Saunders, Marketing Director, University of Virginia Press, will introduce Mr. Simon.
David Simon’s appearance was made possible with support from the Johns Hopkins University Press
9:45 – 11:45 p.m. Dessert Reception
Location: USS Constellation on the Baltimore Inner Harbor, 301 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202
Sponsored by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Friday, June 3
7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Continental Breakfast
Networking opportunities: A number of special interest group breakfast tables will be set up during breakfast.
9:00 – 10:15 a.m. Plenary 1
Innovation and Organizational Change
University press publishers no longer talk about the coming digital revolution. The revolution is here, and it is being podcast, blogged, and tweeted. E-book sales are growing. Presses are actively using Web 2.0 tools to engage readers and promote our publications in all formats. Anthropologist Grant McCracken, a member of the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT and author of Chief Culture Officer (Basic, 2009), Transformations (Indiana, 2008), and Flock and Flow (Indiana, 2006), believes that although university presses have unique cultural skills that will allow us to thrive in the contemporary media climate, there remains much for us to learn. Join him for a stimulating talk about culture, innovation, organizational change, and university press publishing.
Moderator: Eric Schwartz, Editor, Sociology and Cognitive Science, Princeton University Press
Speaker: Grant McCracken, author, Chief Culture Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation (Basic Books, 2009)
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. Coffee Break
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
List Building for the Digital Age
Acquisitions editors have long commissioned and evaluated content for print formats. How can we evolve our list building priorities to suit the 21st century reader and the multiple devices on which our acquisitions will be read? This panel will share what editors are learning about apps, enhanced e-books, and open source publications and discuss how this knowledge informs their acquisitions. The session will include discussions of how we solicit and evaluate digital content, new opportunities for acquisitions, project management of e-initiatives, and how editors can adapt longstanding approaches and philosophies to new modes of content delivery and new reading experiences.
Chair: Christie Henry, Editorial Director for the Sciences and Social Sciences, University of Chicago Press
Panelists: Jennifer Crewe, Associate Director and Editorial Director, Columbia University Press; Jean Thomson Black, Executive Editor, Yale University Press; Marguerite Avery, Senior Acquisitions Editor, the MIT Press; Will Lippincott, Agent, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin
XML Workflows: DIY for Managers and EDP Staff
In
addition
to
delivering
XML
outputs,
an
in‐house
XML
workflow
can reduce
production schedules
and
costs.
But
can
it
be
done
for
less
than
a
six‐figure
investment
and
a wholesale
restructuring
of
your
existing
workflow?
This
session
will
explore
how
some presses
are
partnering
with
tech‐savvy
consultants
to
build
a
home‐grown
XML workflow
at
much
less
cost
and
significantly
less
disruption
than
you
might
imagine. Along
the
way
we’ll
look
at
some
of
the
choices
presses
need
to
make
about
selecting
a DTD
and
defining
the
granularity
of
their
tag
sets.
Don’t
know
a
DTD
from
a
tag
set? Don’t
worry.
This
session
looks
at
the
issues
from
outside
the
technology
box.
Chair:
Charles
H.
E.
Ault,
Production
Director,
Temple
University
Press
Panelists:
Michael
Haskell,
Publishing
Systems
Manager,
Columbia
University
Press;
Terri O’Prey,
Senior
Production
Editor,
Princeton
University
Press
Accounting for E-books
As e-book sales become a reliable revenue stream, the pressure is on to develop author agreements and P&Ls that reflect this new reality. Projecting sales of print books is something we know but for e-books it’s still closer to a guess. The costs to produce e-books are still developing as well. The challenges of fitting digital projects into our traditional accounting systems require a certain creativity. This session will consider the issues of e-bookkeeping for the wired press.
Chair: Robbie Dircks, Associate Director and CFO, University of North Carolina Press
Panelists: Doug Armato, Director, University of Minnesota Press; Timothy Doyle, Assistant Director and CFO, Harvard University Press; Christopher Heiser, Deputy Director, University of Chicago Press; Erik Smist, Director of Finance and Administration, Johns Hopkins University Press; Darrin Pratt, Director, University Press of Colorado
The Global Marketplace: International Sales
American universities require a greater and greater global presence in order to fulfill their missions and remain relevant. University presses are uniquely situated to distribute the fruits of scholarship far and wide, but how is this best accomplished? How much international demand is there for our content, and how can we meet it? This session will explore the current challenges and opportunities in international sales and suggest how to position our presses for the fully global future. This session will include both presentations and discussions.
Chair: Saleem Dhamee, International Sales Manager, University of Chicago Press
Panelists: Mark Gresham, President, United Publishers Services; Carter Holliday, Senior Content Acquisition Account Executive, Ingram Content Group; David Hetherington, Vice President – Academic/Educational Merchandising & Digital Printing, Baker & Taylor
E-Book Basics
E-books are poised to grow from a niche product to utter ubiquity, and must become an everyday part of a university press’s publishing process. But the landscape continues to shift rapidly between identifiers and formats, platforms and channels, and myriad complications and considerations along the way. To help navigate, panelists will examine the life of an e-book from multiple perspectives—from contract to rights and permissions to marketing and consumer/institutional sales to post-mortem analysis.
Chair: Emily Arkin, Editor for Digital Publication Development, Harvard University Press
Panelists: Claire Lewis Evans, Editor for Digital and Electronic Publishing, University of Alabama Press; Dean Blobaum, Electronic Marketing Manager, University of Chicago Press; John Hussey, Marketing and Sales Director, University of Kentucky Press
Don’t Sweat the New Stuff: Journals 101.2
University presses with small or emerging journals programs face unique challenges in attempting to “go digital.” Encroaching industry demands, limited budgets, undertrained staff, tech-ignorant authors, conflicting recommendations, and just plain fear of change — all make the transition to a digital workflow uncertain and sometimes painful. This session will define the basic elements in an electronic workflow and offer examples of how they have been successfully implemented and managed. Panel members will share successes and offer advice and support. Questions to be addressed include:
* What is (are) the best platform(s) for us?
* What is a DTD and do we need one?
* How can we convince tech-resistant editors and authors to cooperate in a digital environment?
* What should we outsource and what should we keep in-house?
* What about contracts and publication agreements?
Chair: Patricia Mitchell, Production Coordinator, Books and Journals, Penn State Press
Panelists: Kay Steinlicht, Director of Sales, The Sheridan Press; Nick Maier, Business Development Manager, DiacriTech, Lauren Lissaris, Publisher Account Specialist, JSTOR; Julie Shippee, Assistant Production Coordinator, Penn State University Press
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
Speaker: Richard Brown, AAUP President and Director, Georgetown University Press
Read the text of Richard’s speech >
1:45 – 3:00 p.m. Plenary 2
Back to the Future of Copyright
For almost all of its history, copyright law developed in a world where the work it governed was embodied and distributed in physical objects, like printed books and journals. What is the future of copyright in an increasingly digital world, a world in which not only the means of distribution have shifted dramatically, but in which cultural norms and expectations are changing as well? When she retired in December 2010 Marybeth Peters had been at the US Copyright Office for 45 years, the last 16+ as the second-longest serving Register of Copyrights. Jon Baumgarten, Intellectual Property Partner at Proskauer Rose, was General Counsel at the USCO from 1976-79, and led successful litigation in, among others, the Texaco, Kinkos, and Michigan Document Services cases. Ms. Peters and Mr. Baumgarten will draw on their extensive experience with the law and its evolution to speculate about its future.
Moderator: Peter Givler, Executive Director, AAUP
Speakers: Marybeth Peters, US Register of Copyrights, 1994-2010; Jon A. Baumgarten, Intellectual Property Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Refreshment Break
3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Regional Digital
With their focus on place, regional titles are a pillar of many university presses. But how do these titles work as enhanced e-books or apps? Is a niche market like regional large enough to sustain both print and digital editions—and can we reach audiences for both? Panelists will discuss how their digital programs support their regional lists and provide advice on funding, development, workflow, marketing, partnerships, and more.
Chair: Pamela J. McClanahan, Director, Minnesota Historical Society Press
Panelists: Kim Robinson, Regional Publisher, University of California Press; Mark Simpson-Vos, Senior Acquisitions Editor, University of North Carolina Press
Journals Acquisitions: The Landscape for University Presses
University presses face both challenges and opportunities when setting out to acquire (and retain) journals and to build journals programs. What makes a successful bid? When is a start-up journal a winning proposition? Can university presses really compete with larger firms with deeper pockets? Are there hidden gems out there somewhere just waiting to be discovered and turned into profitable journals? Come hear about these challenges and opportunities and help us arrive at some of the answers. Along the way we’ll learn about some noteworthy research recently undertaken for the Association of Research Libraries that could lead to a better understanding of interesting acquisitions possibilities, and we’ll hear from a university press director who has built a thriving and prestigious journals program just within the past decade.
Chair: Elizabeth Brown, Johns Hopkins University Press, Project MUSE Content Development Manager
Panelists: October Ivins, Ivins eContent Solutions; Eric Halpern, Director, University of Pennsylvania Press
The Integrated Workflow
Are the right people in the room to make business decisions in this rapidly changing publishing environment? Are production staff members consulted in advance about agreements that contain commitments related to their work, or are they brought into the discussion only after the agreement is signed? Production veterans bring tales of success and failure and discuss what went right, what went wrong, and what could have gone better. This session will offer strategies that production, design, and editorial staff can use, especially in light of new demands from distributors and retailers who “publish” their own e-book editions or insist on printing PODs.
Chair: Neil Litt, Director of Editing, Design and Production, Princeton University Press
Panelists: John Cronin, Production Manager, The Johns Hopkins University Press; Emmy Ezzell, Assistant Director/Production Manager, University of Oklahoma Press; Tim Jones, Director of Design and Production, Harvard University Press
Selling to Libraries: The New E-book Aggregation Options
Faced with shrinking budgets and limited space, libraries seek new ways to acquire the books their patrons want and need. Publishers must figure out a tenable model to meet this demand. Several new aggregators have emerged to offer collections of university press e-books on highly functional platforms to the library market. How should presses decide among these new options? Which ones will libraries choose to buy? What’s the difference between subscription and perpetual access? What do libraries want, and how can presses provide it in a way that supports their own sustainability? A librarian from a major university and representatives from Project MUSE/UPCC, JSTOR, Oxford Scholarship Online, and Cambridge Books Online will be on hand to answer questions and provide backup as Fredric Nachbaur gives a comparative overview of the new aggregation options now available for scholarly monographs.
Chair: Fredric Nachbaur, Director, Fordham University Press
Panelists: Michael Levine-Clark, Collections Librarian, Penrose Library, and Associate Professor, University of Denver; Casper Grathwohl, Vice President and Publisher, Reference and Online, Oxford University Press; Bruce Heterick, Vice President, ITHAKA; Erin Igoe, Library Sales and Marketing Manager, Cambridge University Press; Dean Smith, Director, Project MUSE, The Johns Hopkins University Press
View the presentation slides >
Cataclysmic Changes in Bookstore Buying and Selling
As large chain retailers cut buying staff and uncertainty mounts about the future of these chains, university presses need to consider the future of their trade and regional lists. This session will consider how presses can open, grow, and sustain non-traditional accounts to help offset present and future contractions in chain bookselling. Panelists will discuss regional and national gift shows; working with non-bookstore chains (Cracker Barrel, Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s, etc.); the use of direct marketing to drive sales in such channels; and other strategies to support solid relationships with these accounts.
Chair: John P. Hussey, Director of Marketing and Sales, University Press of Kentucky
Panelists: Michael Donatelli, Sales Director, University of North Carolina Press; Tom Lovett, Sales Director, Johns Hopkins University Press; Dennis Lloyd, Associate Director and Director of Marketing and Sales, University Press of Florida
The Metrics of Morale: Ideas for Staff Development
The personal and professional growth of staff members is a worthy goal that can get lost in the fray of day-to-day responsibilities. Join this discussion to hear how some presses are finding fun and creative ways to help staff develop, both professionally and personally. Those who attend this interactive session are encouraged to bring and share ideas for promoting the career development and job satisfaction of university press staff at all levels.
Chairs: Michael B. Carroll, Digital Production Manager and Electronic Publications Project Administrator, Johns Hopkins University Press; Ann Snoeyenbos, Sales Coordinator for International and Special Markets, Project MUSE, Johns Hopkins University Press
Panelists: Richard Brown, Director, Georgetown University Press; MaryKatherine Callaway, Director, Louisiana State University Press
5:00 – 6:15 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Is Piracy Good for Sales?
Digital copies of books are easy to make and even easier to pass along. As a result, digital piracy has become a significant problem for scholarly publishers. At great time and expense, we struggle to react to violations and create systems to prevent the theft of copyrighted material. But is piracy ever benign? Could it ever be beneficial and if so, what books might benefit? This session takes up a provocative question that challenges the accepted wisdom that piracy is always deleterious.
Chair: Garrett Kiely, Director, University of Chicago Press
Panelists: Jonathan Band, PLLC, author of Interfaces on Trial 2.0 (MIT Press, 2011) and editor of policybandwith.com; Christoph Brem, Vice President of Sales, Attributor Corporation
Doing Good (Efficiently) in Developing Countries
University Presses often see requests from scholars in developing countries who seek access to materials their home institution can’t afford. Nonprofit publishers want to do the right thing, and they want to see their content used as widely as possible; but doing the right thing can be cost- and time-prohibitive. This panel will present organizations that are set up to facilitate the creation and dissemination of published materials while protecting the rights of authors and publishers.
Chair: Ann Snoeyenbos, Sales Coordinator for International and Special Markets, Project MUSE, Johns Hopkins University Press [Presentation]
Panelists: Barbara Gastel, Professor of Integrative Biosciences and Medical Humanities, Texas A&M University [PDF of Presentation]; Sarah Polaski, Program Manager, CRDF Global
Lightweight Approaches to Publishing High-Quality Journals Online
University presses are finding innovative, budget-conscious ways to publish journals. They are simplifying workflows, collaborating with libraries, and exploring new business models including open access. This panel will present several such experiments including case studies from Purdue University Press and Wayne State University Press. It will offer a frank assessment of the challenges of such ‘lightweight’ approaches to journal publishing — and some of the opportunities, especially for smaller presses. Challenges include selling the virtues of a stripped-down workflow to faculty and sustaining journals that rely heavily on volunteer or student labor; benefits include the possibilities such lower risk approaches offer for exploring new subject areas and increasing the relevance of university press publishing programs to their host institutions—which are often obsessed with journal publication at the expense of book lists. As smaller presses in particular deepen their connections with academic libraries, new forms of journal publishing offer an opportunity to leverage university resources. The presentation will also include some initial findings from an IMLS-sponsored study of library-based publishing, being conducted by Purdue University, Georgia Tech and University of Utah Libraries.
Chairs: Charles Watkinson, Director, Purdue University Press and Alicia Vonderharr, Journals Production Editor, Wayne State University Press
Panelists: Pamela Holway, Senior Editor, Athabasca University Press; Jennifer Laherty, Digital Publishing Librarian, Indiana University Bloomington Libraries; Katherine Purple, Production Editor, Purdue University Press
View the slides from P. Holway’s presentation >
View the slides from J. Laherty’s presentation >
View the slides from K. Purple’s presentation >
View the slides from A. Vonderharr’s presentation >
Mellon Publishing Initiatives: Fostering a Culture of Collaboration
Grants from the Mellon Foundation have brought university presses and institutions together to collaborate in unprecedented ways. This session will feature insights and lessons learned from presses who have participated in these Mellon initiatives. Panelists will reflect on successes and challenges; possibilities for project sustainability once grant funds have expired; and what the university press community at large might learn from this kind of collaboration.
Chair: Natasha Varner, Program Coordinator, First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies
Panelists: Jennifer Crewe, Associate Director and Editorial Director, Columbia University Press; Derek Krissoff, Senior Acquisitions Editor, University of Georgia Press; Tim Roberts, Managing Editor, American Literatures Initiative, Modern Language Initiative, and Early American Places series; Ann Waltner, Director, Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota; Claire Lewis Evans, Editor for Digital and Electronic Publishing, University of Alabama Press
What
Are
Exhibits
For?
Over the years, exhibits managers have seen their entrepreneurial skills tested as traceable conference sales decline, and as sales tax and PCI-compliance issues make selling more difficult. Yet academic meetings continue to offer a chance to connect with key constituencies including authors and prospective authors, as well as with readers. Are exhibits worth the time and effort? When and why do staffed booths make sense for promotions, sales, and acquisitions? Who should attend and staff such exhibits? Road-tested exhibitors lead a discussion about logistics, the purpose of exhibits, and how best to realize their potential.
Chair: Brendan Coyne, Exhibits and Awards Manager, Johns Hopkins University Press
Panelists: Jacqueline Beilhart, Publicist, Georgetown University Press; Chuck Myers, Executive Editor, Political Science and Law, Princeton University Press; Caitlin Churchill, Exhibits, Electronic Publishing, and Special Promotions Manager, Texas A&M University Press
Promoting the Wired Author
Publishers have always enlisted authors to help promote their books. With access to social media, authors and presses can form a powerful partnership to reach niche and general audiences. Leveraging an author’s connections to his or her community, however, requires careful strategy, timing, and flexibility. This session explores ways to harness your author’s bandwidth and turn it into sales.
Chair: Colleen Lanick, Publicity Manager, The MIT Press
Panelist: Christian Purdy, Director of Publicity, Oxford University Press
6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Reception
Location: American Visionary Art Museum (www.avam.org)
Sponsored by The New York Review of Books
Saturday, June 4
7:30 – 8:45 a.m. Continental Breakfast
Networking opportunities: A number of special interest group breakfast tables will be set up during breakfast. Check your packet for a complete list.
9:00 – 10:15 a.m. Plenary 3
Debating the Humanities
Rising tuition fees, falling endowments, an exodus of undergraduate students to pre-professional majors, and a spate of recent books critical of the liberal arts professoriate — such developments have raised questions about the value of the humanities as taught in U.S. universities. Cost-conscious institutions have responded by cutting budgets and tenure-track positions in core humanities departments. In this lively, debate-style forum, three distinguished academic guests will address the current crisis — if indeed it is a crisis — from very different points of view. Ohio State’s Frank J. Donoghue, Pomona College’s Kathleen Fitzpatrick, and the Institute for the Future of the Book’s Bob Stein, will specifically consider the role of university press publishing in the future of the humanities, and the role of the humanities in the future of the university press. Will either survive the 21st century and if so, as Shakespeare might have asked, how will it?
Moderator: Fredric Nachbaur, Director, Fordham University Press
Panelists: Frank J. Donoghue, Associate Professor of English, Ohio State University and author of The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities (Fordham University Press, 2008); Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Professor of Media Studies, Pomona College and author of The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television (Vanderbilt University Press, 2006) and Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy (forthcoming from NYU Press); Bob Stein, Founder and Co-Director of the Institute of the Future of the Book and Founder of The Voyager Company
View the presentation slides >
10:15 – 10:45 a.m. Coffee Break
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Exploring New Models for Scholarly Publishing
The dramatically transformed scholarly publishing environment has introduced a climate of experimentation and creative rethinking of every aspect of our work. As never before, we embrace flexibility, inter-press collaborations, and alternative revenue streams. Building on the AAUP Task Force on Economic Models for Scholarly Publishing report, this session will explore a number of big and small ideas that break the traditional university press model.
Chair: Greg Britton, Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University Press
Panelists: Colin Robinson, Founder, OR Books; Joseph J. Esposito, Portable CEO Consulting; Bob Stein, Founder and Co-Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book and Founder of The Voyager Company
View the slides from J. Esposito’s presentation >
Book, Jacket, and Journal Show, Part 1: Books & Journals
The
judges
gather
to
share
the
thinking
behind
their
selections
for
this
year’s
show.
Moderator:
Laurie
Searl,
Senior
Production
Editor,
SUNY
Press
Panelists:
Allan
Espiritu,
Assistant
Professor
of
Art,
Rutgers
University,
and
founder
of the
gdloft
PHL
design
studio;
Rafael
Esquer,
founder
of
Alfalfa
Design
Studio;
Rebecca Gimenez,
Design
Director,
Whitney
Museum
of
Art
The Social Press
Online social media have more to offer than just a convenient and inexpensive way to promote books. Facebook, Twitter, and social reading tools can help presses connect with potential authors, booksellers, and readers. They offer a way for presses to join ongoing conversations and communities and build their brand around books. Tim Sullivan, a veteran of university press and trade publishing, joined Harvard Business Press with a unique mission: to generate and disseminate content across the Press’s own platforms, from its highly regarded book publishing wing to its flagship journal, the Harvard Business Review. Join Tim for a case study in this unique and innovative publishing model.
Speaker: Tim Sullivan, Executive Editor, not
How Good is Your Metadata?
In a search-driven world, content is king but metadata is the power behind the throne. Expert panelists will discuss how metadata can be optimally structured to promote the discovery of our books and journals online.
Chair: Susan Doerr, Operations Manager, University of Minnesota Press
Panelists: Bob Oeste, Senior Programmer and Analyst, Johns Hopkins University Press; Jabin White, Vice President of Content Management, ITHAKA; Laura Dawson, Content Chief, Firebrand Technologies and co-chair, Identification and Rights Committees of the Book Industry Study Group
Competing
with
Trade Publishers
As
trade
publishers
continue
to
reel
from
the
2008
economic
collapse,
university
presses have
the
chance
to
compete
for
manuscripts
from
authors
and
agents
who
might
not have
considered
our
offers
in
the
past.
But
competing
with
trade
publishers
remains
a high‐stakes
game
that
can
involve
agents,
authors,
and
university
press
editors
in extended
negotiations,
deliberations,
and
compromises.
How
can
editors
best
approach these
opportunities
and
compete
effectively
for
the
projects
their
presses
would
most like
to
sign?
Chair: Eric Schwartz, Editor, Sociology and Cognitive Science, Princeton University Press
Panelists: Will Lippincott, Agent, Lippincott Massie McQuikin; Seth Ditchik, Senior Editor for Economics and Finance, Princeton University Press; David McBride, Editor-in-Chief, Social Sciences, Oxford University Press
Communicating with Your Library
This session pairs three academic librarians with three university press staff members to discuss the possibilities for better library-press communication. While both sides share an appreciation for metadata, ISBNs and bar codes, elsewhere along the press-library seam there can be tensions. Panelists will tackle the especially fraught issues of campus-based publishing; author rights and fair use; and finally consortia, licensing, resources, and responsibilities. The goal is to avoid pitfalls and communicate better about our complementary roles in the scholarly communication enterprise.
Chair: Patrick Alexander, Director, Penn State University Press
Panelists: Leila Salisbury, Director, University Press of Mississippi; Charles Watkinson, Director, Purdue University Press; Mark Newton, Purdue University Libraries; Lisa Quinn, Acquisitions Editor, Wilfrid Laurier University Press; and two additional library panelists, TBA
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch
Speaker: MaryKatherine Callaway, Incoming AAUP President and Director, Louisiana State University Press
Read the text of MaryKatherine’s speech >
1:45 – 3:00 p.m. Plenary 4
Press, Parent, Library
As university presses seek closer alignment with the missions of their parent institutions, many have benefitted from the advice, support, and collaboration of their institution’s libraries. Distinguished speakers from the University of California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will offer perspectives on the key institutional relationships that can anchor and govern university presses at a time of change.
Moderator: Becky Brasington Clark, Director of Marketing and Online Book Publishing, Johns Hopkins University Press
Speakers: Daniel Greenstein, Vice Provost, Academic Planning, Programs, and Coordination at University of California, Office of the President; Ann J. Wolpert, Director of Libraries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Refreshment Break
3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
What (the) Font?
With the proliferation of typeface choices, it is hard to know which fonts to invest in, especially when resources are tight and e-book considerations have become part of the publishing mix. This session will look at tried-and-true workhorse fonts that give good bang for the buck, as well as newer typefaces that merit a closer look. We’ll tackle the end-user font licensing agreements, with tips on how to be compliant. A session for font geeks and novices alike.
Chair: Jill Shimabukuro, Design & Production Director, The University of Chicago Press
Panelists: Matthew Avery, Senior Designer, The University of Chicago Press; Charles Ellertson, Tseng Information Systems; Linda Secondari, Creative Director, Oxford University Press
Site Renovation for a Social Web
Much has changed in the 15 years since university presses began to place their catalogs on the World Wide Web. Today’s most visited website is Facebook, not Google, and attention is as much a function of social networking as of search traffic. This session starts with some basic questions: at a moment when a publisher’s Web presence is dispersed among blogs, Twitter feeds, tumblrs, Wikipedia, Facebook pages, YouTube, iTunes channels, and mobile apps, how relevant is our central site? What is it for, what should it look like, and what should it do? Panelists will draw on recent experience upgrading their Web presence, and will address site architecture and navigation, design and branding, search, satellites and micro-sites, and other issues. One panelist will focus exclusively on design matters, and all will offer direction for presses seeking to refashion their sites for the Web’s social ecology.
Chair: Dean Blobaum, Electronic Marketing Manager, University of Chicago Press [Text of presentation] [Slides] [Typology of visitors]
Panelists: Doug Armato, Director, University of Minnesota Press [Presentation] ; Isaac Tobin, Senior Designer, University of Chicago Press [Presentation]
Presses Under Pressure: Best Governance Practices for University Presses
A university press can only be as successful as its relationship with its host institution. While each press has a distinctive kind of reporting relationship with its institution, identifying common principles and “best practices” for promoting and maintaining the quality of these reporting relationships has never been so important. In this session, press leaders will join university administrators to discuss ways in which to enhance the governance relationship in the face of current challenges, from diminishing sales and increasing costs to digital developments ranging from online piracy through open access, to constrained university budgets. What practices and approaches are available to directors and other managers in advancing the interest of their presses within their universities? And what resources are available to trustees and administrators in understanding the value of their presses in a changing publishing environment and enabling these presses to thrive? These issues will frame the discussion of best practices in the promotion of good press governance.
Chair: Peter J. Dougherty, Director, Princeton University Press
Panelists: MaryKatherine Callaway, Director, Louisiana State University Press; Ellen Faran, Director, MIT Press; Daniel Greenstein, Vice-Provost, Academic Planning, Programs, and Coordination, University of California; James T. McGill, Advisory Board Member, The Johns Hopkins University Press and former Senior Vice-President for Finance and Administration, The Johns Hopkins University
The Best Book I’ve Ever Acquired
University presses rely on increasingly sophisticated measures to gauge the performance of the books they publish—and of the editors who acquire them. In this session we’ll shift the terms of the conversation from birthday reports, awards, and profit margins to a focus on how individual acquisitions editors deem a book successful or not. Panel participants will spend five minutes discussing the single best book they’ve acquired, identifying the factors that, they feel, make their favorite acquisition superlative. Then we’ll open the floor to audience members and hope that the discussion generates new perspectives on press-wide efforts to determine what constitutes a successful book.
Chairs: Debbie Gershenowitz, Senior Editor, New York University Press; Derek Krissoff, Senior Editor, University of Georgia Press
Panelists: Peter Agree, Editor-in-Chief, University of Pennsylvania Press; Mary Elizabeth Braun, Acquisitions Editor, Oregon State University Press; Elizabeth Knoll, Senior Editor, Harvard University Press; Alan Thomas, Editorial Director, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Chicago Press
E-marketing Journals: Assessing the Merits and Results of Electronic Media
The iPad, the Kindle, the Nook: a plethora of new devices are making an impact on journal publishing, but the precise nature of this impact remains unclear. Panelists from university presses and corporate partners will discuss preparing content for diverse platforms, collaborating with books staff on promotion, and maximizing website impact. Other topics to be discussed: gathering and using customer information and social media including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Chair: Paul Chase, Journals Coordinator, University of Pennsylvania Press
Panelists: Jennifer Geddes, Editor, The Hedgehog Review, Research Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, and Director of Publications at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture; Waldo Jaquith, Web Developer for the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
5:00 – 6:15 p.m. Concurrent Sessions
Subrights and the Small Press: Extending Reach, Adding Value, Increasing Revenue
A subrights program can strengthen a press’s bottom line, lengthen a book’s life, improve the dissemination of scholarship, and enhance the press’s reputation around the world. Yet not all presses have the resources to develop subrights as aggressively as they might like. How can smaller presses strategically access the robust potential subrights offers? With this question in mind, panelists will discuss: acquiring and managing resources, the judicious use of agents, ongoing promotional efforts, staffing solutions, efficient workflows, information access, IT solutions, and the subrights program in the larger context of press operations. Format will skew to a roundtable discussion with some presentation time and room for Q&A.
Chair: Peter Froehlich, Rights & Permissions Manager, Indiana University Press [Notes/Post-Meeting Summary]; [Handout Data]
Panelists: Philip Cercone, Director, McGill-Queen’s University Press; Stephanie Vyce, Director of Intellectual Property and Subsidiary Rights, Harvard University Press [Presentation notes]; Sheila Leary, Director, University of Wisconsin Press; Kelly Rogers, Rights Manager, The Johns Hopkins University Press [Presentation notes]
How to Get Noticed by Your Boss: Strategies for Growth and Professional Development in University Press Publishing
Publishing is sometimes thought of as an “accidental” profession: employees arrive as refugees from graduate programs or stumble into publishing as something they can do with a degree in the humanities. But once scholarly publishing becomes a career, how does one distinguish oneself in the eyes of managers? What is the role of mentoring, and how is that best accomplished in and out of house? How does one balance public and private personas in the age of social networking, and how can staff use Twitter and other tools to build profile and job knowledge? How do employees cultivate and negotiate the relationship with a boss, whose job the employee may eventually want? A panel of university press staff representing editorial, marketing, and design/production will present their own experiences and engage in a group discussion about how best to build and advance a career in scholarly publishing.
Chair: Leila W. Salisbury, Director, University Press of Mississippi
Panelists: John P. Hussey, Director of Marketing and Sales, University Press of Kentucky; Brendan Coyne, Exhibits and Awards Manager, Johns Hopkins University Press; Sabrina Stellrecht, Associate Project Editor, University of Nebraska Press; Julie S. Rushing, Production Designer, University of Oklahoma Press
Book, Jacket, and Journal Show, Part 2: Jackets & Covers
The judges gather to share the thinking behind their selections for this year’s show.
Moderator: Laurie Searl, Senior Production Editor, SUNY Press
Panelists: Allan Espiritu, Assistant Professor of Art, Rutgers University, and founder of the gdloft PHL design studio; Rafael Esquer, founder of Alfalfa Design Studio; Rebecca Gimenez, Design Director, Whitney Museum of Art
Partners in the Scholarly Ecosystem: Journals Publishers, Libraries, and Scholars
The application of new technologies in the dissemination of scholarly information poses challenges for journals publishers, libraries, and scholars. In this session, panelists will discuss their roles as partners in the scholarly ecosystem and their ideas for maintaining a shared mission of validating, publishing, disseminating, and preserving scholarship in an increasingly digital publishing environment. How can there be more collaboration to ensure sustainability—both academic and economic?
Chair: Raymond Lambert, Senior Managing Editor, STM Journals, Duke University Press
Panelists: Christine Mallinson, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Associate Editor, American Speech; Diana Pesek, Journals Manager, Penn State University Press; Deborah Slingluff, Associate Director, Library Services and Collections, Johns Hopkins University
Revolutionary Publishing
The offices of the American University in Cairo Press are situated directly on Cairo’s iconic, historic Tahrir Square, the resounding epicenter of Egypt’s 25 January Revolution and the site of many of its most extraordinary events. Finding itself at the center of history, the AUC Press, also celebrating its 50th anniversary, is responding to and reflecting the Revolutions in Egypt and the Middle East in its publishing programs for the wider world.
Speaker: Mark Linz, Director, The American University in Cairo Press