Program Committee
Erich van Rijn, California, Chair
Kathy Bail, New South Wales
Kim Bryant, North Carolina
Chris Cosner, Stanford
Jocelyn Dawson, Duke
Susan Donnelly, Harvard
Bridget Flannery-McCoy, Columbia
Mary Francis, Michigan
Dan Williams, TCU
Program
Pre-Meeting Events | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday
Pre-Meeting Workshops and Events
KairosCamp Editors Workshop
June 16-17: This free workshop, generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and staffed by experts in scholarly multimedia publishing, is developed for book or journal editors and publishers who are interested in beginning or honing their experience with multimedia content. Learn more >
Paths to Open Access for Scholarly Publishers
June 17, 8:30 – 11:30 AM
Organizers: Dan Morgan, Publisher, University of California Press; Mary Francis, Editorial Director, University of Michigan Press
This workshop is intended as a knowledge-sharing exercise. Rather than debate whether OA ought to be a part of the scholarly communication ecosystem, we hope to discuss the many different paths that presses of any size can take toward OA outcomes. In focusing on learning from each other, we invite colleagues who play different roles (editorial, production, finance, administration, etc.) from presses of different sizes (small and medium sized presses are particularly welcome), and a range of parent institutions (public universities, private colleges, museums, etc.) to join us in this discussion.
AUPresses EDP Roundtable
June 17, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Organizers: Michele Quinn, Art Director and Designer, University of Alabama Press (Design); Jillian Downey, University of Michigan Press (Production); Kate Warne, University of California Press (Editorial)
Journals Assembly & Business Workshop
Evaluating New and Existing Revenue Streams
June 17, 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Organizer: Ann Snoeyenbos, Manager, International Sales, Project MUSE / Johns Hopkins University Press
Panelists: Leslie Eager, Director of Publishing Services, Project EUCLID; Kevin Hawkins, Assistant Dean for Scholarly Communication, University of North Texas Libraries; Lauren Kane, Chief Operating Officer, BioOne; Nick Lindsay, Director of Journals and Open Access, MIT Press
Join this panel of experts (aggregators, journals director, fee-for-service publisher) to learn how to evaluate journal projects for financial viability. In the first part of the session the experts will describe their experience developing new models for non-profit publishing. Each expert will then lead a mini-workshop on an aspect of business development. Every attendee will be able to participate in all four mini-workshops.Evaluating New and Existing Revenue Streams
Join this panel of experts (aggregators, journals director, fee-for-service publisher) to learn how to evaluate journal projects for financial viability. In the first part of the session the experts will describe their experience developing new models for non-profit publishing. Each expert will then lead a mini-workshop on an aspect of business development. Every attendee will be able to participate in all four mini-workshops.
In addition, the Assembly will offer attendees to get to know each other through a speed networking session.
Marketing Workshop: Big Data
June 17, 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Chairs: Mark Heineke, Marketing Manager, University of Nebraska Press and Erin Rolfs, Assistant Director and Marketing Manager, LSU Press
Panelists: Joshua Tallent, Director of Outreach and Education, Firebrand Technologies (Best Practices); Erica Leeman, Metadata Associate, MIT Press (Amazon Keywords); Peter McCarthy, Director, Digital Products, Ingram Content Group; Carly Strasser, Director of Strategic Development for the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation and the author of Data Management for Libraries (Research Librarians); Sheryl Cotleur, Frontlist Buyer, Copperfield’s Books (Independent Bookseller)
In his book on the subject published by MIT, information scientist Jeffrey Pomerantz argues that in our era of ubiquitous computing, metadata has become infrastructural, like the electrical grid or our highway system. As publishers we interact with it or generate it every day. It is not just data about data. It is a means by which the complexity and essential qualities of our books are represented in a simpler and, ideally, more seductive form. But when metadata does its job well, it fades into the background. Perhaps for that reason metadata is too often taken for granted. With this marketing workshop we seek to remedy that, exploring best practices in metadata curation and dissemination and probing the end results from the vantage of our stakeholders in the trade: booksellers, wholesalers, research librarians, and yes, Amazon.com.
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Directors Lunch & Meeting
11:30AM-12:45PM Lunch:
Get to know your fellow AUPresses directors!
1:00-3:00PM Directors Meeting:
Communicating the Value Proposition: Metrics, Stories, and What Parent Institutions Need to Hear
Facilitators: Nicole Mitchell, Director, University of Washington Press; Richard Brown, Director, University of South Carolina Press
Communicating the value proposition is one of the most difficult, and yet most important, requirements of leading a scholarly press. The value proposition is fundamental to strategy and involves several criteria, such as defining the press and its products and services; identifying specific markets and customers; explaining the strengths of the press and how those will help solve customers’ problems; and demonstrating how the press is uniquely positioned to do what it does. In addition, the value proposition needs evidence: concrete examples, illustrated through numbers and narratives, of why the press and its long-term sustainability are so necessary and so vital to the parent institution.
This directors’ meeting will focus on how participants can effectively communicate their press’s value proposition to their administrations. Drawing on small and large group discussions, the interactive session will encourage directors to better understand and articulate why their press is worthy of support at the institutional and, where appropriate, state level. Exercises will ask directors to consider their particular circumstances, and step into the shoes of leaders at their own institutions. Discussions will also include analysis and assessment of critical benchmarks and metrics and stories—narrative arcs—that can be developed and used by directors with their administrations. In addition, participants will share experiences of how they have articulated the value proposition, highlighting methods and approaches that resulted in increased levels of trust and awareness and appreciation between the press and its institution.
Outcomes:
- Participants will gain ideas and tools to help them articulate their value proposition to their administrators
- Participants will learn about and adapt benchmarking and other metrics
- Participants will learn about impact stories and narratives, and begin developing their own
- Participants will learn about the scholarly publishing ecosystem and how university presses in the aggregate contribute to societal common good
- Participants will work toward the creation of an institutional relationship building and management tool kit.
3:00–5:00 PM AUPresses Annual Business Meeting
AUPresses President Nicole Mitchell (Washington) and Treasurer Nadine Buckland (West Indies) will provide an update on the Association’s 2017-2018 activities and finances.
5:00–6:00 PM Newcomers Reception
Sponsored by Books International
6:00–7:00 PM Opening Reception
Sponsored by Ingram Academic
7:00–9:00 PM Opening Banquet
Featured Speaker: Siva Vaidhyanathan
Siva Vaidhyanathan is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017) and The Googlization of Everything—and Why We Should Worry (University of California Press, 2011). He is also the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001), and the co-editor (with Carolyn Thomas) of the collection Rewiring the Nation: The Place of Technology in American Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). Vaidhyanathan is a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities and a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He serves on the board of the Digital Public Library of America, and holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Vaidhyanathan has also taught at Wesleyan University, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Amsterdam.
Monday, June 18, 2018
7:00 AM 2018 Fog Jog; 5K Run/Walk
Sponsored by Project MUSE
Organizers: Greg Britton, Editorial Director, Johns Hopkins University Press; Michelle Lipinski, Senior Editor, Stanford University Press; Puja Telikicherla, Digital Publishing and Rights Manager, Georgetown University Press; Beth Bouloukos, Senior Acquisitions Editor, Amherst College Press
7:30–8:45 AM Breakfast
Including break out rooms for interest groups.
Editoria Breakfast
Join Erich van Rijn & Kate Warne (University of California Press), Catherine Mitchell (California Digital Library), and Alison McGonagle-O’Connell (Collaborative Knowledge Foundation) for an overview and update on Editoria, the powerful new web-based, open source book production system being developed by UC Press and the CDL in partnership with Coko. We will provide background and a progress report on the system’s development, do a live demonstration, and hold a Q&A session with anyone interested in exploring adoption of the system.
New Models in Peer Review Breakfast
The unique authority of scholarly works—whether journal articles or books, and whether in the sciences, humanities, the arts, or the humanistic social studies—derives from the review of works submitted for consideration by experts qualified to evaluate an author’s methods and arguments. But peer review has historically been a “black box” phenomenon—one publishers conduct, but don’t describe or disclose.
Peer Review Transparency is an initiative with support from the Open Society Foundations, to create agreed definitions of how peer review is conducted, and to disclose to readers the kind of review a published work has undergone. The work of the OSF grant has been coordinated by Amy Brand (MIT) and Mark Edington (Amherst), who will offer a brief breakfast presentation about the effort, talk about how their respective presses are implementing signaling systems informed by this work, and answer questions.
9:00–10:15 AM Plenary Session
Discovering Scholarly Resources in a Digital Age
Chair: Erich Van Rijn, Director of Publishing Operations, University of California Press
Speakers: Anurag Acharya, Director of Google Scholar; Mark Algee-Hewitt, Director, Stanford Literary Lab and Assistant Professor of English, Stanford University
The increasingly digital nature of scholarship provides unprecedented power to enable the frictionless discovery and dissemination of all types of information nearly instantaneously. While much of the world’s research output continues to be published in peer-reviewed books and journals, digital tools have created an explosion of research in non-traditional formats making new pathways to knowledge in many disciplines. In this session, we’ll examine Google Scholar’s rise as a discovery engine for published research and examine its impact on the discovery landscape. We’ll also take a look at emerging scholarship in the digital humanities and discuss the challenges to traditional mechanisms of research and discovery posed by these unique formats.
10:45 AM–12:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
Publishing Digital Projects
Chair: Beth Fuget, Grants and Digital Projects, University of Washington Press
Panelists: Darcy Cullen, Associate Director, Acquisitions, University of British Columbia Press, Jasmine Mulliken, Digital Production Associate, Stanford University Press; Cheryl Ball, Editor, Kairos; Gregory Albers, Digital Publications Manager, J. Paul Getty Trust
Digital projects published as equivalent to a monograph or journal article are increasingly gaining acceptance in academia as vehicles for scholarship. Such projects are often difficult to represent in text-based non-interactive formats, utilize data sets and embedded media to convey their arguments, and present numerous challenges for peer review, publication, and archiving. Presses and institutions working on this frontier will give progress reports on their efforts.
Acting Globally: Effective Sales and Marketing Strategies in Emerging and Established Territories
Chair: Kathy Bail, Director and CEO, UNSW Press
Panelists: Andrew Brewer, Managing Director, University Press Group Ltd; Richard Howells, Head of Sales & Marketing (London Office), Harvard University Press; Inés ter Horst, International Rights Manager, University of Texas Press; Jessica Lawrence-Hurt, International and Institutional Sales and Marketing Manager, The MIT Press
[Watch Recorded Session]
While we’re all connected online to some degree, this panel has the on-the-ground experience and current data and information required to sell and market your books and journals internationally.
This session offers: an overview of the main markets and insights into emerging markets; coverage of territories including India, China, Japan, Korea and South East Asia, the potential impact of Brexit, conditions in Turkey and the Middle East; introductions to the most constructive international book fairs; ways to promote your list in the international rights scene, including preparation for book fairs and conducting proper follow-up, title selection and rights catalogue preparation; pricing and discount strategies in a global context; a guide to management of the supply chain and partnerships to ensure your list is prominent in all the right places.
Jackets and Covers: Perspective Is Everything
Chair: Tim Jones, Director of Design and Production, Harvard University Press
Panelists: Kim Bryant, Director of Design and Production, University of North Carolina Press; Alan Thomas, Editorial Director, University of Chicago Press; Chris Cooke, Sales Director, University of California Press
Everyone has an opinion, and, when dealing with jacket design, it often seems that the instances when everyone’s opinions match up are less and less common. In this panel, we’ll discuss the procedures of getting final designs into the world from three distinct outlooks—Design, Editorial, and Sales and Marketing. Looking at specific examples of what worked, what didn’t, and what was lost or gained along the way, we’ll discuss all aspects of the design and approval process.
Journals Panel: Reaching Non-Traditional Audiences
Chair: Katie Luu, Journals Marketing Specialist, The MIT Press
Panelists: Kevin Hawkins, Assistant Dean for Scholarly Communication, University of North Texas Libraries; Tony Sanfilippo, Director, Ohio State University Press; Lorraine Weston, Associate Marketing Manager for Digital and Subscription Services, University of California Press
Reaching “traditional” journal audiences is challenge enough in this age of information overload—what happens when publishers add “trade” or “non-traditional” audiences to the mix? In this session, university press and library publishers will discuss the successes and failures of marketing publications like Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, Gastronomica, and Film Quarterly to trade/niche audiences. Kevin Hawkins will also detail how authors are learning about and using Aquiline Books, an imprint of the University of North Texas Libraries designed for works of scholarship from the UNT community.
Collaboration Lab for Diversity and Inclusion Work
Co-Chairs: Gita Manaktala, Editorial Director, The MIT Press; Larin McLaughlin, Editor-in-Chief, University of Washington Press
To kick off this interactive collaboration lab, members of the AUPresses Diversity and Inclusion Task Force will present the findings of a recent survey of member presses along with a living list of resources for developing diverse and inclusive publishing organizations. Attendees will break into small groups to discuss the challenges of diversity and inclusion work and to generate ideas for new and ongoing efforts by AUPresses. The Task Force, appointed last fall, was charged with (1) conducting an environmental scan of diversity and inclusion programs at Association member presses and in the broader scholarly publishing community; (2) identifying resources for initiating and supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives and programs among member presses; and (3) producing a report to the Association’s Board of Directors that makes specific recommendations for ongoing and new diversity and inclusion work as an Association priority.
Making the Most of Exhibits and Conferences
Chair: Kathleen Hensley, Exhibits Manager, The MIT Press
Panelists: Ellen Freiler, Exhibits / Advertising Manager, Yale University Press; Elaine Maisner, Executive Editor, University of North Carolina Press; Eric Schwartz, Editorial Director, Columbia University Press
Book exhibits at scholarly conventions and other types of meetings are part of university press DNA, so much so that we may become inured to fresh ways of thinking about them as opportunity spaces—for both acquisitions and marketing essential functions. This panel aims to bring together acquisitions, marketing and exhibits staff to think about best practices and new opportunities, including the use of digital technologies now available to us, perhaps even in a dingy exhibit hall, as well as the special challenges of offshore meetings. Also to be considered will be communications and agreements with scholarly associations and exhibition companies, both of which significantly condition the exhibits experience.
12:00–1:30 PM Lunch
Speakers: AUPresses President Nicole Mitchell (University of Washington Press) and AUPresses President-Elect Jennifer Crewe (Columbia University Press) [Read Crewe’s Talk]
1:45–3:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
Chair: Marianne Jankowski, Art Director, Northwestern University Press
Judges: Robert Bringhurst, typographer, author, and poet; Linda Secondari, Creative Director and Principal, Studiolo Secondari; Dan Wagstaff, Publicity and Marketing Manager, Publishers Group Canada; Sunra Thompson, Art Director, McSweeney’s
A panel of notable book designers and educators honors the best in design and production from the AUPresses 2018 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show. Judges will discuss the selection process and provide commentary on chosen designs.
Toward an Inclusive Publishing Process
Chair: Gita Manaktala, Editorial Director, The MIT Press
Panelists: Jill Petty, Supervising Acquisitions Editor for Trade, Northwestern University Press; Julie van Pelt, Senior Project Editor, University of Washington Press; Emily Hamilton, Assistant Director for Book Publishing, University of Minnesota Press; Jill Shimabukuro, Design and Production Director, University of Chicago Press
As university faculties seek to diversify, presses have the chance to collaborate with authors from a wide variety of backgrounds. This session will consider how we can make the most of that opportunity. As we seek out diverse perspectives and subject matter, how can we be sure to create value for all of our authors throughout the publishing process? How do implicit biases shape our relationships with authors? What specific institutional pressures do authors face, and how can we be sensitive to these? Is there more we can do to make sure that all of our authors get the process and platform their ideas deserve? Panelists will address this topic from acquisitions, copy-editing, design, and publicity perspectives, noting the many benefits of an inclusive publishing process.
Everyone Can Be a Change Agent
Chair: John Sherer, Director, University of North Carolina Press
Panelists: Lyndsey Rago Claro, Editorial Manager, Princeton University Press; Taylor Dietrich, Content Team Lead, Cambridge University Press; Katie Cross Gibson, Direct Promotions & Exhibits Manager, University Press of Kentucky
We talk about being nimble and initiating change and adaptation at our presses, but too often change is forced upon organizations by senior management from the top down. How can we ensure presses are also enabling change that originates from the other direction? How can employees who might be newest to the organization (who are doing the daily hard work at a press) be given the opportunity to articulate and implement changes? This panel will feature three employees who successfully advocated “up” for change. How did they come up with the idea? How did they initiate the process? How was it executed? What were the obstacles? And more broadly, are there extensible lessons for senior managers about creating environments where change like this can happen (or at least be considered) seamlessly? Whether you’re newer to a press and brimming with ideas, or if you’re a seasoned manager who wants to be sure you’re creating an environment where change is encouraged, we expect a lively discussion about making change happen from the ground up.
‘It’s sort of like…’ The Surprisingly Ubiquitous Place of Comp Titles
Chair: Susan Donnelly, Assistant Director and Director of Sales and Marketing, Harvard University Press
Panelists: Carey Newman, Director, Baylor University Press; Mary Beth Jarrad, Marketing and Sales Director, NYU Press; Eugenia Pakalik, Director of Trade Sales, Chronicle Books
For some time now, and truthfully, causing a not insignificant amount of headache, some of our major customers have required the submission of comp titles in order to place a frontlist buy. Is this just an issue for the sales team, or is the question of believable comparisons at the heart of much of the decision making we do internally? How do we make judgements about acquisitions, forecasting, and retrospective analysis of performance without having a basis of real world comparison? And as importantly, how do we talk to each other across departments without referring to past projects, our own or those published by other houses, as touchstones?
Journals Panel: “Ask a Journal Editor”
Chair: Elizabeth Brown, Manager of Publishing Relations, Project MUSE
Panelists: Cheryl Ball, Director, Digital Publishing Collaborative, Wayne State University; David Fraser, Managing Editor, Asian Survey, University of California, Berkeley; James Martel, Editor, Theory & Event; Melanie Schlosser, Co-Editor, Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, EduCopia Institute; Susan Stryker, Co-Editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
Ever wanted to know what makes a journal editor tick? A panel of editors from different kinds of scholarly journals (subscription and OA; university press and self-published; online-only and print; new and established) will discuss a variety of topics raised in advance by you, the audience, on the AAUP-J listserv and at the session itself. Come gain valuable perspective on what it takes to be the editor of today’s scholarly journal.
Managing Technology Transitions
Panelists: Lynn Fisher, Vice President, Book Publishing, University of Toronto Press
Panelists: Erin Rolfs, Marketing and Assistant Director, Louisiana State University Press; Allison Belan, Assistant Director for Digital Strategy, Duke University Press; Martyn Beeny, Marketing and Sales Director, Cornell University Press
After the decision, the deluge. How do we retool systems, train staff, and transition between vendors while keeping all plates spinning? Presses will share their advice for transition.
3:00–3:30 PM Refreshment Break in Exhibit Hall
Sponsored by the University of California Press and Columbia University Press
Celebrate the 125th Anniversary of both the University of California Press and Columbia University Press!
3:30–4:45 PM Concurrent Sessions
A Bird in the Hand: Social Media in Tandem between Publishers and Authors
Chair: Colleen Lanick, Publicity Manager, The MIT Press
Panelists: Seth Ditchik, Editorial Director, Yale University Press; Levi Stahl, Promotions Director/Associate Marketing Director, University of Chicago Press; Peter Perez, Director, Public Relations and Communications, University of California Press
These days, it’s difficult for a book to succeed unless the author is actively involved in promotion and the profile of the author plays a huge role raising the profile of the book. Today, there are so many channels for authors to generate buzz for themselves and their books, but many authors don’t know where to begin, aren’t able to devote the time necessary, or get stuck on an unusual path that doesn’t help their book. Should they create a website for their book? Should they start tweeting or set up a Facebook and Instagram page for their book? When should all of this be done and how can the publisher help? In this panel, Publicists, Marketers, and Editors will guide us through the dos and don’ts of helping authors navigate successful self-promotion.
Speeding Up the CIP Data Process: Pilot Initiatives from the Library of Congress
Chair: Mary Rose Muccie, Director, Temple University Press
Panelists: Kate Davey, BiblioVault Manager, University of Chicago Press; Caroline Saccucci, CIP and Dewey Program Manager and Section Head, Library of Congress; Jillian Downey, Director of Publishing Production, University of Michigan Press; Christine Fernsebner Eslao, Metadata Technologies Program Manager, Harvard University Library
Established in 1971, the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Program of the Library of Congress (LC) has long been a familiar part of the book production process, serving US libraries by cataloging books in advance of publication, documenting author identities, and aiding university presses by facilitating book orders. In recent years the delay in CIP cataloging and the proliferation of other metadata sources have led some publishers to question the CIP process, an issue that LC recognizes and has been responding to. Initiatives include a pilot program to pre-populate CIP records with data from university press ONIX feeds and a collaboration with Harvard University Library to trial an Online Author Questionnaire (OAQ) aimed at automating publishers’ processes for gathering author data. The Library has also expanded the CIP program to include ebooks.
This panel will provide an overview of the initiatives LC is working on to improve the CIP experience for university presses and amplify its utility for libraries. It will describe how several presses are working with their digital asset distributor, BiblioVault, to test the new systems and the challenges and opportunities they see. Speakers will also discuss the Harvard Library’s project to capture, create, and transfer author metadata using an OAQ. Attend this session to give feedback and learn the ways in which involvement with these new CIP initiatives can complement your existing processes and extend the reach of your books.
Exploring the Promise and Pitfalls of Creative Commons Licenses for Scholarly Publishing
Chair: Cathy Rimer-Surles, Assistant Director for Contracts and Intellectual Property and Licensing, Duke University Press
Panelists: Prof. Michael W. Carroll, American University Washington College of Law; Brianna Schofield, Executive Director, Authors Alliance; Steve Cohn, Director, Duke University Press
[Watch Recorded Session]
Given the increasing popularity of Creative Commons licenses, this panel seeks to explore new developments in the use of CC licenses, discuss potential benefits to authors and publishers from using them, and delve into the complexities and potential pitfalls. In addition, we’ll investigate the possibility of creating a new “Scholarly Commons” license more specifically geared towards the needs of the scholarly publishing community.
Scholarly Journal Publishing in the Age of Alternative Facts
Chair: Katie Smart, Publicist and Exhibits Coordinator, Duke University Press
Panelists: Jocelyn Dawson, Journals Marketing Manager, Duke University Press; Francisco J. Galarte, Fashion Editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly; Katie Luu, Journals Marketing Specialist, The MIT Press; Susan Stryker, co-editor, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly
In line with the 2017 University Press Week theme, “#LookItUP: Knowledge Matters,” this panel will address how journal publishing is supporting expertise, knowledge, and groundbreaking scholarship engaged with today’s pressing issues. As publishers of over 1,100 journals annually, university presses are at the forefront of truth-telling. We’ll hear from individuals from different university presses and editorial offices on how they are combating “fake news” and “alternative facts” through scholarly journal publishing.
Managing Print Runs
Chair: Mary Beth Jarrad, Marketing and Sales Director, NYU Press
Panelists: Romi Gutierrez, Associate Director of Sales and Marketing, University Press of Florida; Madeline Wieters, Finance and Operations Manager, Baylor University Press; Susan Donnelly, Assistant Director/Sales and Marketing Director, Harvard University Press
As academic publishing continues to adapt to a changing marketplace, as well as to changes in print on demand technologies, the management of print options can be confusing at best. What are the benefits and trade-offs to each of the many different options? This panel will highlight different strategies from different presses, and feature frank discussions of each approach.
Assuming that every press uses POD for at least a portion of backlist sales, what role can and should POD play in supporting front list sales? The presses on this panel either rely heavily on offset printers for front list titles, rely on POD for a portion of the front list, or use a hybrid model. They will discuss: print runs; inventory concerns; availability; cost; quality; package limitations.
Peer Review for Digital Projects
Chair: Susan Doerr, Assistant Director, Digital Publishing and Operations Director, University of Minnesota Press
Speakers: Adam Crandall, Music Librarian and Coordinator for User Experience, Haverford College; Mary Francis, Editorial Director, University of Michigan Press; Friederike Sundaram, Acquisitions Editor, Stanford University Press
As presses build platforms for multimedia digital academic publications, we are in the midst of figuring out how much we’ll need to change our regular processes to accommodate these new projects. In this panel, acquisitions and journal editors talk about how they acquire, evaluate, and peer-review of such projects: How do they identify interesting, workable projects? How do they work with their colleagues to determine whether a proposed project is feasible for the press? Who gets involved in making these determinations, and what kind of skills are needed? How do they work with authors to develop them How do they identify and recruit peer reviewers, and does the review process change in any ways because of the nature of the projects? How do they work with authors to implement suggested revisions? Who bears the brunt of technical and platform issues—the press or the author?
4:45–6:00 PM Networking Reception for People of Color in Publishing
Organizers: Gisela Concepción Fosado, Duke University Press; Jill Petty, Northwestern University Press
If you identify as a person of color, take some time at the end of a busy day to network and share notes.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
7:30–8:45 AM Continental Breakfast
Grab a light breakfast and network with your fellow attendees. Special breakfast tables or breakout rooms will be reserved:
EDP Managers
Join an informal discussion on how to manage a combined EDP Department.
Altmetrics: Measuring Success
Join us to ask questions and share advice on how to measure success for your press. We’ll also discuss the ins and outs of indicators like social media metrics and altmetrics.
Library Relations
Join members of the Library Relations Committee to discuss and plan initiatives.
Small Press Breakfast
Facilitator: Dan Williams, Director, TCU Press
Staff at small presses are encouraged to attend to discuss issues of common concern.
Journals Breakfast
Get to know your colleagues in the AUPresses Journals Community.
9:00 –10:15 AM Concurrent Sessions
Arcadia-funded Book Digitization Initiative with the Internet Archive
Chair: Chris Freeland, Director of Open Libraries, Internet Archive
Panelists: Peter Baldwin, Co-founder, Arcadia; Amy Brand, Director, The MIT Press; Chris Freeland, Director of Open Libraries, Internet Archive; Brewster Kahle, Founder and Digital Librarian, Internet Archive
Through the generous support of Arcadia, the Internet Archive is working to build a community of university presses committed to digitizing approximately 15,500 volumes of published monographs from their collections, making ebooks of these materials available to the international research community. The books will be delivered to users via the Internet Archive’s controlled digital lending platform, which protects the university presses’ intellectual property and institutional investments. This project extends the work already underway at the MIT Press. This panel will bring together Peter Baldwin (Arcadia), Amy Brand (MIT), and Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive) to discuss the goals of the project, the challenges and benefits from a publisher’s perspective, and the value of controlled digital lending for the wider scholarly communications community.
The Evolution of the Book Review in the 21st Century
Chair: Brenda King, Publicity Director, Yale University Press
Panelists: Ian Buruma, Editor, New York Review of Books; Evan Kindley, Senior Humanities Editor, Los Angeles Review of Books; Laura Marsh, Literary Editor, The New Republic
Almost two decades in, we continue to see changes everywhere in the churning media environment in the U.S. How are book review editors and critics continuing to adapt to these realities? How are they practicing the art of matching up book with reviewer and medium? What do they see as the biggest challenges and opportunities in covering each season’s fresh (and enormous) crop of books? How is the current political climate worldwide influencing what they cover? Here a panel of esteemed editors share their insights as they embark on shaping book coverage at three of America’s most influential publications.
Journals Panel: Who’s in Charge of the Extras? Movies, Datasets, Audio
Chair: Emily Taylor, Journals Manager, The Ohio State University Press
Panelists: Hannah Gotwals, Subsidiary Rights Assistant, The MIT Press; Lauren Lissaris, Digital Content Manager, JSTOR; Cathy Rimer-Surles, Assistant Director for Contracts and Intellectual Property, Duke University Press
Readers expect interactive experiences in the digital age, and scholarly journals are now asked to host, link to, or incorporate different kinds of different forms of media, datasets, and other supplemental items. But what are the best practices for hosting, archiving, and providing access to these additional materials? Our panelists discuss supplemental materials in journals publishing from a variety of angles, from being practical in the present to possible visions of the future.
Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship Program
Chair: Larin McLaughlin, Editor in Chief, University of Washington Press
Panelists: Ana Jimenez-Moreno, Editorial Associate, University of Georgia Press; Kyle Gipson, Acquisitions Assistant, The MIT Press; Mike Baccam, Assistant Editor, University of Washington Press; Stephanie Gomez Menzies, Editorial Associate, Duke University Press
The second cohort of the Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship—which seeks to diversify academic publishing by offering full-time apprenticeships in the acquisitions departments at the University of Georgia Press, the MIT Press, Duke University Press, and University of Washington Press—discusses their experiences from their one-year appointments. Specifically, they share their thoughts on barriers to achieving meaningful diversity and inclusion in academic publishing, opportunities to increase retention of editors from underrepresented backgrounds, the challenges of choosing an alt-ac career, and how the fellowship (and other pipeline programs) can be improved.
Intellectual Property, Contracts, and Their Databases
Chair: Puja Telikicherla, Digital Publishing and Rights Manager, Georgetown University Press
Panelists: Ceylan Akturk, Rights and Permissions Manager, Wayne State University Press; Bryan Birchmyer, Intellectual Property Coordinator, University of Michigan Press; Karen Peláez, Subsidiary Rights Manager, Harvard University Press; Madeline Wieters, Finance and Operations Manager, Baylor University Press [Presentations]
While often working in the background, intellectual property sale and licensing is typically the second largest source of income for publishing institutions. This panel is a review of unique projects that small and mid-size press staffs are working on right now to simplify rights and permissions processing, bring in more income, improve rights understanding, and streamline contracts.
Why We Exist, and Where We Are Going: Unleashing the Power of Mission and Vision Statements
Chair: Richard Brown, Director, University of South Carolina Press
Panelists: David Marshall, Vice President of Editorial and Digital, Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Mark Saunders, Director, University of Virginia Press; Richard Stackman, Associate Professor, School of Management, University of San Francisco
[Watch Recorded Session]
When was the last time you actually read your press’s mission statement? And does your press even have a vision statement? These documents typically gather dust and have no meaningful impact on a press’s daily organizational life. But they should. And given the turbulent evolution of scholarly publishing, a press must articulate its reason for existing and objectives and aspirations more clearly than ever to its management and staff as well as to its parent institutions and stakeholders. Why? Because mission and vision statements should ground and prioritize all activities at the press and provide a touchstone for the press’s purpose—a fundamental building block for financial sustainability. This panel discussion will demonstrate the process of writing or revising mission and vision statements, offering concrete examples from small and large presses that will motivate and instruct you to get off the dime and take next steps at your own press. Attendees to this session will also have access to a wide range of sample mission and vision statements.
10:45 AM–12:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
Advancing your Career in the University Press World
Chair: Margo Irvin, Acquisitions Editor, Stanford University Press
Panelists: Sara Henning-Stout, Senior Publicist, Princeton University Press; Lisha Nadkarni, Associate Editor, NYU Press; Kendall McKenzie, Publications Assistant, PLOS
At its best, academic publishing is fulfilling, exciting work; it’s no surprise that many people who take entry level positions in the university press world end up spending their entire career in or around it. But the exact steps for advancing your career are rarely clear. This panel will open the box on this topic, with a particular focus on strategies for early to mid-career. Panelists will talk about their own experience seeking out new roles, discussing questions like: What can you do in your current job to ensure that you’ll be a good candidate for the next position? Do you have to move to a new press (or a new city) in order to move up? How do you know when it’s time to start looking for something new, and how exactly do you go about looking?
Foundation for an XML Workflow
Chair: Jessica Ryan, Editorial Production Manager, Books and Journals, Duke University Press
Panelists: Bill Kasdorf, Principal, Kasdorf & Associates, LLC; Nancy Hoagland, Director of Editing, Design, and Production, Duke University Press; Kristin Waites, Associate Project Lead, The MIT Press
From internal and external talent to nuts and bolts of implementation, how does one most wisely start an XML workflow? Is it necessary to begin with an end-to-end plan, or is it possible to lay the foundation at the beginning with Word styles and an updated copy-editing style sheet? How much do we need to know about our target uses, known and unknown, before choosing a DTD or an online platform to host your content? If the process is begun with external vendors can it later be migrated in-house? How do budgeting concerns influence the ability to make this transition? Presenters will share experiences from book and journal publishing.
Journals Panel: Ask a Librarian
Chair: Kim Steinle, Library Relations and Sales Manager, Duke University Press
Panelists: Tracy Elliott, Dean, University Librarian, San Jose State University; Charlotte Roh, Scholarly Communications Librarian University of San Francisco; John Wenzler, Dean of Libraries, CSU East Bay
This session will be a free-form discussion with several librarians from institutions in the Bay Area. We hope to cover the crucial topics affecting publishers and libraries today, including budget, acquisitions, technology, and Open Access. Come prepared with your questions!
Pending Review: How Your Press Can Manage, Survive, and Benefit from an Institutional External Review
Chair: Melissa Pitts, Director, University of British Columbia Press
Panelists: David Carr, Director, University of Manitoba Press; Steve Cohn, Director, Duke University Press; Mark Saunders, Director, University of Virginia Press; Donna Shear, Director, University of Nebraska Press
[Watch Recorded Session]
For UPs required by their institutions to undergo an external review, how might the process be designed and carried through for greatest strategic benefit? How much information should a press provide in its self-study? What are suitable terms of reference? Who should be involved? What if it all goes horribly wrong? Or right! Even if a review is not required, can such an involved undertaking prove beneficial? What about a department-specific review? Join us to learn from colleagues who have had experience on both sides of the fence: the reviewed and the reviewers.
Spanish Language Publishing / ¿Ha llegado la hora de la edición universitaria?
Chair: Peter Berkery, Executive Director, Association of University Presses
Panelists: Inés ter Horst, International Rights Manager, University of Texas Press; Saleem Dhamee, Senior Client Liaison Manager, Chicago Distribution Center
Some in our community have begun to ask whether there is a US market for Spanish-language university press content. In this panel discussion, we’ll take the first steps in both attempting to understand the need and in determining what it would take to serve it. We’ll consider issues such as: why a university press might want to enter the space; who’s currently there producing UP-like content; the organizational implications for producing Spanish content (staffing, systems, metadata); and, whether a business case can be made for moving forward.
What Has the Press Done (Online) for Me Lately?
Chair: Martyn Beeny, Marketing Director, Cornell University Press
Panelists: Stephanie Adams, Marketing Director, Stanford University Press; Sonja Martin Poole, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of San Francisco; Sarah Arbuthnot, Digital Director, Supadu; Rosemary Sekora, Publicity Manager, University of Nebraska Press; Sana Ansari, General Manager of 3Q Accelerate, 3Q Digital; Romi Gutierrez, Marketing Director at University Press of Florida
Online marketing is more art than science, or is it? What does a full blown online marketing campaign for a book look like? What exposure should we be able to provide for midlist titles? How can presses with fewer resources ramp up quickly for selected titles and still provide a prix-fixe menu for the rest? How can we make better use of analytics without drowning in irrelevant data? How do we communicate the value of these efforts to our authors and other stakeholders, and how can we best manage expectations?
12:00–1:30 PM Lunch
Winners of the exhibitor prizes will be announced!
Mentorship Lunch Tables
Tables will be reserved for participants of the Mentorship Program and meeting newcomers. The luncheon is a great opportunity for mentees and mentors to connect before the conference ends and discuss what they learned. Each table will be hosted by a mentor, who will make introductions and facilitate conversation. Don’t miss this chance to share your experience with other newcomers before heading home!
1:45–3:00 PM Concurrent Sessions
From Pixels to Dots—How Various Presses Manage Their Art Programs
Chair: Lia Tjandra, Art Director, University of California Press
Panelists: Kim Bryant, Director of Design and Production, University of North Carolina Press; Christine Riggio, Art Editor, Duke University Press, Mike Fisher, Production Manager, PLOS
In an ideal world, every manuscript would arrive accompanied by a perfect art program. Each file would have sufficient resolution, good focus and contrast, and clear documentation. In reality, art programs for most scholarly books are prepared by non-professionals—the authors themselves—and can cause excessive overhead and even schedule delays. How can a press effectively educate authors to submit problem-free art programs? How should the publisher incorporate art evaluation into the pretransmittal and production workflows? How best to handle redrawing of charts, graphs, and maps? In this panel, in-house experts will share how their presses handle the management of art programs, including both low-tech solutions and automated tools.
How to Promote Trade Books When It Feels Like the World Is Ending
Chair: Samara Rafert, Publicist, Ohio University Press
Panelists: David Goldberg, Sales Manager, The MIT Press; Sara Henning-Stout, Senior Publicist, Princeton University Press; Cameron Ludwick, Senior Publicist, University of Texas Press; Rosemary Sekora, Publicity Manager, University of Nebraska Press
University press books are often poised to offer important commentary and context when related events occur. But when every day seems to bring new disasters and distractions, university presses also need to be prepared to adapt, framing pitches and promotion in sensitive yet effective ways. Panelists will share instructive stories of: how they twisted their sales and publicity pitches in light of current events, how they balanced sensitivity to events while publishing books on lighter topics, and how to best avoid seeming tone deaf to those closer to misfortune.
Indies Resurgent: UPs in the Mix
Chair: Patricia Nelson, University Press Sales Rep
Panelists: Paul Yamazaki, Head Buyer, City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco; Ann Leyhe, Co-Owner, Mrs Dalloway’s Literary & Garden Arts, Berkeley; Stephen Sparks, Co-Owner, Point Reyes Books, Point Reyes
Bay Area booksellers join us to talk about university books at heart of their inventory, what university press uniquely contributes, familiarity with press character, how books make the leap from catalog to shelf. We will talk about how our titles deepen category, express regionalism, address social change and revolutions in science and technology. How can our buyers use their experience to mentor a new generation of bookstores in the complex landscape of university presses, practicalities of doing business, the surprises and rewards of bringing university press into the mix.
Battle of the Brands: Balancing Branding Requests in Journal Publishing
Chair: Katie Luu, Journals Marketing Specialist, The MIT Press
Panelists: Dan Ruccia, Marketing Designer, Duke University Press; Tiffany Adams, Marketing Team Leader, University of Chicago Press; Leslie Eager, Director of Publishing Services, Project Euclid
[Watch Recorded Video]
Branding is an integral aspect of any business or organization, used to create a visual mark that customers will recognize. But what if a product has the potential to represent multiple organizations? In the case of scholarly journals, marketing experts can find themselves working with brands for their own press, the journal itself, and an affiliated society. This panel will explore best practices for balancing branding needs for scholarly journals. Speakers will discuss strategies for determining the prominence of brands for the journal, press, and society through advertising, online platforms, conference exhibits, and customer service for members and subscribers.
Launching a Creative List: How to Position Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction in a University Press List
Chair: Lisa Bayer, Director, University of Georgia Press
Panelists: Kathryn Conrad, Director, University of Arizona Press; Tony Sanfilippo, Director, The Ohio State University Press; Levi Stahl, Promotions Director, University of Chicago Press
Publishing creative works successfully is a distinctly different enterprise from university presses’ traditional scholarly lists. Yet most AUPresses members publish in some area of fiction, short fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction. Panelists from presses with creative lists both established and new will address the opportunities and challenges of launching and sustaining such lists. They will also address competing with indie presses; working with creative authors; and building creative networks.
Shared Infrastructure
Chair: Erich Van Rijn, Director of Publishing Operations, University of California Press
Panelists: Lynn Fisher, Vice President, Scholarly Publishing, University of Toronto Press; Kristen Ratan, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Collaborative Knowledge Foundation; Charles Watkinson, Director, University of Michigan Press
How will university presses support the next generation of digital scholarship? Our panelists will discuss several different initiatives aimed at fostering the development of a thriving ecosystem of open source tools to support digital scholarly communications. From collaborative, single-source production tools to rich, multimedia-enhanced content hosting environments, university presses are coming together to build tools that will support the next generation of scholarly publishing. Join us as we explore several exciting initiatives that are underway to build shared digital infrastructure to support the university press publishing of tomorrow.
3:30–4:45 PM Closing Plenary
Algorithms of Oppression in Society … and Scholarly Communications
Speaker: Safiya Umoja Noble
Safiya Umoja Noble’s ground-breaking research demonstrates how the search engines and algorithms that dominate the commercial web serve to reinforce patterns of racism. She’ll share the data and analysis that led to her much-buzzed Algorithms of Oppression (NYU Press, 2018). Moreover, Noble will speak about the analogous bias in the metrics and impact factors that increasingly drive scholarly communications, and offer thoughts on how university presses can bring change to an imbalanced system.