Book Commissioning and Acquisition

This new edition of a successful and highly-praised book provides an comprehensive introduction to the job of a commissioning editor. Gill Davies offers close guidance and support on how editors should approach this job. She demonstrates the main principles and practices involved in commissioning and acquisition, and covers difficult issues connected with judgement and decision making which are at the heart of the editor’s job. Individual chapters address: * how to choose what to publish * proposing projects for publication * from contract to delivery * managing the publication process * strategic and financial aspects of list building * developing and maintaining a list * teamwork and professional ethics. The new edition also includes guidance on issues that have become more pressing since publication of the first edition, such as controlling e-mail, the effect of digitisation, and inheriting other editors’ lists as a consequence of take-overs and mergers. Extensive coverage is given to the perennial problems that editors face, particularly the most demanding: slippage and handling difficult authors.
New case studies from a wide variety of publishing contexts illustrat the commercial and practical problems that editors must address in today’s complex and challenging marketplace.

Author Biography

Gill Davies worked in publishing for 26 years and became one of the leading academic publishers in her field. She held three managing directorships in that time since beginning work in publishing as an editorial secretary, and worked in New York for two years. She was the first woman to be elected Chair of the Council of Academic Publishing at the Publishers’ Association of Great Britain. Professor Gill Davies is now Director of the MA in Book Publishing at the London College of Communication. She also provides training on courses for young editors run by the Publishing Training Centre and other organisations.