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Examine the Interior of Publishing Companies

The publishing company can be seen as the backbone of the writing world. Written words seemingly would not have been able to be seen without publishing companies. The publishing company provides a great service to society by publishing and displaying the work of authors. The existence of publishers is obvious, but the interior of the publishing world and its companies is unknown by many people.

Publishing is known as an apprenticeship industry, which means that most of the knowledge needed by a publishing professional will be learned with hands-on experience on the job. Generally, information that is learned in one department of a company is useful throughout the publishing house, which gives professionals the opportunity to move between departments. There are many levels to a publishing company and they all have different functions.

The administrative level is the first level of any company, and has many responsibilities in the functioning publishing companies. The administrative department is responsible for managing daily operations for publishing executives and management. This responsibility involves interaction with all of the employees from all of the departments, as well as interaction with authors and agents.

The administrative employees are required to manage the calendar, maintain organized files, screen/prioritize mail, draft correspondence, make travel arrangements and prepare itineraries, process expense reports, take minutes at meetings and prepare reports. A position as an administrative employee allows a person to have a high-level of understanding of a publishing company, while being visible to executives.

Advertising is another division of publishing companies. Most publishing companies have in-house advertising agencies that purchase media space and create and design advertisements. In a publishing company, the advertising department works closely with the marketing directors, editors, and publishers of titles to create an advertising plan that will promote sales of an individual book. Every advertising plan requires research and negotiation to provide the best venues and the most cost-effective methods of advertisement. These employees also work closely with graphic designers, commercial sales representatives, printing presses, and internal staff to facilitate the run of advertisements.

The editorial department of a publishing house is one of the most important departments. This department acquires, negotiates, develops, and edits book projects for publication. The daily activities of editorial employees include preparing acquisitions for transmittal to the production department, developing and maintaining relationships with authors, booksellers, and agents, performing general administrative duties, participating in editorial, design and marketing meetings, and reading and evaluating submissions by writing reader’s reports. The editorial department must work closely with all departments. Another division of publishing companies is the marketing department.

The marketing department has the responsibility of creating, preparing, and establishing marketing strategies and policies for each title by coordinating the efforts of the publicity, promotion, advertising, online, and sales departments. The marketing department is responsible for preparing all sales presentation materials, audio recordings, fact sheet collation, and promotions, creating and producing additional account-specific presentation materials, researching and establishing relations with new markets, and planning and maintaining sales and marketing schedules.

The publisher’s office is also an important department for many publishing companies. The publishers oversee the life cycle of a title from acquisition to production, and onto the sales force. Publishers are responsible for making executive decisions for all titles within assigned imprints while staying within any cost restraints. This department is also responsible for sponsoring book projects, strategies, and initiatives for the publishing company. The subsidiary rights and permissions department is also one of the most important divisions of a publishing company. This department finds additional sources of profit for a given title, including serials, book clubs, and paperback, audio and e-book rights.

The daily activities for the subsidiary department include writing submission letters, sending manuscripts, proposals, and books to foreign publishers and agents, coordinating co-productions with other publishers, working with book clubs and sales for special editions, and maintaining relationships with other publishing companies. Publishing companies have many divisions, including, sales, purchasing, publicity, promotion, production, managing editorial, legal contracts Internet development, information technology, human resources, finance, art and design, and audio.