A Commissioning Editor's Guide to Working with Authors

A Commissioning Editor's Guide to Working with Authors aims to help develop an understanding of the distinction between ‘managing your authors’ and ‘working with them’.

It is important to know how to achieve prompt delivery of scripts not by cracking the whip, but by understanding authors’ motivations and the pressures of their own day jobs. It’s about learning what levers to pull, and being sensitive to individual circumstances, rather than being ruthless and demanding in achieving your own ends!

Course Content

Acquiring authors
Briefing authors
Maintaining communication
The author relationship
Project Management
Post publication

e-Learning modules are optimised for desktop and laptop devices and not tablets and smartphones.

Learning outcomes

By completing this module you will gain a clearer understanding of:

authors' motivations
successful negotiation
better briefing
accurate feedback
mutual communication

How does the course work?

A Commissioning Editor's Guide to Working with Authors has six units. Across the units there are exercises, model answers, and a final quiz for self-assessment.

How to enrol

To enrol, you need to click on the Add to Cart button on this page. You will be asked to register (if you have not already done so). You will, at that point, be asked to pay by credit/debit card.

Important note: You will have access to the course for eight months from the date of your enrolment.

Refunds: Fees for e-Learning Modules are non-refundable, as immediate access is available to all the relevant course material.

What is included?

Course Materials

Full access to the PTC's online learning platform where you will find all the materials you need to complete the course. Where relevant, downloadable materials are provided so you can practise your new skills as many times as you need to feel confident that you have mastered them.

Certificate

Upon successfully completing the course you will receive a completion certificate from PTC.

Who is it for?

About the author

Brenda Stones' current portfolio combines lecturing, training, editing and writing.

She devises modules and lectures for the Publishing Studies MA at City University. Brenda runs many training courses for the Publishing Training Centre, often customised for in-company use. She edits at every level, from self-publishing to academic texts. She wrote twenty home-learning titles for WHS own-brand, and also primary school textbooks for the Bangladesh government.

This range of freelance work derives from years of full-time publishing, starting as graduate trainee at Cambridge University Press and finishing as Publishing Director at Oxford University Press, including smaller trade and independent presses in between.

UCT logo

This e-Learning Module was developed with the support of the Unwin Charitable Trust.

£70.00

Study Time

Five to seven hours with eight months access to the module.

Related Courses

PTC e-Learning Modules are concentrated, online courses that focus on specialist topics relevant to an editor's working life. They are designed to build on a foundation of existing skills and experience.