Simulated Book Publishing and Simulated Book Editing Mediated with WebCT

David Emblidge, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Writing, Literature & Publishing

In WP383 & WP683 Book Publishing Overview and WP685 Book Editing, Professor David Emblidge uses WebCT to provide handouts, assignments, and to facilitate writer/editor communications for the simulated book publishing process in each class.

Book Publishing Overview takes students through the entire book publishing process. At the beginning of the semester, Professor Emblidge groups students as a team of editors inside a publishing house dreaming up a new book, and they go through the steps from proposing a book to bringing it to market. They start by going to an online catalog of their publishing house, learning about the company, visiting bookseller web sites to see what kind of marketing materials the publisher has posted, and they search sample catalogs in class.

To acclimate students to the publishing process, Emblidge uses the WebCT organizer page to provide over 40 handouts. These cover book proposals, contracts, marketing, negotiations, design, budgeting, costs, permission request forms, sales tip sheets, and other guides for publishing. The organizer page is also used to demonstrate examples of student work. This provides students with information and eliminates situations in which student projects are stalled because of lack of resources.

The handouts section of WebCT is also helpful for students when making the transition from thinking as an editor to thinking as a marketer. Students study author/publisher book contracts, and there are Excel spreadsheets for sales channels and for proposed budgets. Emblidge finds that students are reluctant to work in Excel, so he provides the formulas in the spreadsheet, and encourages printing it to gain an understanding of the budget process.

Communications within the publishing teams are encouraged through the WebCT discussion board. The discussion board gives each team a private place to discuss their book. It provides space to consider ideas, intellectual property issues, and copyright. The private space is also critical for keeping confidentiality.

Other uses of WebCT communications include weekly responses to class readings and assignment submission through the e-mail feature. Professor Emblidge requires weekly responses to class readings, emphasizes this requirement in the syllabus, and repeats it in the breakdown of weekly assignments. Finally, Emblidge integrates comments from the discussion board into class in that everyone has a chance to be included in the discussion; this helps balance participation. For the few students who do not participate, Emblidge sends e-mail messages to alert them. The WebCT e-mail feature is also used for student teamwork. If student work shows up in his personal e-mail, Emblidge often misses it and reminds student to post the assignment in their team mailbox, as he goes there regularly.

Professor Emblidge also arranges a simulation in WP685 Book Editing, varying in style from the book publishing simulation in WP383, each student is paired with an author from the Writing Literature and Publishing Department to engage in the editing process. Students may work with a writer on a memoir, short story, or a novel and have the chance to edit the author's work and experience the editor/author relationship. This helps the student learn to understand how editor/author communication is an important professional skill, as such it is woven into the syllabus as formal assignments. Students are asked to record their experiences in an editor's skills notebook through the semester, and submit it through the course WebCT site along with a hard copy and a self-evaluation. Like WP383, Emblidge uses the discussion board for these private communications and the WebCT organizer pages for readings, guides, and other handouts.

For more information on using WebCT for teamwork, organizing class documents, and for providing private space for students to discuss and submit assignments, contact Kimberly Hall in the Instructional Technology Group at 824.8961.