Printing & Book Publishing

Objectives of UGC Sponsored 3 Year B.Voc in PRINTING AND BOOK PUBLISHING COURSE

Publishing is the process of distribution of information to the public in the form of books, literature, newspaper, periodicals, magazines and other areas. The profession is associated with printing and retailing of printed matters. Publishing industry has its own set of parameters and is mainly divided into editorial, designing, production, printing, advertising, publicity and marketing. With the advent of digital developments, books, magazines and papers, are being published electronically as e-books or e-papers. Books are the primary source of gaining knowledge. Book publishing is a creative and traditional industry that offers an innovative multi-dimensional content delivery including digital, online, interactive audio/video content in addition to print content. A career in this field is becoming more and more promising, challenging and exciting with the development of new delivery channels. Those who love books and have avid reading habits, literary and creative effort, business acumen, interest in marketing can get into book publishing career. To build a career in book publishing, one should be well aware of the various techniques such as development, acquisition, copyediting, graphic designing, production, printing, marketing and distribution of books through various media. Publishing industry requires people with different skill sets and educational qualifications for the various departments from freelance translators, illustrators, writers, printing technicians, marketing personnel etc for various assignments.  The main job of a publisher is supervising every stage from selecting and commissioning manuscripts or written materials, preparing manuscripts for printing, overseeing the printing and binding, designing or overseeing the final appearance of books and marketing of the final product. The publisher is responsible to see that the published works are sold off in the market. Knowing which print method to use can be critical to the profitability and success of a book and publisher. By looking at the different digital print technologies and workflows available,UGC sponsored 3 year B.Voc Degree in Printing and Book Publishing which is affiliated to West Bengal State University, provides delegates with an understanding of the pros and cons of each and shows them how using different print methods can help them manage their inventory.

THRUST AREA OF THE COURSE:

This course is aimed at those who are responsible for the production of digitally-printed books, whether they are short run or print on demand (POD), colour or mono. Those new to digital printing and those who would like an update on the changing technology and production methods available would also benefit from attending.

Core PRINTING AND BOOK PUBLISHING Course under CBCS affiliated to west Bengal state university:

This course has a practical emphasis, ensuring all theoretical elements are accompanied by a practical application. To earn a 3 year B.Voc Degree in Printing and Book Publishing, classes will typically cover the following subjects:

• Graphic Communications in Book Printing
• Book Printing & Production Process
• Magazine writing and Editing
• Publishing legislation and legal risks
• Book Production management and marketing strategy
• Proofreading and Copy-editing -Principle and Practice
• Printing materials in Advertising and Public Relations
• Basics of Printing
• Colour Reproduction
• Artistic Management
• Digital Prepress & Typography
• Preparing a book for production
• Planning for the printed material to be bound
• Digital Printing & Print Finishing Processes

Printing and Book Publishing Electives:

 In addition to the core course offered by Derozio Memorial College, you can choose electives that appeal directly to your area of interest.  In addition, these classes transfer nicely to other niches within printing and book publishing.  Elective courses include:

• Still Photography

• Creative Writing

• Advertisement and Marketing

• Accounting and Business Development

Scope of B.Voc in PRINTING AND BOOK PUBLISHING:

The course is offered in both English and Bengali languages, increasing the scope for interested candidates. Placements are made depending on the language opted for pursuing the course. 100% Placement Assistance are provided for the eligible aspiring candidates. Keeping in mind the exponentially growing printing and book publishing industry, the course has a wide scope for students who want to get into the leading printing houses of the country.

Reasons to study Printing and book publishing at DeROZIO MEMORIAL COLLEGE (DMC):

• Dedicated facilities

Develop your practical skills in the department of Journalism and our Creative Studios;

• Work placement opportunities

Gain industry experience and understand professional practice by undertaking an optional work placement.

• Academic expertise

Our experienced printing and publishing professionals and academic experts will teach you to become an effective, professionally qualified printer or book publisher.

Skill Gaps and Work force demand in Publishing Industry

Historically, Publishing has been inextricably linked to the production of printed materials, whether in the form of books, newspapers, magazines or scholarly journals. Whilst the production of print as a medium continues, it is no longer useful to think of publishing only in these terms and a more current view is that of publishers organising intellectual property up to the point of (usually) out-sourcing production. In several Publishing sectors they also manage the marketing and sales of their products to wholesalers, retailers or to the final customers. The Publishing sector covers the origination of content and the Publishing of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, news agencies and electronic information services.

Publishing of books means actually the publishing of books, brochures, leaflets and similar publications including publishing of dictionaries and encyclopaedias. It also includes the publishing of maps and charts. Publishing of newspapers includes the Publishing of newspapers, including advertising newspapers while publishing of journals and periodicals are very common to us. Other kind of Publishing includes the Publishing of photos, engravings and postcards, timetables, forms, posters and reproductions of works of art and other printed matter such as postcards.

• Book Publishing;
• Academic, Research and Journal Publishing;
• Newspapers, which will include national, regional and local newspaper publishing;
• Magazines, which divide broadly into consumer and business-to-business magazines. The differentiation is not only the different end-user groups, but different business models, levels of brand extension and distribution methods;
• Directories and databases, which again fall into two types. Firstly there is the business location type of directory which is free to the user and relies on ubiquity of distribution to drive advertising revenue (e.g. Yellow Pages, Thomson). Secondly there is the more specialist directory which are clearly less general, focusing on a specific knowledge item (e.g. companies providing particular services);
• Newsletters and reports: thought to be an important segment of business but for the vast majority of companies not their primary activity.

The main issue with the ‘official’ definitions not giving a true picture of the sector relate to those who are working in ‘Publishing-related’ occupations but in businesses which lie outside Publishing. The main occupations here for our purposes are Journalists, newspaper, periodical editors and author of books. However, in our calculations also include Originators, compositors and print preparers, Printers, Bookbinders and print finishers and Screen printers who work within printing companies but are not considered part of the sector workforce and they are treated as un-organised skill sector.

However, beyond these purely business definition, publishing is hugely influential in the education system and the social, cultural and political life of country like India. This is reflected in the involvement of Government and regulators in relation to taxation, concentration of ownership, regulation of published content.

Skills gaps and shortages are significant issues for publishing businesses affected. Their existence can have significant implications, both for individual companies and for the industry as a whole. They can accrete difficulties of meeting quality standards, loss of orders to competitors, difficulties in introducing new working practices and new products and services and increased operating costs. Skills shortages occur when businesses cannot recruit enough people who are appropriately qualified, skilled or experienced. Skill gaps exist when members of the existing workforce are thought to have lower skills than are necessary to meet business or industry objectives. Focus group meetings with publishing industry endorsed the problem of obtaining sufficient applicants with required skills – particularly recruits with relevant experience. They attributed this to a relatively small pool of experienced staff (particularly with skills associated with the new technologies), increased competition from other industries, and inappropriate applications from those with little understanding of the Publishing industry. Job roles/occupations where there is a dearth of trained manpower (and corresponding areas of improvement) as highlighted by the industry are already stated.  The industry believes that the skill gaps are largely due to a dearth in educational institutes offering programs for Publishing- leading to limited sources for recruitment. As a result, the industry needs to hire graduates and train them in-house or rely on alternative sources of hiring e.g. walk-in-interviews, trainee etc. Skill gaps are very common in the following area:

• Lack of sufficiently close knowledge or relationship with end customer
• Uneven adoption of vital underpinning technologies to take advantage of opportunities
• Competition laws and cross-media ownership limit scale
• Mature markets for print products
• Declining share of consumer time spent on print products
• Lack of comprehensive statistics to assess performance
• Lack of public profile as an industry
• Confused copyright licensing structure
• Vernacular languages make Indian Publishing vulnerable Opportunities
• Closer relationship with customers
• Use of data about customers and relationships with them to buttress advertising revenue and allow the creation of new and customised products and services
• New services based on new non-print platforms and on digital printing/print on demand
• Use of enabling e-business technologies in production/supply chain/sales and marketing/content management
• International markets driven by use of English and empowered by new technologies

Threats

• Copyright infringement
• Disintermediation/reintermediation by non-traditional publishers and others interposing between publishers and their customers
• Inequitable taxation of electronic information
• Commodisation of some content
• Skill shortages
• Increased demands on consumers’ time and attention
• Regulation of content and privacy laws

The Publishing industry is in a transition towards a rich competitive knowledge economy through which it needs to leverage its existing strengths to build stronger businesses. This provides publishers with a chance to move into a position of new growth based on new products and services. Issues that these raises are: The ability to concentrate on the content: the products of Publishing have been closely associated with the way they are packaged, rather than as content that appears in different ‘wrappers’. While there is a need to protect the printed products and brands that currently provide the majority of the revenue, publishers need to assess how to maximise the potential of their content. Publishers need to break away of the mindset that, for example, a new product for a magazine company is necessarily another printed magazine;

The needs to reassess the value of advertising content: publishers who generate a large part of their revenues from advertising need to consider the value of the advertising content and also the information gathered from the use of the advertisement. A range of additional revenue sources can be foreseen from advertising in an online environment such as profiling, sales transactions, user interaction, tight targeting, measurement of results, etc; whether Indian Publishing can compete on a global scale. Of course, these industry figures are influenced by the nature of the occupational groups in which the hard-to-fill vacancies lie and, as we have seen, in Publishing this is largely Sales and customer service staff. The sample size is too small in the Publishing sector to examine this occupation in isolation, but an examination of the national data shows that the skills in shortage reflect the core elements of the jobs –Customer handling skills, Oral communication skills and Technical, practical or job-specific skills. Focus group consultation repeatedly reported concerns over levels of literacy in new recruits. This was the one skill that every sector (with the exception of directories), in all regions, mentioned as problematic for them. In an industry where the business is devoted to developing content based on the written word, proof reading, it is perhaps not surprising that there should be such emphasis on levels of literacy, however it was felt that the editorial quality of Indian Publishing companies was what gave the industry its global competitiveness, and that this was being undermined by the levels of literacy displayed by new recruits. Consultation also identified a lack of appropriate IT skills in applicants – in particular skills to apply technologies within a business environment. It has become a larger problem for publishers, as they require more such skilled staff. A lack of IT professional skills also affects other areas, for example it was stated that many design courses still did not appropriately address online design, therefore only partially preparing individuals for work in the evolving Publishing environment.