Training
Alison has wide experience as a lecturer and trainer, having run training courses within the publishing industry for 18 years.
The courses she runs are bespoke, each one specifically created to match in-house training needs. For each course she creates special exercises and handouts, researching relevant reading material and samples to encourage delegates to see their objectives within the wider world of the consumer. Her role as a part-time senior lecturer at Kingston University (teaching direct marketing and marketing to students of creative writing) gives her valuable insight into marketing theory and the mindset of the academic – a vital market for publishers. She is a key part of the team launching a new MA in Publishing Studies at Kingston University in October 2006.
Courses cover any aspect of marketing in publishing, from how to spot gaps in the market and organise a marketing plan, to copywriting and effective direct marketing. We also offer training in relevant managerial skills – such as how to achieve good relationships with your authors (as an author herself, Alison is well placed to advise), how to manage your workload and how to motivate others.
Alison also runs regular courses for the Publishing Training Centre at Book House http://www.train4publishing.co.uk. She has developed and carried out many training programmes overseas, for the PTC, for the Know How Fund and for UNESCO.
Courses
Alison has run a wide variety of in-house courses, all grounded in the specific needs and objectives of the client. Whatever issues you want to address, we can devise a programme to match. Clients do, however, ask for samples, so the following should give you an idea of what is on offer. Please bear in mind that these can be run in combination, so you can have a morning on general marketing, followed by an afternoon on direct marketing, or on self-organisation followed by an afternoon of brain-storming session around the subject, prompted by pre-prepared exercises and handouts.
- What is marketing and how can we apply the principles in publishing?
- How to devise and implement a marketing plan
- Running a publicity campaign
- Marketing on a shoestring
- Marketing for non-marketers
- Effective management skills for marketers
- Working with authors
- Getting the best out of your freelancers
- Copywriting
- Report and business writing
- Blurb writing
- How to be creative
- Direct marketing that really works
- You want it by when?! Planning for effective marketing
- Proof-reading
- Copyediting
We are happy to adapt courses to meet specific market and training needs. With first-hand experience of a huge variety of different publishing markets, we can create appropriate exercises and handouts, as well as researching relevant support material. Recent assignments have included:
- Selling skills for the unenthusiastic
- Marketing for editors
- The role of the copywriter in journals marketing
- Writing blurbs for the mass market
- Copywriting for the health and science markets
- Copywriting for the educational market
- Copywriting for the academic market
- Proof-reading for marketers
