Chapter 8: Essential Skills in the Publishing Classroom

Cynthia Good, professor in Humber College's Creative Book Publishing Program, has designed an Essential Skills exercise that she calls "The Enterprise." The Enterprise demonstrates the Essential Skills of Oral Communication; Working with Others; Thinking Skills with the sub-skills of Critical Thinking, Decision Making, Finding Information, Job Task Planning and Organizing and Problem Solving.

All of the courses taught preceding the Enterprise prepare the students for the Enterprise. Once the Enterprise begins the students are encouraged to work together in applying their knowledge.

The students are divided into groups and are directed to create a publishing enterprise. They must develop all of the following: business plan, booklist with Profit and Loss Forecasts, book covers, marketing plans, websites, catalogues. The students work collaboratively to prepare the materials and then present their enterprise orally to a panel of industry experts and must hand in their written work. All of the above mentioned essential skills are required for this course, which is taught in an intensive month. There are two faculty members who continually monitor progress and act as ‘consultants’ to the students, but the students are responsible for creating viable businesses, solve their problems, organize their schedules. Weekly the groups do self evaluations and part of the final evaluation is also peer evaluation.

The students must submit their work in written form, but the real emphasis of the course is on the group presentation they give at the end of the course. To prepare them for this we discuss effective presentations and how to communicate your message throughout the course. These kind of presentations are very common in our industry and this kind of training is crucial to a successful career in publishing.

The publishing industry is collaborative. The Enterprise is the perfect preparation for this aspect of the students' future professional lives as they are divided into groups and can make no individual decisions. Two faculty monitor the group dynamics very closely (one of the faculty is a lay therapist) and encourage the groups to solve their own inevitable internal problems. They are taught exercises for working together and are ultimately rewarded for their unified approach.

The whole four months of the Creative Book Publishing Program encourages and demands cognitive skills. The Enterprise is the culmination of their study, the opportunity to think through their knowledge and apply it.

Students find the enterprise both exhausting and energizing, and all agree that it is excellent preparation for the workplace. It is set up to simulate the day-to-day functions of an actual publishing house and encourages the students to test all of their practical and essential skills.

"The Enterprise portion of the course makes it a truly unique experience." Michael Turnbull, Sales Associate, Simon and Schuster

"Not only did [the program] provide practical skills, but the technical skills that other courses do not offer. Because of the course I obtained an internship at a literary agency, and got a great job in the field."  Vannessa Matthews, Associate Agent, McDermid Literary Agency