Training course in book publishing

The Institute of Book Publishing, New Delhi organised 26th Condensed Course for Publishing Professionals. This ten day (November 18-27, 2013) intensive programme for middle level publishing professionals was inaugurated by MA Sikandar, director, National Book Trust, who also spoke on the importance of training in this field and spread of book culture.

The course gave hands-on training to sharpen the professional skills of the participants who came from different parts of the country including five participants from Pakistan. The course faculty was drawn from a panel of qualified and professionally experienced personalities in the Indian publishing world. Eminent speakers included Sridhar Balan, Narendra Kumar, Vikas Gupta, Manish Arora, Kalyan Bannerji and SC Seth to name a few. The course contents included the present status and future of publishing, role and functions of various departments, copy editing, book designing, publishing and social media. Special sessions were devoted to topics like digital publishing, e-book, online editing and software applications in book industry, role of social media in promotion and marketing, etc. The speakers unfolded before the participants the opportunities of the digital publishing and the challenges involved in this.

The course has been designed to update the working knowledge regarding different aspects of publishing. The course provided opportunities to the participants to interact with the faculty and course directors. For ten days, the participants attended lecturers, workshops and were taken on field visit to a leading publishing house and a modern book printing plant.

–GS Jolly