The Seminar Presentation

In many ways the heart of the seminar experience is the presentation of student research. An effective presentation draws upon a good deal of research and thought, not all of which may be immediately apparent in the delivery of the project's findings. In other words, you should know a lot more than you are able to convey. Keep in mind the responsibility that you have to yourself and your colleagues in the seminar: you must be accurate, detailed, organized, and prepared. You must deliver the essential information in the time period allotted and do so in a lively, interesting manner. Any subject can be made clear, interesting, and relevant. If you drone on past the allotted time period and are confused or disorganized, you are not providing a service. Each of us has a special responsibility to make valuable use of each other's time and patience, to make the seminar as professional and valuable as we can.

You will need to have at least two conferences with me as you prepare your presentation. The first conference will be to have your topic approved and to make preliminary decisions about focus and the nature of the research you will need to do. The second conference will be to review what you have found for research, to discuss the scope of the presentation, strategies for its delivery, the kinds of exhibits you will need, and the time constraints you will have to work within.

Suggested Topics for Student Presentations

Below is a suggested list of subjects suitable for your oral and written presentation in the seminar. These subjects need to be focused into topics and then developed to a degree appropriate for seminar work.

1. A brief history of printing.
2. Maxwell Perkins by Scott Berg; Harold Ross by Thomas Kunkel
3. The psychology of type design.
4. A publishing plan for a book of your own or by someone you know.
5. The principles of book design.
6. What makes a good book cover? What are considered to be some of the best book covers designed?
7. How is an index prepared? What must be considered?
8. Publisher's sidelines? What are they? How successful are they?
9. What's wrong with book distribution?
10. What makes a good editor?
11. Publishing in a foreign country.
12. Subsidiary rights: What are they and why are they so important?
13. What is book illustration all about?
14. What does a book publicist do?
15. A detailed report on the publication history of a famous literary work.
16. The realities of publishing poetry.
17. Copyright laws, domestic and international.
18. The Author's Guild: What it is and what it does.
19. Why are textbooks expensive?
20. University Press Publishing: What's behind it and how does it work?
21. Special publishing endeavors: newsletters or magazines or in-house publications, etc.
22. Publishing books for children.
23. Selling children's books.
24. Vanity publishing.
25. Self-publication and famous self-published works.
26. Book retailing: Or, should you work in a bookstore? Should you open a bookstore?
27. Electronic publishing.
28. Electronic typesetting.
29. Mark Twain and the Paige typesetter. Mark Twain as a publisher.
30. Regional publishing.
31. Famous agents.
32. How necessary is an agent?
33. The publishing contract: What's it all about?
34. The world of religious publishing.
35. Publishing calendars.
36. Audio cassettes: Books on Tape.
37. Comic Books.
38. Computers in the publishing house.
39. The role of the copyeditor.
40. Direct-mail publishing.
41. Starting your own magazine.
42. Women in publishing.
43. Job opportunities in publishing: Placement agencies.
44. High worker turnover: A Good or Bad thing?
45. Special topic publishing (e.g., Nolo Press's Legal Books)
46. Sexist language and how to deal with it as a writer and a publisher.
47. Book Clubs.
48. Censorship.
49. How the offset printing process actually works.
50. What happens in the art department of a major publishing house?
51. Book promotion: How are books sold?
52. Publishing from the accountant's perspective.
53. Publishing Pac-Man: Conglomeration.
54. Micro-publishing.
55. A look at one publishing house in particular.
56. Upper management in publishing.
57. Remaindering books.
58. The price of textbooks: the used textbooks business.
59. Literacy in America.
60. American reading habits.
61. Desktop publishing.
62. Book titles: What makes them work or fail to work?
63. Romance (detective, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.) book publishing.
64. Famous publishing lawsuits.
65. Book packagers: What are they? What do they do?
66. Scholarly publishing.
67. Cookbook publishing.
68. Catalog publishing.
69. In-house publishing at IBM, Digital, General Electric, or some other corporation.
70. Publishing technical books (e.g., computer books and manuals).
71. The publishing history of Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
72. How is fiction edited?
73. Paper.
74. What you need to know about agents.
75. Writing as a business.
76. Becoming a publishing freelancer.
77. Further education in publishing - institutes and graduate schools.
78. Publishing photography: What ar ethe special demands, reward?
79. Zines.