Conferences & Publications

Call for Recruits!

Tenth Biennial

JOURNALS BOOT CAMP ~ SOLD OUT

September 26-29, 2007

in Philadelphia

WHAT IS IT?

The AAP/PSP Journals Boot Camp is an intensive four-day course on journals publishing offered every two years (on every odd calendar year) by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing (AAP/PSP) division of the Association of American Publishers. The purpose of the boot camp is to expose participants to all aspects of journals publishing.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?

The boot camp is appropriate for junior to mid level staff with an interest in broadening their knowledge of journal publishing beyond their current job function in all job categories, including acquisitions, finance, production, circulation, sales, and marketing. Though preference may be given to those who work for organizations that belong to AAP/PSP, people from any organizations with interest in journals publishing are welcome. Attendance is limited to 60 participants, as experience has shown that the best group dynamics are achieved with a maximum of six teams of ten participants each.

HOW IS IT ORGANIZED?

The attendees are divided into teams.  Each team will have an approximately similar makeup of members. The Journals Boot Camp Organizing Committee creates these teams, determining each team’s composition based on the CVs supplied by each participant. The competitive and teamwork aspects of the boot camp are designed to simulate the interaction usually found in a real workplace. A real-world scenario is presented in which a society journal is looking for a new publisher. Each team, representing a publishing house, competes to bring the journal in-house by offering acceptable incentives to the society. To differentiate the teams, each team will be designated as Commercial, Non-Profit, Society, etc.  These designations help to guide how each team should operate.

THE 2007 FACULTY
“Making the pitch": Getting Your Message Across – Alma J. Wills, Partner, Kaufman-Wills Group, LLC
Future of Journals Publishing – John Shaw, Director, Publishing Technologies, SAGE Publications
Spreadsheets – James Costello, Director of Journal Publishing, Springer Publishing Company
Acquisitions – Colette Bean, Associate Publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Business Models – Bill Cook, Vice President, Finance/Publications, American Chemical Society
Production/Manufacturing – John Muenning, Development Manager for Electronic Publishing & Production, University of Chicago Press Marketing in Multiple Media – Christine Orr, Marketing Manager, American Institute of Physics
Electronic Publishing – Audrey Melkin, Director of Business Development, Atypon Systems, Inc.
Customer Service/Fulfillment – Jean Fanucci, Director of Fulfillment in Periodicals, Elsevier

Faculty members for acquisitions, electronic publishing, finance, production/manufacturing, marketing, and customer service/fulfillment are drawn from senior staff at various companies, each of whose expertise in his/her field is well known in the industry.  An industry consultant speaks about ‘Making the Pitch’; this lecture is designed to pull ideas from each functional area together, to show the competing teams how to convince the society to go with their respective houses. An expert in journals publishing who notes the current industry state of play and speculates on what the future will hold presents the ‘Future of Journals Publishing’.

WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE?

The Journals Boot Camp Organizing Committee creates a fictitious journal, owned by a society and currently hosted by a third-party publisher. The society is interested in finding a new publisher both because the current journal is not adequately promoted and because the income the society realizes from its publishing arrangement is not high enough. The society is sending out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to six publishers, each of whom the society believes might provide a better home for its journal.

The response to this RFP is what each group of participants, acting as a publisher, will create. All necessary information for the society to use to decide on a new publisher should be included. The document should indicate the advantage(s) of going with that publisher, including how much money the society could expect to get either in guaranteed income or in potential revenue.

To assist with this effort, a detailed spreadsheet that takes into account all operational items, revenues, and costs, is provided. It’s important that each participant fully understand the functionality of the spreadsheet (e.g., what are fixed costs and what are variable costs), so that each group can come up with the best possible offer within the boundaries set by the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is essential to the boot camp experience, so participants should study it as soon as they receive it. The main chance to clarify spreadsheet questions will be during or immediately after the finance lecture, although faculty will be available throughout the boot camp to answer questions. 

The boot camp includes lectures as well as time for group discussion and development of the RFP response.  A single-page letter of intent, indicating the publishing house’s interest in responding to the RFP, is due on the first evening. A full written presentation must be sent to the faculty by the deadline provided; also required of each group is an oral presentation to the faculty, during which the faculty act as the society’s publishing committee.  The latter are done with all boot camp participants present so that competing teams can hear one another’s presentations.  Following the oral presentations, the faculty will select one team as the winner. 

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?

A lot of work combined with lots of practical learning… and lots of fun!  You will receive a certificate of completion from the Association of American Publishers Professional & Scholarly Publishing Division.

Registration Fees

Registration fees include all meals and seminar materials.  Fees do not include hotel accommodations

Cancellation Policy

Full refund for cancellations on/before September 5th.  NO REFUND FOR CANCELLATIONS AFTER September 5th.  In the unlikely event of seminar cancellation, the AAP/PSP is not responsible for any costs, damages or other expenses of any kind including, without limitation, transportation and/or hotel costs incurred by registrant.  Speakers subject to change without notice.

Limited Hotel Space Available - Register Early!!

The PSP Journals Boot Camp will be held at The Sofitel Hotel Philadelphia, 120 South 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103.  The Sofitel Hotel has allocated a block of rooms at a special reduced rate of $199.00, single occupancy, per night if you reserve your rooms before September 5th, 2007. 

Be sure to mention the AAP when contacting the hotel directly at (215) 569-8300 

We encourage you to stay at the Sofitel Hotel as group work can run late into the night.

Click Here for Agenda