Westchester Publishing Services

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Travels* with Tyler, PubWest 2022 (*Via Zoom)

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by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

I had the great fortune to participate virtually on a panel at PubWest 2022 with Rachel Noorda (Director of Book Publishing, Portland State University) and Suzanne Norman (Publishing Program, Simon Fraser University) entitled “Getting your Book into Readers’ Hands”. One of the Intensives at this year’s PubWest conference, we met with a small group of publishers to discuss the industry trends affecting book availability, supply chain, purchasing practices, equity in content, inclusive marketing, and the challenges publishers and readers have getting access to content.  Rachel Noorda deserves applause for the effort she invested in hosting and facilitating this panel in-person at the conference while Suzanne and I joined in via Zoom.

The overview Rachel and Suzanne provided on the above topics helped the attendees understand the impacts of global factors on launching new titles, keeping books in print, considerations for Print on Demand, and also how to consider accessibility in your books.  As we discussed with the attendees, over 20% of the world’s population has a print disability, and some numbers suggest at least 5-10% of the population has dyslexia.  Best practices with fonts, colors, and alt text were covered during our session, and we showed how to crack open an ebook you’ve released and check it using Ace by DAISY and Thorium.

Westchester will be covering supply chain concerns in our next webinar that we’re co-hosting with Publishers Weekly, Publishing Now ’22: Driving Business Forward, on Tuesday, March 22. I hope you can join us for that! My colleagues and I at Westchester would also welcome the chance to speak with you about your thoughts around accessibility and your content.  If you want to spend some time reviewing an ebook or two from your list to talk about best practices, the team at Westchester would be happy to have a brief Zoom.  Contact us to schedule some time to talk about your editorial, production, and digital needs.

by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing & Conference Manager

Westchester and the publishing industry overall have continued to change how we work on publication projects this year. Being able to successfully pivot and adapt to a different norm is a central theme running through our highlights from the summer of 2020. Read on to learn some of the ways we continued to maintain vital connections with our clients and within the larger publishing community:

Working Better Together

Publishing Now webinar whitepaperIn early July Publishers Weekly and Westchester co-hosted the Publishing Now webinar where attendees across all areas of publishing had the opportunity to hear from stakeholders at BISG, HMH, Ingram, and Princeton University Press about how each company was addressing challenges within their companies and beyond that were impacting producing, shipping, and selling publications to consumers, identifying potential issues to be aware of heading into the highly important fall and holiday seasons, and ideas for how publishers could prepare to navigate effectively through these situations. In addition to the webinar video, Publishers Weekly produced a summary article, and the panelists contributed content related to the discussion that is available to read and download from our website.

Welcome to Carol Wilson

In September, Carol Wilson joined Westchester Education Services in the newly created position of Director of Client Solutions. Carol has extensive experience within education publishing including her work at Pearson, Edmentum, and Renaissance Learning. This recent blog post outlines more about Carol’s credentials and how she will work with Westchester’s clients.

 

Westchester becomes a member of BISG

BISG logoPublishing is an industry where each sector is highly reliant on other companies within the supply chain that transforms author’s creations and delivers the finished product to consumers in the formats they desire. In these complex times, participating in a forum where data informs effective strategies for stepping through each stage of the publication lifecycle can be extremely beneficial. That is why we chose to become a member of the Book Industry Study Group this August. In this blog post, Chief Revenue Officer, Tyler M. Carey explains why the time was right to take this step and how other companies in the publishing industry can do so.

 

IPG Independent Publishing Awards sponsorship

As a member of the Independent Publishers Guild, Westchester UK had the pleasure to sponsor the Education Publishing Award category during the Independent Publishing Awards ceremony, which took place virtually on September 22. Kudos to the independent publishers who were nominated in the various categories, and congratulations to all of the winning publishers. You can view the awards show here.

 

Westchester Publishing Services featured in PW Digital in India article

Being able to conduct operations digitally has been mission-critical during the past seven months, and the right tools are crucial to ensuring processes run as seamlessly as possible. Westchester’s adoption of the Dropbox platform a few years ago both within our internal teams as well as serving as the foundation for our Client Portal are detailed in this article which was part of the coverage in Publishers Weekly’s annual Digital in India section.

 

Keeping focused on the needs of individual publishers

Westchester has weathered many different business cycles during our more than 50 years of operation. At a challenging time for many in the industry, this summer we surpassed the milestone of having more than 250 active clients, publishers who rely on us for editorial, production, content creation, and project management services while workforces are remote and the ways readers purchase and consume content has dramatically changed. We have achieved this by consulting with each publisher to identify the best solution for their specific workflow issues, and providing them with finished projects they and their customers can be proud of.
Would you like to experience how a collaborative partnership can help your publishing program? I invite you to contact us to learn more.

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

National Archives, Washington, DCIt seems for the last several years that visits to our partners’ operations in New England and the Beltway tend to land in October.  Perhaps that’s because it’s this time of year when our clients have taken a post-Summer breath and are ready to begin talking about the editorial and production phases of their list for the upcoming year.  Or perhaps it’s because Key Accounts Manager Bill Foley and I like to try to get these visits in before the inevitable winter weather begins snarling up flight itineraries, road trips, and the like.  Either way, it has been a productive few weeks meeting with our academic, legal, university press, policy group, and trade partners from Boston to New York to DC.  What follows are some key topics that were hit upon during these trips – some of which may apply to you more than others, but all of which raise the recurring topic in these blog pages of tailoring specific solutions to each partner’s needs.

  • Alternate workflows for different product types – This came up during meetings with legal publishers and policy groups in DC and the Beltway, university press clients up and down the coast, and other publishers throughout the Northeast corridor. Over the years, Westchester has become associated with handling specific imprints or product lines for some of our clients, but it’s become apparent to them that we are able to help in other ways.  For some legal publishers, for instance, we may be more associated with helping them on their treatises, where for others we’re their go-to resource for statutory titles. Likewise, some policy groups think of us as ‘book people’, while others send us all of their working papers to edit on tight turnarounds. This is why we believe in having periodic reviews with our clients, so we can share ways we are helping your peers, which can often lead to resolving a similar challenge you’re having with books or other publications not currently assigned to Westchester. Talk with your Westchester rep about the areas where you’re experiencing challenges with books or other types of publications not currently assigned to Westchester, and let’s see if we can provide you with an affordable alternative to managing an army of freelance resources to get your publications to press.
  • Changing modes of trade publishing – Interestingly, after decades (five of them to be precise) of being the go-to vendor for trade publishers on their typesetting needs, we increasingly find ourselves being called upon to help copyedit and project manage trade titles as well. Certainly, our editorial operation, which has been around for over 20 years, has handled many key trade titles for clients over the years, but that has usually been during peak windows when trade publishers needed help on overflow titles.  More and more, though, we find trade publishers are giving serious consideration to outsourcing project management, copyediting, and production for entire imprints, to better free up their in-house staff to work on key or embargoed titles or avoid the time sink of managing a pool of freelance copyeditors with specific subject matter expertise. During the course of these early Autumn visits, several trade houses made moves to start outsourcing specific imprints to Westchester for editorial and production packaging.  We’re proud of the teams we have built over the years to support this need and are happy to talk with you about editing your fiction or trade titles, if that is a growing need.
  • Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and University of Pennsylvania’s book launch for Design with Nature Now.Quality matters – Lastly, one of the highlights of our October road trips was visiting the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and University of Pennsylvania’s book launch for the revised version of Design with Nature, called Design with Nature Now. Editor Frederick ‘Fritz’ Steiner and contributors led presentations at Cambridge’s Lincoln Institute of Land Policy about key projects covered in the book, as well as just the undertaking of revising an industry-standard title to address changing needs in landscape architecture to better address needs around climate change, new approaches to landscape architecture, and more.  The highlight of the evening for Westchester was the kudos and thanks the editors gave to Westchester’s own Susan Baker for her and Production Editor Deborah Grahame-Smith’s efforts working with Lincoln’s and Penn’s teams of writers, editors, and designers on editing and typesetting the book. The emphasis by our client on quality – and the thanks to our staff for their efforts to ensure a sustainable, durable new edition of an academic classic – were greatly appreciated and representative of why we do what we do.

I look forward to any thoughts the above may prompt for you about the publications you currently send to Westchester, or areas where we could help you that we currently do not.  Please reach out to me or your account rep to discuss your changing needs for support on your books, papers, and other publications, so that Westchester can help to prescribe possible solutions to help you continue to keep your publications on schedule and below budget.

All of us at Westchester Publishing Services are very excited to share this press release with full details about the launch of our UK office in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. With the opening of the office, Tim Davies, who initially joined on earlier this year as our Interim  Managing Director of Westchester Publishing  Services UK, has now taken on the role of Managing Director for the UK operation.

Westchester is proud of the work we have done for UK publishers for more than a decade, providing editorial and production support for Bloomsbury, UCL  Press, and many others. This next logical step of opening an office, which will provide a base to our UK division and resources, is part of Westchester’s intention to continue growing our footprint and presence in the UK  market and beyond, supporting UK  and European publishers for the long term.

Please contact us to learn more about Westchester’s UK operations and capabilities.

Book Recommendations from the Westchester Publishing Services staff – by Nicole Tomassi

We’ve arrived in December, the time of year where – if we’re lucky to have a moment to think – we reflect on events of the previous months which left a memory with us. Given the nature of the industry we work in, those thoughts invariably turn to books. While there’s no shortage of best-of lists compiled by numerous newspapers, magazines, and websites (I’ve included links to a few at the bottom of this post), I wanted to take a more local approach. I asked my colleagues here at Westchester to share their recommendations for a book they enjoyed reading this year that they thought others should consider, either as a gift to share with another book lover or to add to their own reading list. They responded enthusiastically, sharing interesting titles covering the spectrum from thought-provoking to serious to whimsical. Many were published some time ago, so you’re bound to (re)discover at least one book that will pique your interest.

To learn more about any title below, or to order from your favorite local bookstore simply click on the cover image. Happy reading, and happy holidays from your friends at Westchester Publishing Services!

The City of Dreaming Books – By Walter Moers

Publisher: Overlook Press (distributed by Westchester client publisher W.W. Norton)

Why I recommend this book: I have never read anything like this book. Bookholm is an intricate and compelling world that feels like home for any book lover, and I was sad when I had to turn the final page and leave it. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly adorable characters—the book is, in fact, a mature and only slightly comedic reflection on the role of books in our lives and what it takes to create a truly compelling story. I cannot recommend it highly enough for bibliophiles of all stripes. It is magical, beautifully written, and endlessly engrossing—with fantastic illustrations to boot!

Recommended by: Ashley Moore, Copyeditor

A Bad Kitty Christmas – By Nick Bruel

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan)

Why I recommend this book: This time of year, I dig out the old chestnuts from my holiday book collection to read to the kids. A Bad Kitty Christmas is a relatively new addition to the pile but has quickly become a favorite for my kids. Published by a client of Westchester’s, the book follows series favorite Bad Kitty as she runs away from home on Christmas Eve and is taken in by an old woman who tells her about the holidays of other religions and the things we all have in common. (Spoilers – there’s a happy ending for all involved – the cat, the old lady, the cat’s family.). The kids love it and somehow I always get something in my eye that makes me sniffle just a little bit, just as I’m finishing reading it to them.

Recommended by: Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

Norse Mythology – by Neil Gaiman

Publisher:  W.W. Norton & Company

Why I recommend this book: In Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman distills the sometimes competing versions of the Norse gods and their adventures into a coherent whole. The book reads as a series of interrelated short stories that range from the creation of all things to the twilight of the gods and beyond. Colloquial and with a polished ease, Gaiman’s voice allows a humor to shine through the stories that not infrequently reaches the point of truly laugh-out-loud funny. Read “The Mead of Poetry” and never experience a bad poem the same way again. Through it all, the gods are mean, cruel, and doltish, boosted and undermined as much by the cunningness of Loki as by their own single-minded wants. An easy metaphor for our times, perhaps, or all times. Although sometimes quite gruesome, the book was also a huge hit with my eleven-year-old son. Besides being thoroughly entertaining, Norse Mythology provided a great background to Thor: Ragnarok, and led naturally to comparing and contrasting the portrayals of Odin, Loki, Hel, and Fenrir.

Recommended by: Scott Keeney, Production Manager, Composition and Digital Conversions

The Night Circus – by Erin Morgenstern

Publisher: Anchor Books

Why I recommend this book: This book does exactly what a book should do; it pulls you into a world so enchantingly and exquisitely realized that you do not want to surface from its pages. With its varied cast of characters and refreshing twist on circus lore and magic, The Night Circus is a book that can appeal to readers of all backgrounds and tastes. It’ll have you wishing you could buy a ticket from the very first page.

Recommended by:  Erin Leo, Journals Production Editor

Cathedral (Short Story Collection) – by Raymond Carver

Publisher: Vintage Books

Why I recommend this book: I’ve had this book since college and revisit it year after year. I have always loved Carver’s writing style. He uses deceptively simple sentence structures and an accessible vocabulary to tackle complex interpersonal relationships.

Recommended by: Kevin Gray, Managing Director, K-12 Publishing Services

Remote Control (Object Lessons) – by Caetlin Benson-Allott

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Why I recommend this book: A wonderful story about how the concept of the remote control persisted for nearly half a decade before it developed into a viable technology. The author covers the remote’s beginnings as a wired technology for radios, the famed “clicker” of the 1970s, the development of standard cable remote layout that we all know and love today, and the handful of failures in between. A good read for anybody interested in American history, culture, and media.

Recommended by: JodieAnne Sclafani, Production Supervisor, Design, Graphics, and Proof

Why We Came to the City – by Kristopher Jansma

Publisher: Viking

Why I recommend this book:  Opening in late 2008 at a holiday party in New York City as the Great Recession is making its presence felt, the book vividly brings to life the five main characters who met in college five years previous and have been inseparable since. The author provides the right amount of backstory to help you understand what brings them together as a group even though their backgrounds, motivations, and passions are quite different from one another. When one of them is faced with a tragic situation, they all try to answer the questions of what is most meaningful, while attempting to navigate through the big city and life itself.

Recommended by: Nicole Tomassi, Sales & Marketing Coordinator

The Shadow of the Wind – by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Publisher: Penguin

Why I recommend this book: Books about books are already pretty magical, but when you set them in 1950s Barcelona and make the narrator an incredibly kind and relatable boy that you follow as he grows, it becomes something else. It’s hard to figure out how Zafón was so successful at constructing such a misty, moody, mysterious setting and such vivid, endearing, and funny characters, but I’m so glad he was. It’s just so engrossing. You won’t be able to stop thinking about it! (Also, if it’s your cup of tea, the audiobook version is incredibly well done.)

Recommended by: Kimberly Giambattisto, Senior Production Editor

The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish: Reason and Fancy During the Scientific Revolution – by Lisa T. Sarasohn

Publisher:  John Hopkins University Press

Why I recommend this book: I’m in love with this fascinating look at a fascinating woman. The book is full of stunning details on the period (mid-seventeenth-century). The Duchess of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, called ‘the first female scientist’, liked to put her scientific theories into verse and Gulliver-like creative writing, in both prose and plays. The examples given are a total hoot. Learn and laugh at the same time. You likely won’t find Margaret mentioned in a serious history of science. She was an oddball, and a wonderful one.

Recommended by: Mimi Thurston, Production

Here are a few links to articles about noteworthy books which were published in 2017:

Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017

The Bookseller British Book Awards 2017

New York Times Critics’ Top Books of 2017

Tell us what books you read in 2017 which you would recommend to others. Share your recommendations in the comments below.