Production

October 22, 2019

by Tyler M. Carey, Chief Revenue Officer

National Archives, Washington, DC It 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.
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.

April 9, 2019

In a previous blog post, you learned about the approach to Customer Service that Director of Operations, Terry Colosimo and her team bring to each project. But do you know Terry?

Terry started as a manufacturing assistant at Greenwood Publishing, reviewing final repro before sending it off to the printer, checking blue lines and distributing printer copies. Within just weeks of being hired, she was invited on her first plant tour. “Within my first month at Greenwood, I got to visit two printing facilities and a composition house. I realize that I was very fortunate to have that opportunity and absorbed as much information as I could. I have spoken many times about how those plant visits taught me so much about the importance of defining workflows with the whole process in mind, and the value of customer service—lessons that helped me throughout my career.” It was during this time that Terry was first introduced to Westchester, who was then a vendor for Greenwood. “There were only a few vendors that I could say provided consistent quality and service and Westchester was one of them. I remember working with Sue Grenier, who was my CSR at the time, as well as having conversations with their graphics team about halftone scanning. They were mentors for me, not just vendors. They helped me better understand my needs as a publisher.

As a production editor on several titles, Terry was able to fully understand the editorial process. “Though I did act as editor on some book projects, I was more drawn to working with my print and composition vendors. And so it evolved to where I was often the liaison between our production editors and our vendors.” Terry’s responsibilities also extended to print buying for journals as well as building out their POD program. All these roles gave a good foundation for Terry’s current position at Westchester, because she understands the needs of production managers at publishers, as well as how best to work with vendors to get those needs realized. “I learned how to set up workflows, and manage QC, staff, and schedules. Having been on ‘the other side of the desk’ helps me to know what clients want and expect from a vendor.”

Terry joined Westchester in 2002, leading the Quark department. “I remember thinking, Quark? I know nothing about Quark.” She learned about pagination and design, which having worked at a publisher tied in well with her other experience. As her role at Westchester grew, she developed trafficking and transmission procedures to move files to our India-based offshore composition facilities (starting in 2004) and was instrumental in mirroring the processes, training, and all our procedures in India. “We’re unique in this industry in that we own our offshore typesetting operation, having acquired one that was already a great shop. By bringing our US office’s protocols to India, we mutually established mirrored processes so that we both understand how each operation works. It’s been over a decade of success since then, as we work as partners, not a mothership with an offshore vendor.” This was done through working collaboratively on checklists, SOP’s, workflows, and making sure QC was matching the level we had stateside even though thousands of miles away.

In 2014, Terry started handling more of the operational management, working with sales and client expectations, customer service, and setting up new accounts with both the Editorial Services and Composition Services teams. As Westchester launched its India Direct Offshore Composition Typesetting offerings in 2015, she was involved in establishing protocols for that operation, working in collaboration with our teams in Chennai and New Delhi. She realized that workflows are continually evolving based on the needs of today’s publishers, and took the opportunity to help Sales establish protocols for onboarding that start with a call with members of Westchester’s management and each new client. This gives the client a sense of partnership across the company. “Everyone works together and does whatever needs to be done to make sure the jobs get completed to the customer’s requirements. Everybody pitches in, regardless of traditional job title, to get the work done—whatever it takes. It’s a very collaborative process with the client, rather than talking at them about how this should work to keep our costs down like many vendors do.”

Terry visits our offices in India regularly. “I have just come back from what I think is my 11^th visit.” This is of bidirectional value—she learns more and more from our staff in India each trip, and also works to make them feel comfortable with the projects we’re onboarding and handling. “We’re all part of the group, and it’s important to be inclusive, mindful, and respectful when working across time zones and cultures, to make sure everybody is at the table and successful. We have long term employees who have grown and pivoted their skillsets as we’ve added more capabilities and different types of accounts.” It’s through this empathy, ability to listen, and come up with solutions that Terry helps create an environment for our clients, for our US-based staff, and our offshore staff, where we’re all part of the same team, and ensuring success on each project.

Wouldn’t you like to know more about how Terry and her teams can help you? Contact us to learn more.

April 2, 2019

Photo of ISA world events timeline since 1959 — Timeline of world events since ISA’s founding, 60 years ago.

Hot on the heels of my trip to London for the London Book Fair, I visited another country in the Commonwealth, heading up to Toronto, Canada for the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention. For those of you not familiar with the ISA, it’s the world’s premier membership organization for researchers on topics of political science, globalization, international research, and more. Their mission is to connect “scholars, practitioners, and students across the globe,” and based on the diversity and representation within the panels and attendance of over 6,000 researchers at this year’s convention, the ISA delivers on this mission very effectively as they celebrate their 60^th anniversary. Sessions and presentations covered topics related to specific current affairs issues, emerging methodologies in research and technology, diversity in research coverage as well as inclusivity within the research community, challenges to democracy, and much more. From my attendance, I can see a very interesting collection of new white papers coming from these policy groups in the months to come.

Dozens of Westchester’s editorial and production clients were represented in the list of presenters and at stands in the Exhibit Hall, including Columbia University Press, Brookings Institution Press, Cornell University Press, The MIT Press, Macmillan Publishers, Princeton University Press, the United States Institute of Peace Press, W.W. Norton, The Cato Institute, and other policy groups and academic publishers. For Westchester, it was an opportunity to connect with a number of our clients and prospective partners to discuss how best our editorial and production services for the policy group and academic markets can help their publications programs, including the expansion of data visualization capabilities.

For our clients, the ISA Convention provided a few different opportunities. For some of our clients and partners, attending was a branding exercise, as their international studies lists have grown in recent years and they wanted to highlight that to researchers in the fields covered by the conference presentations. For other publishers and policy groups, the convention allowed them to pursue acquisitions of new titles, papers, and projects by meeting with some of the most noted scholars in the foreign affairs and policy areas about potential projects. For other publishers, sales were brisk at their booths, where their lists of scholarly and policy related titles were in high demand by researchers and institutions looking to expand their reference libraries.

Next year’s ISA Convention will be held in Hawai’i, a destination that can sometimes be difficult for researchers to get included in their budget, but due to the impact of the conference on the global study of international relations and current affairs there is no doubt turnout will continue to be strong.

Are you a publisher of academic or policy content, looking to explore ways you can expand your editorial, design, and production capacity, or reduce costs to produce your white papers, books, and journals? Contact us to learn more about how Westchester can help.

September 19, 2018

by Terry Colosimo, Director of Operations

Before joining Westchester, I was a Production Manager at an academic publisher working with both printing and composition vendors. Though quality and cost were of importance, the vendor’s level of customer service weighed heavy in my decision-making process, and sometimes projects were awarded to a vendor due to the level of care that the customer service representative (CSR) would bring to it. Even though I have not purchased services for quite some time, I still have contact with some of the very first CSRs I was introduced to.

Once I started working here, my responsibilities transitioned from seeking out vendors to ensuring that Westchester’s reputation for quality and service was maintained. Fortunately, this has been an easy task to carry out, in that the representatives we have on our team exhibit the same traits which I sought out when I was on the publisher’s side of the desk.

Ask yourself whether your current editorial or production vendor embodies these qualities:

Responsiveness—responding to a customer in a timely manner would seem to be obvious, but I think we have all experienced that uneasiness that comes while waiting for a response. Many times your representative may not have all the information they need to answer your question, but this should not stop a representative from sending out a quick acknowledgment to let you know that they are looking into your query or working on your request. Once that acknowledgment is made, they should then get back to you in a timely and thorough manner.

Experience—a customer service team should have extensive knowledge in all areas of publishing services. Their combined experience comes from grasping the nuances of client’s production workflow. An experienced CSR knows what to ask if you are uncertain about the particulars of a job. What may be a new product or workflow for you may be familiar to your CSR and they should be able to help navigate the process with you. Not each customer is the same, but what a CSR learns from each customer helps build a knowledge base for each one on the team to use.

Flexibility—because not every client is going to follow the same model and not every one of your own projects is going to be the same, good customer service requires being flexible. You should get reassurance, and not resistance from your CSR that they can handle a time-sensitive or high profile project. Systems should be adaptable enough so that a unique project does not negatively affect the rest of your projects or schedules.

Ownership—you should feel like your CSR fully owns your account and acts on your behalf. A CSR’s responsibility is to make sure that everyone in the organization understands your SOPs; sees that any changes get implemented within each department and cross-trains others so that there is seamless service if they are away. Based on their knowledge and the relationship they have built with you, they should be able to work with you and offer suggestions if needed. Ownership also means acknowledging when mistakes are made and working on getting those resolved to your satisfaction.

Proactive—if a problem does occur, your CSR should be able to determine its cause and how to get it resolved as quickly as possible. They should work with production to determine ways to avoid such situations from happening in the future and give you a sense of confidence that an issue has been thoroughly addressed. And given their experience on your account, they should understand your needs well enough to resolve as much as they can internally before raising a query with you.

These five traits are what I believe set a vendor apart, and propel them into becoming a trusted partner to a publisher. At Westchester, these are far more than a list of desirable qualities – they are key components guiding the approach we take with every project each of our valued clients provides us.

I hope my thoughts about customer service were helpful and informative for you. In my next post, I will share my thoughts with you on the subject of client visits.

July 27, 2018

by Nicole Tomassi, Marketing and Conference Manager

Maybe it sped by due to how busy we are here at Westchester, but spring has bloomed into summer. Join me for a quick rewind of some of the key events that occurred during the months of April, May, and June at Westchester Publishing Services:

London Book Fair 2018, and Guildhall

Several members of our management team were in attendance at the 47th Annual London Book Fair in April. The Book Fair provided us with the opportunity to affirm our business growth in the UK, formally launching Westchester Publishing Services UK, with Managing Director, Tim Davies. It was a productive event for us, and our preparations are already underway to return next March.

While in London, our Chief Revenue Officer, Tyler M. Carey was bestowed the prestigious honor of the Freedom of the City of London by the Stationers’ Guild. A unique benefit granted by this recognition is that he can now legally drive a flock of sheep across London Bridge. If you don’t believe me, you can read more about it in this blog post.

An alphabet soup of conferences

In addition to London Book Fair, Westchester staff attended several conferences and trade shows this spring throughout the U.S., including NCTM(National Council for Teachers of Mathematics), CSE (Council of Science Editors), SSP (Society for Scholarly Publishing), BEA (BookExpo), SIIA(Software and Information Industry Association), AUP (Association of University Presses), and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). We catch our breath in July and August but as you’ll see from our Conferences page, the pace picks up again in September with Publishers Weekly StarWatch, IPG Autumn Conference, and The Bookseller Children’s Conference.

Publishers Weekly Whitepaper, and Dropbox Partnership

Westchester sponsored production on a whitepaper that was published and distributed by Publishers Weekly in April, with in-depth analysis about how publishers of various sizes and types are able to effectively scale their programs through the use of prepress vendors. Following on this successful venture, Dropbox shared news last month about the work they do with companies in the media and entertainment vertical, including publishers and vendors. We also had an informative Q&A session with George Baier IV, from Dropbox, which provided a useful perspective on this topic.

Westchester continues to grow

By providing quality products and services to our valued clients, our business has grown and flourished over the past several years. To further ensure accounts continue to receive the high level of support we pride ourselves on, we recently welcomed Keri Goldberg to our sales and marketing team in the role of Business Development Manager. Current and prospective clients alike will find Keri’s background in publishing to be helpful as they consider prepress solutions for their particular needs. Westchester is also looking for editorial and production talent as various areas of the company expand, visit our Careers page for more information.

Westchester K-12 Summit

Our K-12 Services team held their annual summit at their Dayton, Ohio headquarters to strategize on how to build on the successes of the past year to achieve continued forward momentum. Having the entire team – who are located throughout the country – come together in one location was beneficial for all involved. It gave our staff an opportunity to discuss the student books, teacher’s guides, assessments, leveled readers, and other projects that the teams have been working on. It also allowed them to explore the expanded capacity and additional service offerings they are now able to provide clients as a result of hiring additional staff earlier in the year.

Summer Reading

Reading isn’t a seasonal pastime, but it seems especially enjoyable to read the latest bestseller or a book from the stack on your nightstand during the somewhat more carefree days of summer. My colleagues and I shared a few of the books we plan to read this summer, along with recommended reading lists in this recent blog post, in case you’re searching for ideas. Happy reading, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Keep up with the latest happenings at Westchester!

Subscribe to our blog or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. We’d love to hear from you, and share the solutions we are able to provide to help you more effectively manage your editorial, design, and production requirements.

Travels with Tyler: Northeast Corridor edition