What Is a Summer Publishing Course?
There are a handful of summer publishing courses geared to college graduates looking to break into the magazine business and the book publishing industry. Unlike journalism school, which teaches the basics of journalism, the publishing courses are focused on changing business models in these industries, the history of these businesses and workplace skills.
The three main summer publishing courses are taught at NYU, University of Denver and Columbia; the program at The University of Denver is the only one solely focused on book publishing. (The Columbia publishing course used to be the Radcliffe Publishing Course. Radcliffe alumni include such bold face industry names as Morgan Entrekin, publisher of Grove/Atlantic; Alfred A. Knopf; and Arthur Levine, J.K. Rowling's editor at Scholastic. To find out more about the history of the Radcliffe Publishing Course here.)
How Long Are the Summer Publishing Programs?
The three aforementioned programs run about six to seven weeks. All are known as feeder programs to the book and magazine publishing industries but some schools do offer other, longer, programs. NYU, for example, has a Master of Science in Publishing, which is a full graduate program calling for students to fulfill 21 credits.
What Is the Value of the Summer Publishing Course?
The summer publishing courses have a heavy focus on job placement and teaching students the industry itself. While none of the courses guarantees students a job, the publishing programs do put students in touch with (and in front of) professionals in the business, which is a big help in job placement.