MA Publishing

This innovative MA, taught by industry experts, offers you the chance to break into the dynamic and competitive publishing industry.

Course description

• You’ll develop key skills, knowledge and experience to give you the edge in a range of rewarding careers
• Learn from inspiring and experienced lecturers who have worked in publishing at companies including Bloomsbury and Penguin Random House.
• Cover every stage of publishing including editorial, production, sales and marketing – from initial ideas to cover design, and from book launches to sales data analysis.
• Our students have gone on to work for companies including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Hachette, Bloomsbury, CPG and Taylor & Francis, while others have set up their own publishing companies and freelance services.
• Be inspired by a huge range of industry professionals. In the 2019/20 academic year over 35 speakers gave talks for our students, from publishing companies including Hachette, HarperCollins, Bloomsbury, Penguin Random House, Galley Beggar Press, And Other Stories, Trigger Press, Pan Macmillan, Knights Of, and Emerald - and we also heard talks from published and self-published authors.
• Engage in research-based scholarship to focus on themes which particularly interest you.
• Benefit from a challenging cross-disciplinary learning experience.

The MA Publishing will equip you with a broad range of skills, a critical awareness of the whole industry, a high degree of flexibility and an enterprising mindset. It will prepare you for careers with major publishing houses or the growing number of small publishers, including the thousands of ‘micro-publishers’, which exist within the UK. You could also consider becoming self-employed or setting up your own publishing company. There are opportunities, too, to work in publishing roles within charitable organisations, government bodies and cultural organisations such as galleries and museums. Much of the knowledge and many of the skills you will attain on this MA are highly transferable. The course is a perfect springboard for a wide range of professional careers such as magazine publishing, librarianship, bookselling, PR, communications, or illustration and web design.