Qualification -DIPLOMA IN PUBLISHING & JOURNALISM VWR002

This course provides a very comprehensive, solid basis for a career in journalism, and is suitable for students considering careers in any aspect of journalism, including photo journalism and publishing.

Taking 2 years or more full time (also available p/t), you develop a wide variety of skills in the publishing industry at the same time as gradually building and improving your ability to write commercially viable material.

 



Become a business owner or professional in the publishing industry
This course provides an excellent foundation.

 
COURSE CONTENT

This course consists of the 21 relevant modules, as outlined below :

  • Freelance Writing
  • Advanced Freelance Writing
  • Publishing l
  • Publishing ll
  • Publishing lll
  • Introduction to Photography
  • Writing a Website
  • Project Management
  • Editing I
  • Information Security
  • Photographic Practice
  • Research Project 1
  • Research Project 11
  • Research Project 111
  • Plus 100 hours relevant industry meetings or work experience

Plus six additional modules chosen from relevant courses including the following options:

  • Creative Writing
  • Children's Writing
  • Dramatic Writing
  • Photojournalism I
  • Editing II
  • Editing Practice
  • Technical Writing
  • Fiction Writing
  • Digital Photography
  • Photoshop
  • E Commerce
  • Information Security
  • Advertising and Promotions
  • Workplace Health and Safety


    • Duration    : 2100 hours.

     

    OPPORTUNITIES IN PUBLISHING

    This course will improve your professional skills in a way that may develop improved opportunities for employment and career advancement in a wide variety of situations, including:

    • Electronic Publishing: ezines, web marketing, web site development, electronic books, etc.
    • Print Media Publishing: newspapers, magazines, children s books, educational publishing (text books), academic publishing, technical publishing, novels, etc
    • Marketing : advertising literature, catalogues, brochures, advertisements, etc
    • Technical Manuals, etc.

    Publishing opportunities exist on a wide variety of levels, both public (government) and private industry sectors; and both in very small businesses (one person operations) through to large multi national media conglomerates.

    The publishing industry is immense, the diversity of jobs huge and the opportunity for a rewarding and exciting career is strong for anyone with the right skills set.

    The key to making a publication viable is to make it stand out from the crowd. For a publication to be unique, the publisher needs staff who are also unique; who produce writing and images that are different and catch the attention of the readers. Publishers recognise this fact, and seek staff who in turn are "a little different" to the rest.

    We've found over the years that our graduates are often successful because we try very hard to produce graduates who are "different"

    If you want to be successful in publishing, you need certain basic skills, a strong awareness of the industry....but also training that's 'outside the box!" This course will head you in that direction.

     

     

    The following is an Extract from our principal's book Professional Writing -click to visit our bookshop




    Self Publishers - Using Social Media

    This book is not about using social media, so we will not go into this in great detail. But with the advent of the internet and social media, there are many ways that authors can publicise their work – for free. Successful novelists and professional writers will also tweet and put messages on Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and so on. They will also write books. As we said earlier, all of this increases the online traffic to their work and hopefully increases their readership (and sales).

    Gaining followers on twitter and friends on facebook can be a way to gain an audience to which you can market your books. If you are not familiar with social media, but want to self-publish your work, it is good to find out more. Perhaps you self-publish a book about dealing with stress. Once the book is available via an online bookstore or you have set up your own online bookstore, you can start putting messages and blogs online. For example; “How to reduce your stress at Christmas”, then provide a link to where the reader can buy your book. The more you do this, the more people will become aware of your book. Obviously this can be time consuming.

    As a self-published writer, there will be a tricky balance between writing blogs, tweets, messages and actually writing a book. If you want to sell your books without a publisher, however, then marketing your product is something you need to consider. Obviously there are other ways to market your product, for example paying for advertisements, developing your own website and so on.

    Technology has made it a lot more realistic for anyone to write and self-publish an eBook. Producing the book may be feasible for you, but unless you can sell it, you may be earning very little for the effort you put in.

    There are a number of good distribution networks available that you can sell eBooks through, such as i-tunes, Amazon and Overdrive; but big networks are also selling very large numbers of other eBooks. With these large distributors, it can be easy to get lost amongst your competitors, and to achieve too few sales.

    Some self-publishers set up their own distribution channel by establishing an online bookshop, but for this to work you need to have a web site that is getting strong traffic. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an essential part of making such a venture work and there is never any guarantee of success. If you already have a strong website to piggy-back sales on, or if you have proven SEO expertise, it may be viable to establish your own online bookshop - but otherwise, you should proceed with caution.

    Locke and other self-published writers have also made use of social media such as twitter and facebook to publicise their work, gain a following and increase their sales.

    Remember That you are Running a Business
    Given all of the above, you should never lose sight of the fact that you are running a business. You must use common business practices in order for your business to be successful and to provide you with a good income. Things you need to consider include:

    • How to create an image; writers like any other business need to create a brand. The brand in this instance is the writer themselves. The writer needs to have exposure. You can achieve this through networking with potential clients, your peers and through blogs and social media pages. It is important to always project a very sharp and professional image.
    • See everything you write as an opportunity to generate income. You may have had a moment of inspiration, for example, and then written an article that could be of use to one of your contacts.
    • See opportunities as they arise – this may not necessarily be more work. An opportunity may also be the possibility of generating more income in the future. A good writer will develop a good reputation and use this reputation to gain references and recommendations, which in turn will generate more income into the future.
    • When you run any business you have to have consistent output. If you were running a shoe store (for example) you wouldn’t open the door to the public only when you felt like it, or when you need money to pay your bills – you would go broke in a very short time! The same principles of business apply to writing as a professional – don’t open the shop only when you want to generate income, you must consistently generate new work, establish new contacts and approach established ones with your work.
    • Keep abreast of what is happening in the writing world. Read blogs generated by your peers. Try to attend seminars and conferences attended by your peers. Knowledge of what is happening in the writing world can give you an edge – it will also inform you if certain publications are going out of print or going broke. It will give you an idea of what is selling, what isn’t and what the latest trends are. It also gives you an opportunity to network and further develop new possibilities.
    • Be organised – being disorganised can cost you income. Keep records of when, how and who you did work for and the type of work that was accepted by each of them; you can then look back over your records at any time to determine who you can submit work to, and how much you are likely to receive in payment.
    • How to minimize your income tax - there are many things you can claim as a writer - make sure that you are aware of what these are and that you keep receipts, travel logs etc. as required by the tax office.
    • Learn how to be a debt collector - don’t sit back and allow non-payers get away with it. Be prepared to follow up non-payments and be ruthless enough to send a solicitor’s letter if needed. Remember always that at the end of the day you are running a business.
    • Understand the importance of marketing and improving your work. As we said in the title of this chapter, “Not all Professional Writing is Profitable”, but you as a writer can do something to change that – whether you are a paid author or a self-published one. If you are a paid writer, the speed and quality of your writing can bring you more paid work. For a self-published writer, the more you work on marketing your work and improving your work, the more you can potentially sell.

    Once you are somewhat established as a freelance writer, you can start to become more picky about the work you take on. Spending many hours each day working for low pay rates making just enough to pay your bills, can burn you out. Having the confidence to reject some assignments (once you have established a network of work contacts) can be to your advantage. This is particularly true if the rate of pay for the work you do take on is also higher for the amount of output required.