Your institution – a corporation, a governmental bodiy, a charity, an educational institution or a museum, perhaps – has a message it would like to get across to a certain set of readers. You might be working on a campaign that you’d like to turn into a book to present to potential clients. Maybe it’s a history of the institution itself. You might have an author in mind, or a group of authors. Perhaps you’d like to include images in your publication and need to know how to go about it. Most of all you are unsure exactly how you’re going to bring all these elements together. This is where a project manager steps in; they will look at the materials available and advise on the best way to turn this into a final product – on time and on budget.
What is involved in project management?
It all depends on what you have and what you want. Here are a few of the tasks that a project manager might carry out:
Running the schedule. The project manager will work backwards from your deadline to set a schedule that maps out the dates by which specific tasks need to be finished, as well as the key people who will be carrying out those tasks.
Creating, forming and shaping text. A project manager will help create a structure for your text in order to ensure maximum clarity and impact of message. This might involve coordinating authors to write new text or taking text that already exists and shaping it into the most effective form.
Organising and selecting imagery. This can include choosing and briefing photographers for specific events or selecting existing imagery from archives and image libraries for contextual purposes, as well as writing corresponding captions. They may also be in charge of obtaining licensing for images.
Overseeing copy-editing, proofreading and approval. The project manager will be the main liaison between you and those charged with working on the text, i.e. the authors, copy-editors, proofreaders and indexers (unless they are doing one or all of these tasks themselves). It will be their job to ensure that you approve of the work done at every stage.
Please contact me to discuss any of the above.
Neil Burkey Editorial Services 