Proposal
for
A
Publishing Consultant
Prime Consultants Ltd
(hereafter referred to as Prime) is considering recruiting a publishing
consultant to join the team of esteemed career consultants. Prime is renowned
for offering high-quality consultancy services in human resources, accounting
and management, among several other areas.
Prime’s clients in the state and nationally include some of the leading
publishing companies.
This proposal is an analysis of why Prime requires a publishing consultant. The proposal also makes the case for recruitment of Paul Parker, the author of this proposal, for this position.
This proposal is an analysis of why Prime requires a publishing consultant. The proposal also makes the case for recruitment of Paul Parker, the author of this proposal, for this position.
1. Problem
statement
The publishing industry
is in flux with many publishers revising their business models due to
technological disruption (Cuddy, 2015). The last decade has seen the emergence
and exponential growth of online authoring and publishing. These new business
models are inexpensive and have a potentially wider reach than traditional
publishing models. This has posed a major challenge to traditional publishers
with many of them experiencing huge drops in revenues. Some have had to cut
down on their costs, including staff downsizing. Ironically, it has been a case
of “publish or perish”.
Some traditional
publishers have adapted to technology to not only survive, but also thrive (Overdorf
& Barragree, 2001). Most of these have done so by using the technology to
reduce their costs. Many also now offer their products on print and electronic
publications in brick-and-mortar and online platforms.
There are several other
ways that publishing companies can ride the rapid technological changes to
become leading publishers in the future. Those companies that best adopt their
business models to the emerging trends will optimize their operations to serve
a huge global readership (Cuddy, 2015).
It is in the light of
this that the consultancy industry is ripe for qualified and visionary
publishing consultants. A capable publishing consultant will be able to guide
publishing firms to survive and thrive in an uncertain period in the industry. By
recruiting a publishing consultant, Prime will be able to develop its customer
base and reputation.
2. Objectives
The publishing consultant
will serve the company, existing company clients and their users (Sant, 2012).
In so doing, the consultant will help Prime attract new customers, especially
publishers, who will positively impinge on the Return on Investment (ROI). Prime’s ROI will also be positively impacted
by the consultant applying publishing skills and knowledge to the day-to-day
activities of the company.
3. The
solution
A publishing consultant
will hence improve quality and revenue at Prime. The company develops and
presents many documents to its clients. Sometimes it has to outsource
preparation of documents, especially editing, designing and printing. Having a
publishing consultant will ensure that the company does not need to outsource
some of these services, especially editing and designing. For outsourced
publishing services, the publishing consultant will ensure quality assurance (Sant,
2012).
Moreover, there is the
opportunity for the publishing consultant to apply the publishing skills,
knowledge and attitude to document preparation of clients. The following
flowchart shows the subsequent proposed document flow within Prime and its
clients.
Figure
1: Document preparation at Prime Consultants Ltd.
The core responsibility
of the publishing consultant will be to offer publishing consultancy services to
Prime’s clients. This will not only be to publishing companies as described
earlier, but also to other clients who require publishing consultancy. Notably,
some of the clients develop various publications, not necessarily for
commercial purposes. The publishing consultant, in consultation with other
staff members, will engage these organizations with a view to offering the
publishing expertise.
The need for publishing
companies to engage publishing consultants cannot be overemphasized. The
consultant will help the companies develop more profitable business models by
streamlining administration, product development and marketing to suit a
constantly changing market (Overdorf & Barragree, 2001). The publishing consultant, in liaison with
management and other consultants, will guide the clients in the people, activities
and processes suitable to the respective publishing companies.
4. Method
The tasks and
responsibilities will be performed both at Prime’s premises and at clients’
offices. This will involve individual
and teamwork (Coley, 2013).
Some of the key tasks
and responsibilities will include analyzing ways a publisher can reduce or
amalgamate their publishing processes. Publishing processes in most traditional
companies involve authoring, commissioning, copyediting, designing, prepress
and printing. An example of online publishing process involves writing,
editing, designing and uploading (Cuddy, 2015). A publisher may combine these
in various ways to suit their situation. For example, a traditional publisher
with both print and online publications and the right staff may combine the
earlier processes to include authoring and editing, and the latter to have
either uploading or printing.
The publishing consultant
will work with other consultants to advise companies about publishing staff.
The effectiveness and efficiency of the publishing processes in contributing to
ROI will depend on the execution of the processes. It is therefore important
that publishing companies recruit talent with the right skills, knowledge and
attitudes.
The publishing consultant
will be at the core of analyzing, designing, implementing and reviewing the needs
of existing and new publishing clients. This will be in conjunction with the
management of both Prime and its clients, other consultants, staff of both
companies and the end users. This relationship is shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure
2: Publishing consultant’s interaction with publishing company
5. Conclusion
The publishing industry
is in a flux with many publishing companies not sure the best business model
for them hence needing advise from publishing experts (Coley, 2013). To deal
with the uncertainty in the industry, some publishing companies are depending
more on consultants than staff in a bid to cut costs.
Presentation of
polished publications generates business for a company and its clients (Sant,
2012). Prime and its clients will benefit directly from the expertise offered
by a publishing consultant.
6. Qualifications
The proposed
consultant, Paul Parker, has a Master degree in Publishing and a Bachelor in
Information. He is currently tutoring at Reading International University.
Previously, he was an editor at Oreon Publishers. For more information, the
author’s CV will be provided.
References
Coley,
S. M. and Scheinberg, C. A. (2013). Proposal
Writing. Washington DC: SAGE Publications.
Cuddy,
G. (2015). Publishing's ublishing’s Digital
Disruption Hasn’t Even Started. http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/publishings-digital-disruption-hasnt-even-started/.
Accessed July 23, 2016.
Overdorf,
M. & Barragree, A. (2001). The impending disruption of the Publishing
Industry. In the Publishing Research
Quarterly (2001) 17: 3, pp 3-18.
Sant,
T. (2012). Persuasive Business Proposals:
Writing to Win More Customers, Clients, and Contracts. New York: AMACOM.
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