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Publishing Services Manager
Posted: July 02, 2010 

Short Description:

Bedford/St. Martin's is a leading publisher of college textbooks in the disciplines of English, History, Communication, Business and Technical Writing, Philosophy, Religion, and Music.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Please visit us on the web at www.bedfordstmartins.com for additional information. Bedford/St. Martin's was originally two separate divisions of St. Martin's Press, Inc. consisting of the St. Martin's Press College Division and Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press. The two companies merged and became Bedford/St. Martin's in 1998. Bedford Books was founded in 1981 by Charles Christensen. The St. Martin's Press College Division was founded much earlier. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer

Position Description:

Responsible for managing the production of approximately 30 titles per year from manuscript to bound book, guiding freelance production services to meet schedule, cost, and quality requirements.

Major Responsibilities:

• Plan and organize the production process for each assigned title, reviewing transmitted manuscript, turnover materials and art & perm logs to ensure that materials are production-ready and complete.
  
• Coordinate and work closely and proactively with authors, editors, freelancers and all members of the in-house project team to ensure that all are fully informed and in agreement of the project's production plan at the time that production begins, ensuring production success.
  
• Hire, instruct and supervise freelance production services who, in turn, will engage copyeditors, proofreaders, artists, researchers, fact-checkers, indexers, compositors, designers, etc.
  
• Oversee all stages of production that service will provide, including reviewing design stages, edited manuscript and author queries (including resolving conflicts between author and service), composition proofs (checking pages with DE), final PDF proofs, art and photo programs, and XML-tagged files, securing in-house approvals as necessary.
  
• Work with freelance production service to create and maintain production schedules to meet necessary, as well as realistic and achievable, publication dates.
  
• Run launch meetings, preparing detailed agendas and summaries and distributing production schedules and revised schedules, if necessary.
  
• Manage and monitor the cover mechanical and cover copy process with editorial, marketing, design, and production groups, allowing for tight time constraints and approval requirements.
  
• Work closely with assigned Production Supervisor regarding printer requirements, schedules and procedures to ensure efficient transition of product from production to manufacturing. Assure adherence to production plan via castoffs and length estimates and sample pages. Review files for manufacturing, check proofs from printer as necessary. Request and prepare estimates for budgeting.
  
• Work with Reprint Production Supervisors and DEs on reprint corrections. This includes soliciting and reviewing corrections, sending to packager/compositor, proofing, and uploading for printer.
  
• Solicit and review bids. Check invoices against estimates: approve, code and process for payment.
  
• Monitor status reports from freelancers and prepare weekly in-house status reports and verify accuracy of company-distributed monthly status report.

Required Skills / Knowledge:

• Demonstrates a high degree of independent decision making, problem solving, and initiative, in addition to being detail oriented, flexible, resourceful and able to multi-task effortlessly.
  
• Firm command of English grammar and usage rules, spelling, and editing rules with demonstrated proficiency in editing and proofreading are required.
  
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and organizational skills are necessary.
  
• Expertise in production management and experience with current production technologies and electronic prepress, as well as thorough knowledge of cost models for traditional product and bookmaking practices.
  
• Competent in MS Office.
  
• Familiarity with InDesign

Required Experience:

Experience Needed:

• Minimum 10 years of college textbook production experience, preferably in the Humanities.

Educational Background Required:

• Bachelor's degree (English degree preferred)

Direct Application To:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY DIRECTLY THROUGH OUR WEBSITE