Workshop in Professional Writing

For the publishing professional, learning to craft key messaging for specific audiences is an essential skill. No matter what position you hold, you need to sell your ideas and write dynamic, effective copy. How do you write fact sheets, catalogue and flap copy, sell sheets and other materials in the book industry, always paying close attention to keywords and metadata to improve discoverability? How do you write online product descriptions that convert to sales? In this course, students will explore the elements of strong professional writing in the publishing industry for internal use (to editors, publicists, and sales representatives, for example) as well as to bloggers, reviewers, and consumers. While the focus of the course will be on book publishing, students will also examine what makes an effective pitch letter to magazine and online editors and the art of writing press releases and general promotional copy. Crafting professional emails that elicit responses will also be discussed. While many of these skills are introduced in other courses in the program, the course will be a concentrated workshop in these important tasks.