2ND ANNUAL WORKSHOP ON BOOK EDITING: OBTAIN FORM AT www.coragroup.org

2nd ANNUAL WORKSHOP ON BOOK EDITING
The Committee For Relevant Art (CORA) is working, in
partnership with Bookbuilders Limited in Ibadan, on a
workshop for Book Editors. The event will run from Nov
6 to 8, 2007, at the Federal Palace Hotel in Lagos.

The workshop is the second attempt by CORA to engage
in capacity building for the Book industry.
The idea of the workshop is to develop a generation of
fully trained book editors who are envisaged to
energize the book industry with the editorial skills
that are so lacking in current literary and scholarly
books.

In hardly any of the few operating publishing houses
is there a book editor of redoubtable skill and
renown. "Indeed, so negligible is the impact of
editors on the few books that are published that
nobody makes the ordinary connection between editing
and the quality of a published book", according to the
CORA proposal.

Mrs Chris Bankole, the key facilitator, and Mrs
Sherifat Oladokun, both of Book Builders Limited, a
highly regarded firm of book editors, will give
closed-session lectures, seminars, and tutorial-style
meetings. Participants will have the opportunity to
engage in practical demonstration of how a book is
worked on. They will learn about the role of the
editor in relation to the publisher, agent, and
author, and the differences between a newspaper editor
and a book editor. There will be illuminating
conversations on a range of topics including general
overview of editorial process (using layouts of
various books, journals, scholarly books, novels,
etc.), Initial assessment of a book, Copy Editing,
Substantive editing, science editing, Proofreading,
Indexing, Cover design, Grammar and usage, clichés,
Nigerian malapropisms. It will also look at challenges
in editing creative writers; both of children and
adult fiction, as well as Scholarly/ tertiary
publishing / research vs university, textbooks.
Participants, who will pay 10,000 naira for three days
(which covers tuition, course materials, tea/snacks,
lunch, certificate and group photograph) will be
taught Footnote / reference styles, publications of
Newsletters / flyers / brochures as well as how to
handle tables / diagrams / maps etc.

"The experience is not substitute for a sustained
academic program in publishing", the proposal reads.
But we hope that participants will gain a lot from
this workshop to develop career interest in book
publishing. The organizers look forward to hearing
from such large (mostly erstwhile multinational)
publishers such as McMillan, Longmans, Evans, as well
as homegrown, midsized companies including Spectrum,
Africana, 4th Dimension, Litramed. The workshop will
be particularly useful for emerging companies like
Farafina, New Gong, Cassava Republic, Book Kraft, and
Kraft Books. Perhaps the major beneficiary from this
sort of learning would be people between ages 22-40,
preferably university graduates or those in the final
semester of their bachelor programs, with demonstrable
interest in reading and writing.
Staffers of reputable publishing firms should only
need to present a letter from their employer
authenticating their status. Completed application
package will include a letter of application, and a
statement of purpose. For those who are not working in
a publishing house, there is, required, a letter of
recommendation from academic mentors or teachers
optional(). Contacts: CORA Secretariat: 95 Bode
Thomas, Surulere, Lagos.
Contact: cora2stamp@yahoo.co.uk, Ayo Arigbabu:
arigbs@gmail.com), Jumoke Verissimo,
jumokeverissimo@yahoo.com); Juwon Bukola Phillips
(naijajuwon@yahoo.ca) and Wale Omotoye,
geewale@yahoo.com)

oDownload participation form at: www.coragroup.org)

Toyin Akinosho
Secretary General