Padmini Ray Murray's 'Introduction to Publishing' class:

On 20th January 2011, Padmini Ray Murray taught 'Introduction to Publishing' to the students of the PG Certificate Course in Editing and Publishing, conducted by the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University.

She had prepared an on-screen presentation to take the students through the different aspects of publishing. She started by talking about the basic kinds of books that are published, for example children’s fiction, literary fiction, thrillers and so on. Then she spoke about the different markets suitable for different kinds of books and how to classify consumers into groups, in order to figure out what books are suitable for them. She gave the students a clear idea about the various kinds of booksellers and how they operate. Certain aspects about the history of publishing were also covered in class. She spoke about the Net Book Agreement and comparatively recent developments like the Nielsen BookScan. She also gave an overview of the publishing industry in the UK and the US.
The students were made aware of the different posts editors may hold. Since most of the students are aspiring editors, it helped them immensely. She took questions from students throughout and at the end of the class. Her class was enjoyable as well as informative, and she very successfully introduced the publishing industry to the students.