I’ve blogged for BookMachine before about the value of an MA in Publishing, an issue that was debated further by a lecture-hall full of publishing academics, publishers, industry representatives and other interested parties last week. The Are publishers born or made? symposium at Kingston University was designed to provide a forum for discussing the value and content of academic publishing qualifications, how industry and academia might work more closely together and what publishing-related research is – and should be – undertaken. If that all sounds a bit like academic navel-gazing, the presence of Richard Mollet (CEO of the Publishers Association) along with a number of professional publishers demonstrated the practical relevance of all this.

This is our first ever Christmas party in Edinburgh, and while we can’t say for sure that it’ll be greatest publishing shindig of our times, we can strongly hint at it.

Amble along to the fine establishment that is Carter’s Bar on Morrison Street from 6pm tonight and join us for drinks, chat and other such things. Meet new people, old people, work people, feast on festive toasties and Tunnocks chocolate products.

We look forward to seeing you there! 

This event is hosted by those fine (and mighty generous) folks at Bright Red Publishing, who will be standing a glass of bubbly and mince pie for all arrivals.

Sign up here, and find out who else will be there:

Tahira Rahemtulla is one of the City University project leaders for Publishing Now 2011. A week on from the big event, Tahira reports on happenings over the weekend…

This past Friday saw another of our regular Twitter debates on the state of publishing, in advance of this coming weekend’s Publishing Now conference. The topic this time was how innovation is adding value to publishing. What follows is a selection of highlights; all contributions are available on Twitter through the hashtag #pubnow (which, incidentally, was also the first two words out of my mouth when I finished trawling through all the tweets).

Daniela Nava (a.k.a. The Naked Editor –  www.thenakededitor.co.uk) is a freelance editor, proofreader and translator.

I’m delighted to have the opportunity to let everybody know what a great event the last BookMachine was, but I felt slightly alarmed when browsing through the previous articles in search of inspiration. One in particular caught my eye: ‘BookMachine – the most fun you can have in publishing with your clothes on [August party review]’. Now, considering that my business is called The Naked Editor, I felt this might perhaps confuse readers, but I’m happy to confirm that I don’t intend to contradict the other author.

Bobby Nayyar is a name you’ve probably heard associated with the Booktrust, Limehouse Books or even back from his days at working at Little Brown. Today we’ve got him here on the metaphoric couch …