Publishing MA: Who teaches this course

"All the teachers on the course are very knowledgeable. They've worked in the industry themselves and so they know what they're talking about. I've also enjoyed the masterclasses – we've had a lot of outside professionals come in and teach us about their careers and how they got started in publishing and where publishing's going in the future."
Lisa Winn, Publishing MA student 2010/11

You will learn from a mixture of permanent teaching staff, masterclass speakers and guest lecturers, all of whom work in the industry.

Your Kingston University lecturers have worked in publishing for over two decades. They are also experienced industry trainers and qualified higher education teachers.

Alison Baverstock

Alison Baverstock is a former publisher, who now writes about publishing, how to get published, and marketing within the book trade.

Her How to Market Books, now in its fifth version, is often referred to as the 'bible' of book marketing. Both this and its companion volume Are Books Different? (published by Kogan Page and available in 16 languages) are used as the basis of publisher education worldwide.

Alison has also written widely about how to write and get published - Is There a Book in You? and Marketing Your Book - An Author's Guide (published by Bloomsbury) have been featured on Richard & Judy, BBC Breakfast, Open Book and Woman's Hour. Her new book, The Naked Author (also Bloomsbury) tackles the formerly vexed subject of self-publishing, which Alison believes is ripe for reappraisal.

A regular commentator in the press on book-related issues, Alison has written for The Bookseller, Mslexia and has a regular column in Writer's Forum. She has also contributed to the past eight editions of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.

Alison speaks regularly at conferences for writers and publishers and at many literary festivals. She has run seminars for The Society of Authors on how to best work with agents and publishers, and trained generations of publishers to promote books and writing. In 2007 she received the prestigious Pandora Award, presented annually to a woman who has made a valuable contribution to the publishing industry.

Alison leads the modules Marketing in Publishing and Working with Authors, as well as managing the Dissertation component of the MA.

Anna Faherty

Anna Faherty is a writer and consultant working across the publishing, museum and charity sectors. Her varied professional experience is built around a desire to develop and implement high quality publishing and communications projects, which deliver non-financial outcomes as well as sustainable profits.

Anna has senior management experience as director of a multi-million pound publishing division and trustee of a small independent museum. She has held editorial positions within major academic publishers, including Pearson Education, Palgrave Macmillan and Hodder Education, and her current client list includes the Design Museum, Jeans for Genes, Oxford University Press, Quercus Publishers, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the V&A Museum, Time Out and Taylor & Francis. She works on both print and digital projects, and has recently developed content for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's official iPhone app and the National Maritime Museum's tablet-based mobile learning project.

The author of a number of online management skills courses for professional bodies (published by Nelson Croom), Anna runs training courses for publishers and has a postgraduate certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Anna leads the modules Product Development and Editorial Management and Global Rights and International Publishing, as well as managing the Practical Project component of the MA.

Judith Watts

Judith began her publishing career working for Blackwell Publishers and Booksellers in the late 1980s, before moving to Routledge, where she spent several years as a senior marketing manager, overseeing a large team across a range of academic disciplines.

She has since freelanced as a marketing and editorial services specialist, and currently works on all aspects of publishing for Kingston University Press.

A practising writer and poet, Judith has an MFA in creative writing and contributes to Kingston's creative writing teaching.

Judith leads the Evolution of Publishing, Editorial, Production and Design in Publishing and Work Placement and Managing your Publishing Career modules. She also oversees the Kingston University Press and literary anthology bursary positions.

You will have the opportunity to learn from a range of guest lecturers and masterclass speakers throughout the course. Recent contributors include:

• Peter Ashman, Publishing Director, British Medical Journal Group
• John Blake, Managing Director, John Blake Publishing
• Aimie Bush, Production, Random House
• Andrew Crofts, author of Ghostwriting and The Freelance Writer's Handbook
• Philip Downer, Front of Store and former CEO of Borders
• Ruani de Silva, Publicity Manager, Zed Books
• Richard Duguid, Editorial Manager, Penguin Press
• Liz Gooster, Editor-at-large, Kogan Page
• Clare Hodder, Rights Director, Palgrave Macmillan
• Patrick Keogh, Guardian Masterclasses
• Ziyad Marar, Global Publishing Director, Sage Publications
• Elaine McQuade, Marketing and Publicity Director, Oxford University Press Children's Books
• Tony Mulliken, Chairman, Midas PR
• Wendy Perriam, author of Broken Places and Tread Softly
• Jon Reed, Editor-in-Chief, Publishing Talk
• Nick Robinson, Sales Director, Vintage Books
• Diane Spivey, Rights Director, Little, Brown
• John B Thompson, Professor Sociology, University of Cambridge and author of Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century
• Natasha Waterson, Digital Media Producer, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Kate Wilson, Managing Director, Nosy Crow

Find out more about our masterclasses and our industry links.