Pub Board

I sat in at my first publication board meeting on Jan 13, which is essentially a discussion about acquisitions.  The editorial department presents the promising proposals which they deem to be worthy of publication by the company. The marketing and foreign rights staff are present at the meeting and have presumably reviewed the proposals prior to the discussion. At this particular meeting, only one editor, Neal, had a couple prospective books to pitch. The purpose of the meeting is to raise concerns about the book's marketability and its audience appeal. The marketing department discusses the book's market and how to position the book. This meeting is where the team discusses the book's projected profitability as well as the possibility of having a co-publisher. After all the concerns about a book's potential have been covered, the team votes yay or nay on whether or not to green light its publication. In this case, both of Neal's proposals were "greenlighted". It seems that this is one of the critical stages of the publishing process and the publisher must ultimately consider the book as a reflection of itself. In other words, it should be consistent with the values and image of the publisher.