Jonathan Ball, the founder of Jonathan Ball Publishers, died on 3 April 2021 after a short illness. This collection of essays, commissioned in tribute to him, is edited by Michele Magwood.

Jonathan Ball left a deep impression on many different people in different ways. The forty or so essays reflect the many facets of Jonathan. The chapter headings would read husband, father, businessman, friend, brother, colleague. But it is in the subheads that we begin to understand the shape of him: publisher extraordinaire, history expert, gourmand, liberal thinker, suitor, philosemite and so on.

It cannot be exaggerated how deep an imprint Jonathan has left on the political and cultural life of South Africa, too. The shelves of Jonathan Ball Publishers are weighted with serious history and biographies of eminent figures, with books that other publishers didn’t have the boldness, the sheer guts, to take on. But there are many smaller, more finespun stories that tell us too who we are as a people and as a nation.

Academic and professional publishing represents a diverse communications industry rooted in the scholarly ecosystem, peer review, and added value products and services. Publishers in this field play a critical and trusted role, registering, certifying, disseminating and preserving knowledge across scientific, technical and medical (STM), humanities and social science disciplines. Academic and Professional Publishing draws together expert publishing professionals, to provide comprehensive insight into the key developments in the industry and the innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches being applied to meet novel challenges.
This book consists of 20 chapters covering what publishers do, how they work to add value and what the future may bring. Topics include: peer-review; the scholarly ecosystem; the digital revolution; publishing and communication strategies; business models and finances; editorial and production workflows; electronic publishing standards; citation and bibliometrics; user experience; sales, licensing and marketing; the evolving role of libraries; ethics and integrity; legal and copyright aspects; relationship management; the future of journal publishing; the impact of external forces; career development; and trust in academic and professional publishing.
This book presents a comprehensive review of the integrated approach publishers take to support and improve communications within academic and professional publishing.
Brings together expert publishing professionals to provide an authoritative insight into industry developmentsDetails the challenges publishers face and the leading-edge processes and procedures used to meet themDiscusses the range of new communication channels and business models that suit the wide variety of subject areas publishers work in

Lin Shu, Inc. explores the dynamic interactions between literary translation, commercial publishing, and the politics of "traditional" Chinese culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It breaks new ground as the first full-length study in any Western language on the career and works of Lin Shu and his many collaborators in the publishing, academic, and business worlds. Integrating literary scholarship, translation studies, and print history, this book provides new insights into a controversial figure in world literature and his place in the profound transformations in authorship and cultural production in modern China. Well before Ezra Pound and Bertolt Brecht transformed Western-language poetry and theater with their inventions of Chinese culture, Lin Shu and his collaborators had already embarked on a translation project unique in modern literature. Although he knew no foreign languages, in a 20-year period Lin Shu worked with 19 different assistants schooled in English, French, and other tongues to complete more than 180 book-length translations into classical Chinese. Through burgeoning print outlets such as the Commercial Press (Shangwu yinshuguan), Lin and his collaborators offered many readers in China their first taste of "Western literature" - usually 19th-century novels and short stories from the United States, England, and France. At the same time, Lin Shu leveraged his labors as a translator to make himself into a leading authority on "traditional" Chinese literature and cultural values. From what one publisher called his "factory of words," Lin issued scores of textbooks and anthologies of classical-language literature, along with short stories, poems, essays, and a handful of full-length novels.

The concentration of private power over media has been the subject of intense public debate around the world. Critics have long feared waves of mergers creating a handful of large media firms that would hold sway over public opinion and endanger democracy and innovation. But others believe with equal fervor that the Internet and deregulation have opened the media landscape significantly. How concentrated has the American information sector really become? What are the facts about American media ownership? In this contentious environment, Eli Noam provides a comprehensive and balanced survey of media concentration with a methodical, scientific approach. He assembles a wealth of data from the last 25 years about mass media such as radio, television, film, music, and print publishing, as well as the Internet, telecommunications, and media-related information technology. After examining 100 separate media and network industries in detail, Noam provides a powerful summary and analysis of concentration trends across industries and major media sectors. He also looks at local media power, vertical concentration, and the changing nature of media ownership through financial institutions and private equity. The results reveal a reality much more complex than the one painted by advocates on either side of the debate. They show a dynamic system that fluctuates around long-term concentration trends driven by changing economics and technology. Media Ownership and Concentration in America will be essential reading and a trove of information for scholars and students in media, telecommunications, IT, economics, and the history of business, as well as media industry professionals, business researchers, and policy makers around the world. Critics and defenders of media trends alike will find much that confirms and refutes their world view. But the next round of their debate will be shaped by the facts presented in this book.

PASA’s Guide to Publishing 2025 provides an overview of the latest developments and challenges in the South African publishing industry, including updates on the Copyright Amendment Bill, the Competition Commission investigation and the work of the PASA Legal Affairs Committee the Cultural, as well as the Creative Industries Masterplan and the NSFAS.

It also gives an overview of digital publishing and sales patterns in the various publishing sectors. This, together with a comprehensive list of training providers and industry-related bodies, including government department contacts, and a list of international, African and local book fairs and festivals, will enable publishing staff to make informed decisions about publishing trends and issues, marketing opportunities and training providers in the industry.

Publishers, marketing staff and authors should also engage with the section on selling international rights, written by an international expert in the field, to maximise the potential of their publications. Academics and (potential) authors should find the sections on intellectual property and copyright, and ‘how to get published’, as well as key publishing and design terms, particularly useful. The comprehensive PASA membership directory and index of publishers, their imprints and agencies, and their areas of speciality, will be invaluable to booksellers, librarians and academics alike.

This indispensable guide for writers provides details of hundreds of literary agents, book publishers, and magazines; including contact details, types of material accepted, and how to approach them Subject indexes for each area provide easy access to the markets you need, with specific lists for everything from romance publishers, to poetry magazines, to literary agents interested in thrillers. It also provides unparalleled access to international markets. The internet has made the publishing industry more global than ever, with markets increasingly accepting submissions by email (some no longer accept postal submissions at all). Other directories have failed to respond to this, continuing to focus on one single country, but this directory provides you with that all-important access to overseas opportunities that are now just an email away. And by focusing exclusively on what's important to writers - contact details for literary agents, publishers, and magazines - this directory is able to provide more listings at a lower price. There are no adverts, no advertorials, and no unnecessary articles or obscure listings padding out hundreds of pages. Two established alternative directories both run to over 800 pages, yet one has only 204 pages of publisher, agent, and magazine listings, and the other has only 10 pages devoted to literary agent listings This book does better on both counts, and yet remains substantially cheaper than either alternative. The book also includes free access to the firstwriter.com website, where you can find even more listings. You can also benefit from other features such as advanced searches, daily email updates, feedback from users about the markets featured, saved searches, competitions listings, searchable personal notes, and more

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current developments, issues and good practices regarding assessment in social science research. It pays particular attention to the challenges in evaluation policies in the social sciences, as well as to the specificities of publishing in the area. The Handbook discusses the current societal challenges facing researchers, from digital societies, to climate change and sustainability, to trust in democratic societies. Chapters provide ways to strengthen research assessment in the social sciences for the better, by offering a diverse range of experiences and views of experts from all continents. The Handbook also outlines major data sources that can be used to assess social sciences research, as well as looking at key dimensions of research quality in the social sciences including journal peer review, the issue of identifying research quality, and gender disparities in social science research. This book will be an essential read for scholars interested in research assessment in the social sciences. It will also be useful to policy makers looking to understand the key position of the social sciences in science and society and provide appropriate frameworks for key societal challenges.