Publishing MA
Subject and course type
- Language and Media
- Postgraduate
Break into a competitive industry and build the skills to succeed. Kingston University’s Publishing MA will give you the theoretical knowledge and practical expertise you need to kickstart a highly rewarding career.
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Master the art of publishing
Studying this masters in Publishing at Kingston University will set you up to succeed in a fast-evolving industry.
Previous graduates have gone on to work in a range of roles, in areas including editorial, digital publishing, journals, production and more.
You’ll explore all aspects of the global publishing industry, from structure, business models and production to legal, idea creation and copyright. You’ll also build an understanding of product development, editing, marketing, publicity, acquisition and rights.
Through a blend of masterclasses, guest lectures, tutorials, seminars and workshops, you’ll gain the skills you need to thrive in the workplace. You’ll examine the sales and distribution of physical and digital products, and get to grips with Nielsen BookScan, BSI proofreading symbols, Adobe InDesign and PremierPro.
During the course, you’ll put your skills into practice through a dissertation or practical project and a 10-day work placement. You’ll produce books for commercial publication through Kingston University Press, and collaborate with authors and partner organisations.
Kingston's Publishing MA allowed me to turn my love of books into a career. By providing an understanding of the business behind the books – and introducing me to my current employer – Kingston gave me a great start in a fantastic industry.
Why choose this course
While you study, you’ll benefit from top quality teaching at Kingston University. We’re ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, and our expert staff members are active, published practitioners with at least 20 years commercial publishing experience.
Cutting-edge resources
On campus, you’ll have access to a fully-equipped learning resources centre (LRC) at our Penrhyn Road campus. It offers specialist resources for Publishing students, including The Bookseller, subject libraries, an online database of subscriptions and more.
Exciting archives
Kingston University also hosts two major archives relating to Iris Murdoch, a significant philosopher and one of the 20th century's greatest novelists. In the archives, you’ll find Iris Murdoch’s Oxford library of more than 1,000 annotated volumes. It also includes a range of papers, tapes, interviews, manuscripts, letter runs and documents.
Resources in London
Kingston is a 30-minute train journey from central London, where you can access plenty of additional libraries and archives, including the British Library.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students on this course benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and studios are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Course content
You will learn everything you need to know about the publishing industry: its structure, acquisition and development of content, print and digital production processes, sales, marketing and distribution.
You will also develop and demonstrate your analytical skills and competence through discussions, assignments and the culminating dissertation or practical project.
Your experienced teaching team is supported by expert guest speakers and a widely envied masterclass series featuring leading publishers and publishing professionals to keep you up to date with industry developments.
You'll need to take two compulsory modules, totalling 60 credits. You can then choose two optional taught modules, totalling 60 credits, as well as either a dissertation or practical project (worth another 60 credits).
Year 1
This course meets the needs of commercial publishers, allowing you to gain key skills and to learn how processes work in a practical context. Its relevance is ensured by input about employers' needs from our advisory board of publishing professionals, resulting in a course that evolves alongside the industry.
Throughout your studies, you'll develop key skills and get prepared for a career in all sectors of the book and journal industries, and across all specialisms.
Please note
Optional modules only run if there is enough demand. If we have an insufficient number of students interested in an optional module, that module will not be offered for this course.
Core modules
30.00 credits
This module initiates you into the collaborative, creative business of commercial publishing and facilitates the development of your research, critical thinking and entrepreneurial skills. From books and magazines to apps and websites, you will explore the structure and operation of successful publishing companies, the stakeholders, tools and processes crucial to the development of profitable multi-platform products and services and the fundamental and disruptive business models used by both traditional companies and new industry-entrants.
After an immersive introduction to the complex and challenging nature of 21st century publishing, the module offers the opportunity for the generation and critical evaluation of your own publishing ideas. This involves using industry-standard sources and approaches to research and analyse markets, identify appropriate business models and operational strategies and build and present persuasive business cases.
Throughout, there is an emphasis on building robust and well-evidenced arguments to win support for theoretical assertions and practical publishing concepts. You also have the opportunity to work with your peers, and to critically evaluate each other's publishing proposals.
30.00 credits
The Kingston Publishing MA aims to equip you to participate actively in the current, fast-changing creative economy, and this module provides the opportunity to develop your employability and plan your future. It offers you the chance to network with industry professionals, and to learn hands-on through placement in a real publishing environment – experiences which are vital in understanding how the business operates, and in securing employment.
The module begins with a series of masterclasses by a wide range of experts on key contemporary issues. The seminar which follows each event allows you to further engage in these critical debates, increasing the confidence and insight essential for networking and job seeking.
Placements offer you the opportunity to match your interests with the diversity of situations in which publishing expertise is needed. During the module you will undertake a minimum of ten days with a host organisation. An active programme of preparation support is offered during this process. The work experience allows you to apply the knowledge and skills acquired through academic study. Critical reflection on the placement and on personal and professional development throughout the module ensures that you capitalize on your experiences.
Throughout the module you will be guided through practice in all aspects of career planning – from examining industry roles, sector and entrepreneurial opportunities, to the practical honing of skills in job searching, producing successful CVs and job applications, and interview preparation.
30.00 credits
This hands-on module gives students the key theory and the core practical skills needed to effectively manage content from raw material to finished print and digital presentation. Working in teams, students will carry out essential editorial and production tasks to produce a live published product. This group publication project enables students to collaborate to demonstrate the teamwork skills required for timely delivery, and to develop a thorough understanding of workflow and the associated processes. It also enables students to show how material gets turned into a market-appropriate product, ready for stakeholder approval and launch. The module enables students to illustrate how value gets added within the publishing supply chain, and to appreciate the content management systems and metadata vital in today's publishing environment.
By working on in-class exercises and assignment projects students will acquire and apply the key skills necessary to operate within a professional publishing context. Students will engage with project management, budgeting and costing, briefing, the different types of editing, design and layout, proofreading, and delivery. This module enhances employability by allowing students to use industry standard tools and packages, such as HTML, InDesign and Photoshop, and to improve understanding of basic typographic and design principles, the application of typesetting/mark-up skills, and production of publication ready files. Practising these hands-on skills will enhance students' understanding of how attention to detail can improve a product, make it the best it can be, and ensure it is presented profitably to its intended market.
30.00 credits
This module considers the various individuals and communities (colleagues, shareholders, retailers, distributors, customers and other stakeholders) involved in the business of content delivery, and how most effectively to disseminate information and influence their behaviour, in order to promote effective marketing and sales.
This module will enable students to understand the principles of marketing and sales, and develop associated skills in applying them to meet the demands of modern publishing. Students will undertake exercises and discussions about the various applications of sales and marketing within the publishing industry and consider their relevance through all stages of the publishing process.
Through this process students will learn how best to investigate the market for demand, how to predict that demand, and how to prepare, market and distribute information about a product or service, whether in whole or part, to promote profitable fulfilment of that demand.
Publishers operate in an international context and so must market and sell their products to customers around the globe. Students will therefore consider how publishers organise themselves to deliver international operations successfully, and explore associated cultural, pricing and communication issues.
Choose one of the following
60.00 credits
The Practical publishing project provides students with the opportunity to conceive, plan, manage and deliver a substantial publishing-related output in order to achieve specified goals. Examples of potential projects include producing and publishing a book, app or magazine, researching and presenting a start-up business plan or developing and implementing a major market research exercise. In all instances, students are expected to define a specific audience and relevant stakeholders, as well as personal development and project objectives. Students will also develop a structured project plan and a post-project critical evaluation, in order to identify personal goals for future professional development.
Depending on the nature of the chosen project, students will engage with different ranges of knowledge and skills, from practical print or digital production methods and processes to software expertise, market research (including questionnaire design, data analysis and interpretation) and business planning. Although students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning, they are supported and mentored by an individual supervisor at key points in the process.
60.00 credits
The Publishing dissertation module provides students with the opportunity to independently conceive, explore, investigate and then deliver a significant study within the publishing industry and allied fields. The theoretical underpinning may vary according to the approach taken and the research questions chosen, but the outcome should be a sustained and coherent piece of detailed work, capable of publication and wider dissemination.
Depending on the issue chosen, students will engage with a range of professionals within the industry, and within related fields. Although students are expected to take responsibility for their own learning, they are supported and mentored by an individual supervisor during the process.
Optional placement year
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route 4 visa.
This has proven popular with Publishing students, with the majority securing a placement within publishing or a related industry.
Career opportunities
After you graduate
You’ll complete this course with a network of professional publishers to support you as you progress. Recent graduates have gone on to work in a range of roles in publishing and other industries. Organisations include everywhere from Random House, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wiley to City & Guilds and Penguin.
Links with business and industry
We have close connections with a wide range of publishers, agents, literary festival organisers and authors. Through these links, you’ll benefit from an academic teaching team with commercial experience and theoretical knowledge, as well as input from guest speakers and our Advisory board. We also run regular events with leading publishing figures, and offer opportunities to take work placements and win industry-sponsored prizes.
Advisory boards
Our Publishing and Alumni Advisory Boards are on hand to support you while you study. The Boards provide guest lectures, contribute to placement and dissertation study and offer specialist advice on a range of subject areas.
- Dr Christopher Fletcher, Keeper of Special Collections, Bodleian Library
- Andrew Hansen, Vice-President, Prestel Publishing
- Nicholas Jones, Founder and Chairman, Strathmore Publishing
- Philip Jones, Editor, The Bookseller
- Emma Lowe, Publishing Account Director, Glassboxx
- Alicia Lui, Founder and Managing Director, Singing Grass Communications
- Georgina Moore, Director of Books and Publishing, Midas Public Relations
- Sophie O'Neill, Managing Director, Inpress
- Diane Spivey, Publishing and Rights Consultant
- Jeremy Trevathan, Managing Director, Macmillan Adult Division
- Simon Trewin, CEO, Literary Agent and Creative Director, Simon Trewin Ltd
- Andrew Welham, Non-Executive Director, Flame Tree Publishing; Executive Consultant, Think Selection
- Kate Wilson, Founder and CEO, Nosy Crow
- Gordon Wise, Senior Literary Agent, Curtis Brown Group
- John Baker (MA Publishing, 2018), Literary and Screen Agent, Bell Lomax Moreton
- Laura Battle (MA Publishing, 2019), Key Account Manager, Abrams and Chronicle
- Elle Brenton-Rounding (BA English, 2015; MA Publishing, 2016; London Book Fair Trailblazer 2022), Senior Sales and Business Development Manager, Bonnier Books
- Jessica Dunn (MA Publishing, 2012), Complex Ebook Producer, Penguin Random House
- Charlotte Rogers (MA Publishing, 2016), Membership Engagement Manager, Independent Publishers Guild
- Joe Sedgwick (MA Publishing, 2015), Head of Writing Services, The Literary Consultancy
- Kimberley Sheehan (MA Creative Writing and Publishing, 2016), Campaign Manager, The Reading Agency
- Tanuja Shelar (MA Publishing with Professional Placement, 2019; Bookseller Rising Star, 2020), Marketing Manager, Joffe Books
- Jaclyn Swope (MA Publishing, 2013), Senior Account Manager, Nielsen Book Research
I recommend the Kingston Publishing MA because it's the perfect publishing 'finishing school'. It gives you the skills you need before sending you off to your career.
Research areas
Research is a big part of our work in Publishing, which means your tutors bring best practice and cutting-edge thinking to their teaching.
Our masters industry supervision programme creates vibrant collaboration between students and professionals. In 2018, a Kingston MA student won the prestigious Association for Publishing Education Award for the best dissertation at masters level.
Our Associate Professor, Alison Baverstock has had her groundbreaking work on self-publishing published in book and journal form. She has extensive experience of overseeing PhD by publication.
Teaching and assessment
You will be taught via a variety of methods, including lectures, seminars, one-to-one tutorials and hands-on workshops.
You will undertake individual and group assignments including presentations, critical reflections, blogs, an exam as well as industry-specific tasks such as pitching your own publishing idea, developing a marketing communications strategy and analysing the business model of a publisher of your choice. You will be given opportunities to practise and receive feedback in preparation for all assignments.
The course content evolves each year. For example, with video becoming one of the most important marketing tools, we have recently added practical workshops in video creation to the marketing module, with input from industry professionals.
When not attending timetabled sessions, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This typically involves reading and analysing articles, regulations, policy documents and key texts, documenting individual projects, preparing coursework assignments and completing your PEDRs, etc.
Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, the library and CANVAS, the University's online virtual learning platform.
At Kingston University, we know that postgraduate students have particular needs and therefore we have a range of support available to help you during your time here.
A course is made up of modules, and each module is worth a number of credits. You must pass a given number of credits in order to achieve the award you registered on, for example 360 credits for a typical undergraduate course or 180 credits for a typical postgraduate course. The number of credits you need for your award is detailed in the programme specification which you can access from the link at the bottom of this page.
One credit equates to 10 hours of study. Therefore 180 credits across a year (typical for a postgraduate course) would equate to 1,800 notional hours. These hours are split into scheduled and guided. On this course, the percentage of that time that will be scheduled learning and teaching activities is shown below. The remainder is made up of guided independent study.
- 34% scheduled learning and teaching
The exact balance between scheduled learning and teaching and guided independent study will be informed by the modules you take.
Your course will primarily be delivered in person. It may include delivery of some activities online, either in real time or recorded.
Assessment typically comprises exams, practicals (e.g. presentations, performance) and coursework (e.g. essays, reports, self-assessment, portfolios or dissertation). The approximate percentage for how you will be assessed on this course is as follows, though depends to some extent on the optional modules you choose.
Type of assessment
- Coursework: 100%
Please note: the above breakdowns are a guide calculated on core modules only. Depending on optional modules chosen, this breakdown may change.
We aim to provide feedback on assessments within 20 working days.
To give you an indication of class sizes, this course, and the MA Creative Writing and Publishing normally enrol a total of around 30 students. Lecture sizes will vary between modules and academic years, but seminar groups will not exceed 15 students.
Feedback from tutors has been exceptional and has played a crucial role in the development of our critical thinking and assignments. Through masterclass sessions, industry conferences, networking opportunities and even field trips, our tutors have provided a staggering amount of opportunities to engage and get involved with the publishing industry.
Fees and funding
| Fee category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | |
| Full Time | £12,400 |
| Part Time | £6,820 |
| International | |
| Full Time | £20,700 |
| Part Time | £11,385 |
| Fee category | Fee |
|---|---|
| Home (UK students) | |
| Full Time | £11,900 |
| Part Time | £6,545 |
| International | |
| Full Time | £19,900 |
| Part Time | £10,945 |
Funding support for postgraduate students
If you are a UK student living in England and under 60, you can apply for a loan to study for a postgraduate degree on the government's website.
Scholarships and bursaries
Interested in studying Publishing MA at Kingston? The following funding support is available:
Get a 40% reduction in fees for taught masters or postgraduate diploma courses with September start dates. Find out more on our Inspire the Future Scholarship page.
Receive up to £5,000 towards tuition in your first year of study. Find out more on our International scholarships page.
Get a 15% reduction in tuition fees. Find out more on our Postgraduate Progression Scholarship page.
If you’re under 25, living in the UK and pay UK tuition fees, you could receive a £6,000 bursary and mentoring from the Stationers’ Company while you study. When you complete the scheme, you’ll be awarded Freedom of the Stationers' Company. Find out more on the Stationers' Company website.
Kingston University offers a 10% discount on full- and part-time postgraduate degree course tuition fees to our alumni. Find out more on our alumni benefits page.
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Our libraries have an extensive collection of books and journals, as well as open-access computers and laptops available to rent. However, you may want to buy your own computer or personal copies of key textbooks. Textbooks may range from £50 to £250 per year. And a personal computer can range from £100 to £3,000 depending on your course requirements.
While most coursework is submitted online, some modules may require printed copies. You may want to allocate up to £100 per year for hard-copies of your coursework. It’s worth noting that 3D printing is never compulsory. So if you choose to use our 3D printers, you’ll need to pay for the material. This ranges from 3p per gram to 40p per gram.
Kingston University will pay for all compulsory field trips. Fees for optional trips can range from £30 to £350 per trip.
Your tuition fees don’t cover travel costs. To save on travel costs, you can use our free intersite bus service. This route links the campuses and halls of residence with local train stations - Surbiton, Kingston upon Thames, and Norbiton.
How to apply
Before you apply
Please read the entry criteria carefully to make sure you meet all requirements before applying.
How to apply online
Use the course selector drop down at the top of this page to choose your preferred course, start date and mode, then click 'Apply now'. You will be taken to our Online Student Information System (OSIS) where you will complete your application.
If you’re starting a new application, you’ll need to select ‘new user’ and set up a username and password. This will allow you to save and return to your application.
Application deadlines
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will close when the course is full.
Information required to confirm your place
If English is not your first language, we will require proof of your proficiency to allow us to confirm your place on the course. This will generally be either an IELTS or TOEFL test certificate, which can be forwarded to us after you have submitted your application. If you do not hold a formal English language qualification, please indicate how you have acquired your proficiency in written and spoken English.
After you apply
If the admission tutor wants to see your portfolio, we will email asking you to upload your zipped portfolio to the OSIS portal within three weeks. If we need more information or want to invite you for an interview, we will be in touch directly. After that you will then hear whether your application has been successful.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
What our students and graduates say
Our course leader and the teaching staff made sure we had the right skills for the publishing industry. This was done through internships at publishing companies, workshops with publishing professionals and coursework which included creating business plans. The course was challenging at times but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It boosted my confidence and helped me land a job in a reputable publishing company.
