This section discusses two separate matters:
- books as an educational medium
- issues that must be considered during the publishing process
This will be of use particularly to educators setting up programmes for the first time.
Educational Advantages of Using Books
The printing and distribution of books in people's home language changed the world. They remain the most powerful medium of communicating complex messages and have the advantage of being relatively easy to produce in quantity, low in unit cost, simple to store, and totally unreliant on electricity, telephone lines, or computer terminals once they have been printed. And, unlike computers, they are not subject to the dangers of magnetic interference or virus corruption.
Even in situations of illiteracy, it requires only a single literate person willing to read aloud to convey the contained message and that person requires only the skill of reading rather than mastery of the content of the book.
Surprisingly, there are few simple books containing information about elections and democracy available in many countries. Publishers of religious texts inevitably rely not only on market forces to determine their production and distribution but go out of their way to place such books in the hands of people who they believe will benefit from their ownership. In South Africa, the government made a similar attempt, using low-cost printing methods and the national postal network, to place copies of their new constitution in 7 million hands. In Mexico, the election commission produced a set of books on various aspects of democracy.
Disadvantages of Books
There are disadvantages to the use of books for individual or group education:
- The extended period that it takes to publish a book raises the possibility that the information will become outdated.
- Publication of a book where the intended audience is small makes the unit cost high and possibly unaffordable.
- Publication in book form has become somewhat mystified.
With radio, television, magazines, and newspapers being the preferred means for popular communication, books have come to be associated with expert audiences or with particular niche markets. While there are a plethora of popular novels and self-help books being published, there is surprisingly little civic education material being published in book form at the same level. What is there seems directed at formal schooling at secondary or tertiary level in the form of texts which
will be interpreted by a teacher or lecturer.
Booklets
Linked to the book, and perhaps more used by educators, is the booklet. A booklet can be written more rapidly, printed in larger quantities, and because it normally has a limited number of pages, it is less likely to receive the unnecessary deification that a book might receive. Yet, booklets of this nature can be very influential and can serve a large number of readers per unit.
Complementary Programmes
This section has suggested that books and booklets be considered in their own right as an educational intervention. But they are also a tool to assist other educational interventions and as such, provide particularly appropriate supplementary materials for face-to-face programmes. For more on comic style booklets which see Comics and Pictorials.
Whether a source of reference to be consulted during a workshop, as material to be handed out for further reading, or as a gift to leave with a single person or family after a house visit, publications ensure that knowledge is not fleeting and that learning continues after the initial interaction.
One of the advantages of making substantial materials available following a face-to-face interaction is that the book becomes a locally available resource. And in situations where such resources are scarce, it is likely to be well used by a range of people.
Such usage goes beyond the individualistic perception of a book and the reason it is considered a relatively high-cost option. Originally, books were used in community settings, and there is no reason why this use should not be exploited educationally.
A further complementary usage is as a supplement to radio, which suffers from its ephemeral nature. Texts are used in distance education programmes, and a cheap booklet may be made available before or after a particular radio broadcast. In the case of the second, radio becomes one option in the book publishing distribution strategy.
Publishing a Book
The preparation of a book, whether small or large, for a limited audience or mass distribution, goes through a similar process.
The Initial Idea: Unless an author has submitted a text to a publisher, it is likely that the publisher will have the initial idea, including a set of explicit or implicit educational goals, about what is required. Publishers who are experienced and know their audience well are likely to have concrete ideas. Or, the concept may be less well formed at this stage.
The Audience: The concept has to firm up rather quickly, especially if there is an entirely commercial means of publishing. When a publisher has the money to underwrite the publication, it remains essential to ask critical questions about the size and context of the audience. These are questions that educators will already have posed.
In addition, educators should consider whether the publication of a book or booklet will be a more effective way of achieving their goals than any other. And they should establish a set of guidelines for the remainder of the project that will establish the audience, the quality of the publication, its level of language, and any other principles necessary to guide the writers and those who will produce the book.
The Text: Production of a text should be considered the responsibility of one or more writers, working either independently of one another or together on an outline established by the publisher.
There are occasions when the production of a text initiates a book. Proceedings of conferences and reports from monitoring teams are often of such quality that there is a temptation to turn these into books. Writers also submit manuscripts that a commercial publisher may venture to publish.
But those involved in civic education should begin with a concept and a set of educational objectives before developing a text.
Editing of the Text: Writers write. Editors edit. There should be a division between these two tasks. Very few manuscripts are published unedited, and the editor's task is considered either the refining of the manuscript, or in some celebrated occasions, the recovery of a book from a thicket of text.
The editing task is one that is likely to be iterative, and it is possible that at the end of this process, the book that was intended may still not be available. Editors need to maintain close contact with writers and in some cases, there may be an ongoing collaborative exercise from the start of the project.
Design of the Book: In addition to the writer and the editor, there will be a person who takes on the responsibility for designing the book. When only text is envisaged, such a person will take responsibility for designing the page layout (including page numbering, margins, headings, and highlights), selecting the type of lettering to be used, working out the best way to separate the book into sections and chapters, and establishing a contents page and all the ancillary pages.
A good designer knows about and can suggest cost-cutting measures to manage paper. There are standard paper sizes that have implications for how the page is made up, how many pages a book should have, how pages are folded and cut, and whether a nonstandard page is required for the particular publication. Designers also understand the quality of paper and the impact of text on the colour and texture of different available papers.
When the book is more elaborate and is intended to have diagrams, pictures, and photographs, or decorative text, or where a special paper is to be used, designers will play a hand in preparing this as well. They may also be called upon to make some suggestions about binding.
Many books published today start with a design, and when an elaborate book is planned, writers, designers, and editors may be required to work hand in hand from the start of the project.
On the other hand, simple computer software is available that can assist anyone with basic design skills or experience to develop a book design. The software does not yet take the place of a person with a flair for design but it certainly makes such a person's job easier; and it makes it possible for educators to view and review the design of the book earlier than might otherwise be possible.
The Cover Design: Whatever the inside of a book might look like, it is the cover that counts when it comes to initial impressions. And those designing covers must have a good understanding of what initial impression is required.
The discussion of the outside impression of the book requires not only a decision about the title, the text that will appear (including the introduction to the book) and the manner in which both will be presented with illustration to provide a pick-me-up look. People publishing books and booklets in support of education programmes must also consider more practical matters such as the likely placement of the book when it reaches the first distribution point, the manner in which the book
will be stored, and the distribution mechanism.
Such considerations will determine matters such as size and likely binding. Small books can get lost on a shelf, especially if they are staple bound and therefore have no discernable spine. Large coffee table size books may be too heavy to be posted without expensive packing, or they may not fit on a standard shelf in a little community library.
Thus, a decision to produce a good-looking cover can be insufficient to ensure that the book or booklet are friendly to the reader, the distributor, the library, and the educator. The cover needs to be considered in conjunction with the weight of the entire publication.
Marketing and Distribution Plan: Whether the education programme has decided to produce a textbook, a booklet, or even a set of popular novels aimed at adolescents covering democratic themes, they need to develop a marketing and distribution plan during the early phases of the project.
Such a plan will develop realism about the size of a print run, the likely income that will be available to offset the costs, the manner in which the publication will get to its intended audience, the date by which this must happen, and the effort that will have to be put into ensuring that the audience receives and reads the book.
Publishing houses involved in regular commercial, academic, and popular publishing, have this expertise. But they may choose not to publish the book that the programme believes is essential. Often, education programmes make choices using criteria other than those of a publishing house. But it may be possible to obtain the guidance of such a publishing house in developing a plan.
If this cannot be sought, educators should obtain the support and advice of other people in the book publishing world. Obtaining such advice will also publicise the publication, and could have the additional benefit of ensuring that any overlap is spotted early on rather than at the point of no return.
A marketing and distribution plan should include advertising, book launches, point of sale or free distribution discussions, sending of preliminary copies for book review and to potential groups of users, and decisions about the style of distribution.
Some books have a long shelf life and after an initial spurt of sales may settle down to a regular order every so often for an extended period. Other books need to get out into the market in one fell swoop. General texts for democracy may not change much and could be considered in the first category. A special preelection book needs to get out as it will be good only for pulping once the election is over.
Typesetting and Layout: A range of technical options, including improved computer software and printers, sophisticated scanners, and photocopiers makes the production of a book relatively simple. Indeed, those who have access to such equipment make the mistake of believing that it is all necessary and that a book cannot be done in any other way.
However, there are countries that must still rely on manual typesetting machines, galley proofs, layout stripping, and pasting up of proofs by hand. Such time-honoured methods remain viable although they do require a different set of skills.
In general, however, educators in countries operating in such a paradigm will work in collaboration with specialised printers or publishers rather than attempt to generate the major part of the publication in-house as may be possible with computer assistance.
Proofreading: Similarly, proofreading, or the checking of text for last-minute corrections, differs depending on whether the printing is done through a computer-based or manual system. In a computer-based system, there is temptation to do proofreading on the screen and to rely on the tools available (especially the spell checker'). This is not sufficient.
Proofing is essential and should be done on a hard copy in the format in which it will appear on the final version, so all errors can be spotted. Such work should be done by someone other than the writer.
Printing: Because printing appears to be one of the last tasks to be done, there is an inclination to leave its arrangement also to the last minute. However, printers operate under a number of constraints.
Once it has been established that the printer can actually handle the job, the printer must ensure that the machines are available and are prepared for the print run required. Printers must have all the necessary consumables, especially the paper. In many developing countries, paper is in short supply and must be ordered well in advance and stored carefully for the job.
When the job is complete, unless arrangements are made to take delivery immediately, the printer will be faced with a storage problem and may need to make arrangements in this regard as well.
Distribution and Delivery: There are too many books and booklets sitting on floors in government offices, electoral institutions, and NGOs to suggest that, having gone through all the obvious tasks of publishing, distribution and delivery will take care of themselves.
A plan should be developed for ensuring that the publication gets from the printer to the reader in time.
