On-Demand: How Books Work

Tutor: Merlin Fox, Associate Publisher, Books, Royal Society of Chemistry

Discover the journey of a book — from idea to finished publication.

Aimed at anyone new to book publishing or considering a career in the industry, How Books Work offers a comprehensive introduction to the publishing process. You’ll follow the lifecycle of a book from its initial concept through to publication and beyond, gaining insight into the people, decisions, and systems that bring books to life.

The course is divided into four engaging modules:

• Books in the 21st Century – explore the landscape of modern publishing, including key players, business models, and emerging trends.
• Content Acquisition and Development – learn how ideas are sourced, shaped, and prepared for publication.
• In-house: Putting it Together - understand the workflows and roles involved in turning a manuscript into a finished product.
• Publication and Beyond - discover what happens once a book is published, from marketing and metadata to sales and distribution.

Each module is designed to take approximately one hour, and includes a rich mix of videos, slides, flashcards, and reflection prompts, along with mid-section and end-of-section quizzes to test your understanding. A final quiz at the end of the course ties everything together.

As an On-Demand course, you can learn at your own pace — access is available for six months after registration, allowing you to revisit materials whenever you like.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Understand key terms, models and current trends in the book publishing industry
• Appreciate the importance of metadata in the book supply chain
• Understand the full lifecycle of a scholarly book
• Apply knowledge of the production options available to publish books
• Recognise the value different roles in publishing add to scholarly works

Tutor Profile

Merlin’s publishing career began in 2004 when he joined the Royal Society of Chemistry as a journal assistant editor. Between 2006 and 2014 he was a commissioning editor for the RSC’s books programme. As a senior commissioning editor, he later worked on books for World Scientific and Artech House. Since returning to the RSC in 2022 as Associate Publisher, Merlin has established a new concise book model and developed RSC’s open access books policy. Merlin was a co-tutor for ALPSP’s Commissioning Content course for many years, and a guest lecturer for Publishing Masters courses at UCL and Anglia Ruskin University. Before publishing, Merlin was research scientist; he has a PhD in Agricultural Science from University of Bristol and an MSc in Applied Environmental Science from Imperial.