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КАКОЕ НЕБО ГОЛУБОЕ.

Фестиваль детского рисунка "Какое небо голубое" в Московском доме книги на Новом Арбате был приурочен к выходу в свет сказки Булата Шалвовича Окуджавы "Прелестные приключения" с уникальными иллюстрациями автора. Когда Булат Шалвович жил в Ялте он посылал своему сыну письма, в которых описывал фантастические приключения.

Однажды Окуджава показал эти письма поэтессе Белле Ахма-дулиной. "Да это же готовая повесть" — воскликнула она. Так и родились "Прелестные приключения", философская сказка- притча для детей и взрослых, которая давно издана в Чехии, Польше, Грузии, Израиле и даже в Японии, и только теперь очередь дошла до нас. Организатором мероприятия был директор фонда знаменитого барда — Вадим Головня. Детишкам выдали принадлежности для рисования, а на выполнение задания — изобразить путешествие — отвели час. Выбрать лучший рисунок по признанию членов жюри было непросто, так как все очень старались. Авторов шести лучших рисунков наградили подарками, остальным достался подручный материал. Но, как сказал поэт," пряников, кстати, всегда не хватает на всех".

UNIT 2

TEXT

WHO ARE THE BOOK PEOPLE?

Publishing remains an intensely people-orientated business and it always will. It is a business of taste and choice. Trevor Glover, Penguin

What kind of people make good publishers, and in what kind of operation do they best thrive?

A recent survey of the Society of Young Publishers (SYP) showed that 90 per cent of its membership was from professional middle-class families. They were also well educated, 80 per cent having been in higher education. As one publishing course lecturer put it, there are far more enrollments on to publishing courses. Potential publishers tend to be highly articulate, confident and independent. They are also predominantly female.

In Europe too publishing has cachet and attracts well-motivate candidates. In the USA publishers are predominantly white, middle class, educated, and from the East Coast.

Publishers are single-minded about their chosen career. Whereas of the final-year degree students of my acquaintance chose a particular job function (for example, to be an accountant or go into management), few laid down precisely which industry they wanted to work in.

Publishers, it seems here, really are different.

For instance, those who wanted to work as a buyer had to find a firm willing to employ and train them as such. The ease with which it could be achieved depended on the economy and the number of jobs on offer, but if one firm turned them down there were others to be considered.

Application was relatively straightforward: they filled in the relevant form, sent it to the right building, and then hoped for an interview. Sometimes they would try several buildings in a short space of time.

By contrast, the first task of those interested in a career in publishing was to carry out detailed planning as to where the most appropriate buildings were. Then they progressed in charting who they already knew inside them, and circumnavigated them to find the back door, the fire escape or any ladders left casually lying about. Formal application forms for specific job opportunities were rare. There were few company brochures to read about relevant products; it was a question of picking a few names you had heard of and scanning the shelves of the local bookshop for more information about the kind of books produced. Applicants had to be enthusiastic, enterprising, optimistic and determined.

Above all, anyone decided on a career in publishing had to leave their options open until the last minute. Most publishing vacancies are only advertised a month or more before the successful candidate is needed to start, so there are few future publishers with a pre-exam job offer Careers advisers tell me that the general job application market has, of late, moved in a similar way to publishing.

Moving to London and taking a secretarial course, or dusting the warehouse shelves during your university holidays, has always been an accepted way to make contracts, acquire industry

knowledge and then get into publishing. Today there is much more emphasis on the indirect approach in other professions too, on the "added value" that individual applicants are able to give to their curriculum vitae through related •work experience and the acquisition of relevant skills.

Those offering professional career advice now include the "indirect" or "speculative approach" in their general guidance. For example, most of the graduates in the UK in 1992 who entered the Diplomatic Service had done something "additional" first; few entered straight from university. And this emphasis on self-organized, pre-job training is the way employment market has operated in continental Europe and the USA for some time.

Why publishing?

The SYP survey showed that nearly all the 3000 members quoted had joined publishing because of a "love of books" and, despite the "appallingly low" wages, 92 per cent were planning to stay. Ivor Powell of West Herts College commented on the relish with which most potential publishers long to be part of the "book-producing company", creating a quality product that matters. Many had family connections. And once they have found a niche within publishing, few move outside the industry. It's a more common c'areer path to work for a few firms and then set up on your own that to change the industry.

Almost all the people in charge of the large British companies are from the publishing world. We are not businessmen or women who happen to be in publishing. We are publishers who have learned about business.

And it seems that the same goes throughout Europe and the USA. Publishing is a congenial place to work and it is hard to get started. It follows that those who make it are motivated and determined.

Date: 2015-12-13; view: 1002; Нарушение авторских прав