Even avid readers for whom books are an indispensable ingredient of life may know little about how a would-be-author’s inkling evolves into the hefty volume, digital tome or audio rendition that so delights, intrigues, infuriates or informs them.
From authors to agents, editors to ad directors, sales people to publicists, DePauw is well represented in the book world. We asked DePauw alumni to tell us about the work they do to put the written word into readers’ hands. Or ears.
We also asked two English professors: Why is DePauw so well represented in publishing?
“I think that people drawn to publishing love sentences and feel that their work matters for intrinsic reasons: The printed word provides valuable information or exciting ideas or eloquent language – often a mixture of all three,” said Andrea Sununu, who has taught at DePauw for more than 30 years.
“Accordingly, because English majors also like people, they are eager to share this wealth. The many students I have known who go into publishing are readers who take pleasure in discussing literature and who, as either literary critics or creative writers, revel in finding the mot juste in their aim to make their own writing precise, concise and lively.”
She provided an excerpt from an email from a former student who works in publishing:
“It’s kind of a riot to work on a team of people who are as fanatical about commas as I am,” the alumna wrote. “We have incredibly impassioned discussions about punctuation and how to best phrase sentences. My first week here, everyone was gathered around one of the editors, discussing an editing quandary, and I was just sort of listening and smiling to myself. And one of them caught my eye and said, ‘You’re in heaven right now, aren’t you?’”
Gregg Schwipps, a 1995 graduate who returned to his alma mater to teach, said DePauw’s collaborative and respectful learning style prepares graduates to thrive in publishing.
His writing workshop, in which students write critiques of their classmates’ essays, “forces the students to develop their critical eye. It forces them to be able to put in writing what they think is working in a story and what isn’t working in a story. … In that way, we’re really building editors. We’re building critics. We’re building copy editors, and we’re building readers.”
Schwipps said his gut tells him DePauw graduates “tend to get promoted quicker, and over others,” largely because they’ve learned to offer criticism “without being mean. … We do produce a good number” of such people.
“Those are people that others want to be around. And so, when it’s time to promote somebody, that’s the first kind of person promoted.”
DePauw Magazine
Spring 2022
- Ever-changing challenges
- New approaches
- First Person by Samuel Autman
- ’62 champ still swimming after all these years
- The Bo(u)lder Question by Maggie Schein
- Lessons in accountability
- Stories people care about
- A watchdog
- Eye-opening experience
- Ethical decision-making
- A way to give back
- Confidence-builder
- A solid foundation
- Collaborative spirit
- A sense of identity
- Freedom to experiment
- Meeting Jimmy Hoffa
- The DePauw at 170
- The book seller
- The reader
- The publicist
- The children’s book publicist
- The ad director
- The sales director
- The literary fiction editor
- The nonfiction editor
- The assistant editor
- The literary agent
- The illustration agent
- The ghostwriter
- The niche publisher
- The accidental author
- The self-published author
- The children’s author and illustrator
- The bestseller
- The fiction author
- The nonfiction author
- From Inkling to Ink: How a book becomes a book
- The memoirist-in-the-making
- DePauw Magazine - From Inkling to Ink: How a book becomes a book
DePauw Stories
A GATHERING PLACE FOR STORYTELLING ABOUT DEPAUW UNIVERSITY
Browse other stories
-
Athletics
-
Field Hockey - Tigers Remain Undefeated in Conference After Shutting out Presidents
-
Field Hockey - Tigers Record Fifth Shutout in 6-0 Victory Over Allegheny
-
Women's Soccer - Tigers Beat Terriers 4-0 at Home
More Athletics
-
-
News
-
Dr. Jennifer Mike joins DePauw faculty as Visiting Global Studies Scholar
-
DePauw launches the Creative School
-
DePauw awarded $32 million Lilly Endowment Inc. grant for community development partnership with the City of Greencastle
More News
-
-
People & Profiles
-
11 alums make list of influential Hoosiers
-
DePauw welcomes Dr. Manal Shalaby as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence
-
DePauw Names New Vice President for Communications and Strategy and Chief of Staff
More People & Profiles
-
-
Have a story idea?
Whether we are writing about the intellectual challenge of our classrooms, a campus life that builds leadership, incredible faculty achievements or the seemingly endless stories of alumni success, we think DePauw has some fun stories to tell.
-
Communications & Marketing
101 E. Seminary St.
Greencastle, IN, 46135-0037
communicate@depauw.eduNews and Media
-
News media: For help with a story, contact:
Bob Weaver, Senior Director of Communications.
bobweaver@depauw.edu.