Leah Feltham’s dissertation on Children’s Book Apps: A study of their effect on the children’s book market and the publishing industry in the UK has won the annual prize sponsored by the Bookseller for the best Kingston University MA Publishing student dissertation.
Leah Feltham picking up another award last year, for Best Student Researcher
Leah’s research was supervised by Cathy Schofield, former World Book Day Coordinator. Using dissertation supervisors working in the publishing industry, says Kingston’s MA Publishing Course Leader Alison Baverstock, is a real benefit to everyone involved:
‘In addition to guidance from academic tutees, the student works with an industry mentor, and develops work that is genuinely useful to the industry.‘
Dissertation supervisor Cathy Schofield was initially nervous about Leah’s choice of topic since it is notoriously difficult to find anything out about, those involved are generally secretive and things are changing at an alarming rate. However, she soon changed her opinion:
‘I need not have been concerned. What Leah has been able to do is to give an overview of the past, present and the potential future in clear and fascinating terms.
This is exactly the kind of research and presentation that any publisher or other member of the book trade should read carefully to help understand the long-term impact of modern technology on the future of the business and culture of books and reading – not just in the UK, but globally.’
Leah has now completed her MA Publishing degree and is working in marketing at Penguin. As Alison Baverstock says, ‘we’re very proud of her’.
Kingston Publishing: inspiring future publishers 