Training Courses

I have been training publishing teams in ebook-related topics for over a decade, including as in-house ebook trainer at Penguin Random House, and as an independent trainer helping publishing professionals from across the industry and across the globe to become more confident and efficient in how they work with ebooks and related technology.

All my training courses are held online, though can be held on-premises upon request. Pricing is also negotiable based on your precise requirements and available budget - just get in touch and we’ll find a way to meet your needs.

All of these courses have been delivered multiple times and are constantly evolving to reflect the latest industry developments and best practices. Courses booked for organisations receive customisations to reflect the specific type of content that you publish.

All courses include a copy of the slide deck for participants to keep, subject to fair use.

IPG members receive 10% discounts on all course bookings (Accessibility: Opportunities and Best Practices excluded as the IPG runs its own custom member discount for that course).

“It would be difficult to find anyone more knowledgeable about digital publishing and accessibility than Simon.”

"This was really helpful - wish I had taken something similar 6 months ago!"

"I feel much more prepared now!"

Current Courses Available

Accessibility and Publishing: Opportunities and Best Practices - in partnership with the Independent Publishers Guild

Why is accessibility suddenly such a focus in digital publishing? What specific laws apply to the markets you are active in? How can we comply with the requirements without causing headaches for our budgets and workflows?

This course is a part of the IPG’s ‘The Place’ course library, and is fully CPD-accredited. The day long course distils the latest information and perspectives from industry groups and publishers around the world along with the techniques and workflow best practices I’ve learned from working with over 30 organisations on accessible publishing.

This course covers areas including:

• Key legislation

• Impacts and benefits

• Formats and markup

• Image description

• Accessible design principles

• Metadata

• Strategies for Success

This popular course has been very well received by publishers, helping to make sure leaders, key stakeholders and critical team members have all the information they need to make their organisations compliant in a smart, achievable way that makes sense for each business and is most impactful for their readers.

Find the next available session on the IPG’s training page, or for a private session for your organisation please get in touch with me or with the IPG directly so that we can find a way to meet your needs.

Costs

• £150 per ticket for public version (contact me for next date)

• Publisher-specific tailored version POA

Image Description in Focus: From Authoring to AI

Creating useful and accurate image descriptions at the scale that publishers work is often the greatest single challenge faced by publishers in their accessibility rollout - and in most markets, it’s no longer optional. Even if you plan on outsourcing this task, knowing what makes good image descriptions (‘alt text’), how to be useful to your readers and how to assess a description written by someone else are key skills that your teams need to become proficient at. Whether you plan to produce descriptions in-house, via an external company (typesetter or separate vendor) or using artificial intelligence (AI), this course will ensure your teams are ready for the challenge.

Key modules include:

• Legislative background

• What image descriptions actually are and why ‘alt text’

• How they interact with captions

• How context affects image descriptions

• Writing to an audience

• Language tips learned from writing many hundreds of descriptions for many different publishers!

The course includes interactive image description exercises, and can use your own images to make it as relevant as possible.

Costs

• £1000, online delivery to unlimited participants with Q&A

Accessibility Metadata Masterclass: Making the Message

Accessibility metadata is a key requirement of accessibility legislation around the world, including under the European Accessibility Act. It’s also a significant challenge to implement in a way that is both accurate and efficient. This course explains the power and value of accessibility metadata and why it is stressed so heavily in legislation, as well as exploring which kinds of metadata are required, how they work, and most importantly the strategies for rolling them out that will protect your business resources while making an enormous difference to print-disabled readers’ lives.

Key modules include:

• Legal requirement

• User perspective

• Platform display

• Formats (including ONIX and Schema)

• A full breakdown of my client-tested, well-proven strategy for efficient metadata production

This course is developed collaboratively with your teams, to ensure the guidance is laser-focused on your specific publishing systems and metadata setup.

Costs

• £500, online delivery to unlimited participants with Q&A