Linda Speth
LINDA E. SPETH has been appointed general manager of the University of the West Indies Press, effective April 4, 2000.
Ms. Speth holds the Bachelor of Arts and the Master of Arts Magna Cum Laude in History from Utah State University.
She has had a wealth of experience in the scholarly book publishing industry and has worked as freelance editor, writer and author since 1980. She has edited over one hundred books, journal articles, theses, grants and papers in a variety of discipline, including history, political science, economics and agricultural economics.
Ms. Speth was most recently director of Iowa State University Press from 1992 to 1999. During that period, she inaugurated, implemented and continually developed successful three-year editorial plans to focus on list development, define goals and concentrate on improving profitability, scholarly contributions and discipline impact. She negotiated co-publishing contracts with diverse constituencies, including authors, museums, historical societies as well as North American, British, French German, Italian, Pacific rim and Spanish publishers. She also increased the visibility of Press publishing programmes and Press authors by negotiating subsidiary right sales.
Under her directorship Iowa State University Press publishing programme grew from 44 to 88 titles annually. She also expanded the Faculty Editorial Board to improve the quality of manuscripts and to enhance Press visibility on campus. She computerised all Press departments, including new systems and continuing upgrades for Editorial, Production, Compo-sition, Marketing, Accounting, Warehouse and Order Fulfilment. Mrs. Speth instituted scheduling integrity for publications, ensuring a favourable response from scholars, authors and the market.
Prior to this, she was editor from 1980 to 1982 and director 1982 to 1992 of Utah State University Press where she was responsible for introducing title-by-title budgeting, implementing title subsidy programme to support publication of important scholarly books with a limited audience; increasing list development in regional history, regional trade, folklore, Mormon history and western history; computerised all press functions, including implementing on-line editing.
She has co-authored a book and written several refereed papers. Her publications include "Women, Family and Community in Colo-nial America", "Married Women's Property Acts, 1839-1865" and "History of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest".
