Ooligan Press exists in two worlds: the world of independent presses, and the world of student presses. As an independent press, Ooligan strives to bring the stories of authors to the public, whether they are stories of imagination or stories of realities both everyday and incredible. As a student press, Ooligan has an obligation to another kind of author and another kind of story. The authors here are a group of motivated individuals and their story is one of collaboration and growth as they learn to operate in the world of publishing. Below is the blog roll where project managers tell the story of each work in progress from “Start to Finish.” You can see how the press is involved in bringing an author’s work to life, and be present for every step—every twist and turn—in the incredible journey of a published work.
Note: The project has also been featured in Publisher’s Weekly.
COURT OF VENOM Ramps Up for Its Spring Launch - Time is flying by for our upcoming fantasy title, COURT OF VENOM. The books are in, and our team is in the awareness phase of our social media campaign. I am so excited about all of the amazing ideas our team has come up with, and I'd like to share some of them!
When the Pub Date Changes: A Project Manager’s Experience - In late December, our publisher was informed that a major portion of the shipment that was en route to our distributor was lost. She acted fast, looping in the Design Manager, Operations Manager, and me, the Project Manager, and we did some major troubleshooting. FedEx was attempting to locate the shipment, hopeful that it would be found after the holiday backlog cleared. The publisher reached out to Ingram, our distributor, to see if it was feasible to use their print-on-demand service to ensure we would have books in time to meet the industry deadline for new titles. Because of many factors (timing, holiday closures, and staffing numbers), the success of this option was not guaranteed. Ultimately, moving the publishing date forward a month was the best solution.
WHERE WE CALL HOME: Title Formation and Cover Design - Once classes started in September, we wasted no time getting the ball rolling on our newest title, WHERE WE CALL HOME: ESSAYS FROM THE LANDS, SEAS, AND SKIES OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST by Josephine Woolington. We kicked off the term by finalizing the title and are rolling ahead with the cover design and copyedits.
Building a Brand: Production Goals for COURT OF VENOM - Our team has started laying out our social media strategy document (SMSD) as well as our branding brief. The latter will inform our team on what themes and palettes to use in our social media collateral. Since we already have not only our cover but also a fully designed booklet, we have a lot of our branding cut out for us.
SHORT, VIGOROUS ROOTS: A Brief Account of a Project Team’s Blurb Journey - The process of requesting blurbs begins with a massive contact sheet—a focused list of people who may be interested in writing a blurb for the book. It involves reaching out to a lot of people: "the more names, the more likely you are to get a yes," Tucker says, adding that we want to ask people who have a "strong connection with both [the] audience and the material…because the more focused the blurb list is on your audience, the better." In our case, this all proved true.