At first glance, branding may not seem integral to book publishing. Readers are not likely to base their decision to buy a book on the publisher’s brand, but among publishing professionals, establishing a personal brand for yourself is crucial. Potential collaborators will want to know who you are, what you value, your level of expertise in relevant fields, and how to connect with you. You can control what they see by branding yourself online and within the industry according to how you want to be perceived.
skills
It Ain’t Just Grammar: Skills for Successful Copyediting
By Olivia Rollins
If you’re a writer or an English major who aced every spelling and grammar quiz in school, you might think to yourself, “Hey, I’m pretty good with words. I understand punctuation, possessives, and present participles. I would make a fantastic copyeditor!” And you could very well be right. But before you dive headfirst into this profession, it’s important to know that for a good copyeditor, grammatical know-how is just the tip of the iceberg; successful copyediting requires a number of additional skills that have nothing to do with whipping out that red pen to correct a dangling modifier. This post outlines some essential copyediting skills that are completely unrelated to grammar and spelling.
Ooligan Press: Making Books, Designing Careers
By Scott Fortmann
My much-younger classmates at Ooligan are in a very different phase of life. They are exactly where I was thirty-five years ago: they are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives and how they want to start their careers. Ooligan gives these students a hands-on, immersive experience in the publishing process.
Fear of eBooks in Publishing
By Emily Einolander emilyeino
Over the last year of taking classes in the publishing program, I’ve developed a drinking game to gauge technophobia. It’s best to play this game on the first day of the term, when we’re all introducing ourselves and stating why we’re here. Drink every time: Someone zealously praises a book as an “artifact” or an […]
Why Not Code?
By Emily Einolander emilyeino
If you had told me last summer that by this summer I would be the Ooligan digital manager, I would have been like . . . Bock-bock-ba-what? Like many other word-lovers who have been forever entrenched in the humanities and social sciences, the idea of anything computery seems out of line. My identity revolved around […]