When I told friends and family that I would be pursuing a graduate degree in book publishing, I was met with varied reactions. Some people thought it sounded wonderful—the perfect niche degree for a bookworm like myself. Many others were surprised and pessimistic: “Isn’t that a dying industry?” I admit it made me question my choice at times. Was I really about to go thousands of dollars into debt to hopefully get a career in an industry that would soon cease to exist?
small press
The Generosity of Time: Editing at Small Presses
By Kristen Ludwigsen @kludlitup
At Ooligan, we only publish three books a year. Every manuscript we acquire is treated with extra special love and care, and receives developmental edits, line edits, and several rounds of copyedits.
Book Sales, Or Math for English Majors
By Grace Evans @gracemalizia
Sit in a room full of English majors long enough, and you’ll eventually hear someone groan, “Ugh… math.” The topic may be differential calculus or how to split the tab, but the sentiment is always the same. Why, the lover of words bemoans, do we have to take a break from talking about books to do things with numbers?
Ooligan in the World
By Grace Evans @gracemalizia & Elizabeth Hughes @elizabig
From intimate readings to established conferences and book festivals, we’ve spent a lot of time over the past few months arranging opportunities for the world—at least our Pacific Northwest corner of it—to meet our books and their authors. There have been plenty of volunteer schedules to fill, promotional marketing and social media posts to plan, and boxes of books to cart to and fro. In return for that work, we’ve watched our authors delight and charm audiences while their books are admired, applauded, and carried away to new homes. So where in the world have we found Ooligan authors this fall?
From Cryptids to the Classroom: Transitioning from Small Press to Student Press
By Des Hewson
At 8:31 a.m. the office is cold as a meat locker. Shivering in a cocoon of sweaters, I’m groggy and exasperated as I pick at a lemon muffin, working my way through the first round of edits on an article outlining the quantum vibrational time harmonics of fifth-dimensional consciousness as channeled from a flamingo.
I Ain’t No Followback Girl: Social Media’s Place in the World of Publishing
By Katie Fairchild @km_fairchild
At the end of the day, my job is really about creating shareable, engaging content. By posting about Ooligan books long before and after they’re published, my goal is to start a discussion, to get people jazzed about our books.