A university press is, generally speaking, a publishing company that is housed inside an academic institution. As of this writing, there are 138 of them in the United States (and many more worldwide). Just like a regular traditional publisher, a university press has departments, which may include acquisitions, editorial, design, production, and marketing. A university press exists to acquire and develop manuscripts, which can range from monographs on very narrow academic areas of research to trade publications of general interest, including fiction. Often, a university press is focused on topics and authors of regional interest and importance. In contrast to the “Big Five” multinational corporations in publishing, university presses are nonprofit and mission centered, although not always small. (The University of Chicago press has very robust marketing and distribution services, for example, with best-sellers such as its style guides.) 

It’s useful to know that there is no standard structure or staffing for a university press. In fact, the University of Chicago Press published a work called One Book/Five Ways that followed one manuscript that was submitted to five university presses and gives fascinating insight into just how differently each press would handle the publishing process. For example, most of the presses have a very small permanent staff and work extensively with freelancers for editing and design support, but others have robust in-house teams. And within that variation in process, there is also wide latitude in what kinds of books are selected and published, which impacts how these presses cover their costs and (hopefully) pay their authors; the elements that form the business side of academic publishing. So, how do university presses make money?

Many observers think that a university press gets most of its support from the university, through the various mechanisms of state, federal and donor funding. However, data collected in 2019 from sixty-two university presses in the US and Canada showed that the biggest source of funding was book sales: $232.7 million in sales, as compared to only $33.2 million in institutional allocation. Endowment income, grants, and journal subscriptions came in even lower on the scale, totalling less than $65 million altogether. So, university presses really do need to sell lots of books. They also have a mission to support academia and spread knowledge by publishing niche books that aren’t chosen for their commercial appeal. These requirements can sometimes come into conflict. Like the rest of the publishing industry, academic presses felt both positive and negative impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic: heightened demand for books, increased enrollment at universities, rising production costs, and innovations in digital publishing have all contributed to uncertain times for book publishers over the last few years.

In response to this uncertainty, academic presses are beginning to explore digital products, subscription models, and other ways to preserve the value of scholarship while adapting to the sweeping industry changes brought about by technology and consolidation. Of particular note, the University of California Press is experimenting with open-access digital monographs and a staffing structure at the press that includes a full business development team to work on new models of publishing academic information. There is a spirit of collaboration and mutual benefit about these experiments that bodes well for the future of the balancing act performed by the university presses as a group.

So what about Ooligan Press? Are we a “university press” by the standard definition? Yes and no. Ooligan Press is housed within Portland State University and is fully integrated into the academic and business community within the academic institution. As a student-run press that is supervised by University instructors, Ooligan Press fits many of the criteria of a traditional academic press: it exists to educate students and support the spread of knowledge within the community, it is a not-for-profit organization that relies partially on university infrastructure and grant funding, and it is focused on authors and topics of regional interest. 

However, Ooligan Press is uniquely positioned within the world of university presses (and even among the handful of fully student-run university presses) in being a fully fledged trade press. Our acquisitions process is the same as any other small independent publishing house—we do not publish university research, monographs, or other “pipeline” projects from our parent university. All of our books are carefully selected and produced to compete well on the open market of trade publishing, which contributes to the realistic experience of working in the publishing industry. This distinguishes Ooligan Press from other university presses, and is one of the most valuable parts of the student experience within PSU’s book publishing graduate program.

Blog written by Nell Stamper.