At Ooligan Press, the typical publishing schedule for a book is approximately two years. But sometimes a book moves through its journey from acquisition to publication quicker than that, and in the case of our Multnomah County Library Writers Project titles, like the forthcoming The Blue Line Letters, we are on an expedited one-year publication cycle. As the book’s project manager, I’ll take you through what I have been working on with the project team in the first several months of its publication process and give you a glimpse into what comes next.
First, it’s key to give context on the Library Writers Project (LWP). According to the Multnomah County Library’s website: “Every year, Multnomah County Library places a call for submissions from local authors who would like to see their books added to the library’s e-book collection.” From this pool of submissions, librarians select the top candidates for e-book publication. Ooligan Press’s appointed manager of the LWP and the Copy Chief then go through applicable library e-books and select their top choice for official publication. That title for Spring 2025 is The Blue Line Letters, a young adult coming-of-age tale and love letter to Portland.
Upon acquiring the LWP e-book, the first step was collecting intake information from the author via an author questionnaire, which was happening concurrently with developing the book’s marketing plan. (Remember, this is all happening in roughly half the amount of time of the typical Ooligan book publishing schedule!) The marketing plan is a foundational piece of the book publishing process and contains elements including the book’s hook and description, author bio, BISAC and Thema codes, SEO keywords, marketing tactics we plan to use, assigned ISBN, and more. Once approved, the information from the marketing plan was used to flesh out other marketing and publicity materials including the tip sheet (an industry-facing resource with key book info), the CoreSource ingestion document (an important step for disseminating the book’s metadata), the press kit, and the blurb request template. These are the crucial building blocks for connecting a book in the making with its future readers.
On a parallel timeline, the manuscript went through the beginning of Ooligan’s editorial process, which included a developmental edit and a heavy copyedit, and it will next move through a light copyedit and style mapping. The cover design process was also kicked off, and that involved me creating a cover design brief, as well as several rounds of design submissions and corresponding feedback. This culminated in a democratic vote from the full press for the final cover design. All of the pieces I’ve described have been happening within the short timespan of about three to four months (April–July 2024). As the book’s project manager, I have been responsible for executing and assigning tasks to the project team and thoroughly reviewing their work to keep the foundational pieces of the book’s marketing, publicity, and design on track. I’ve especially enjoyed writing the cover design brief, participating in the developmental edit and heavy copyedit, and nurturing a working relationship with the author. Next up for The Blue Line Letters, I will be leading the project team through tasks including the review requests and social media strategy. This train is moving quickly (pun intended) and I’m excited to continue overseeing its journey!
Blog written by Jessie Levine.