Recently, I embarked on a mission to sell foreign translation rights to Croatia for one of our upcoming releases Supersymmetry. What seemed like a straightforward task quickly turned into a deep and enlightening dive through the complex world of foreign rights management.
In order for us to perform our proofreading, Isaac had to teach us these industry standards which opened up many students’ eyes to the complexity of comics. Who knew the letter I could cause so many problems?
The press kit should give a grand overview of the book itself but in the most condensed way possible. It’s important to touch on themes and highlight the very best of the book and its author. These things all add up, and scoring reviews is great publicity for us and helps us sell more books.
When the weather doesn’t want to play by the rules and it’s forty degrees and constantly pouring in April, or it looks fine outside but you just can’t bring yourself to change out of pajamas to go outside, Ooligan Press has you covered. We’ve got books that will take you to another place or even another time.
A majority of my position is digital collaboration: reviewing Marketing or Publicity documents for project teams, corresponding with Project Managers, or reaching outside Ooligan for various extracurricular publishing activities. Marketing and Publicity are actually two distinct departments at Ooligan Press. The role of Marketing and Publicity Manager is unique because it is one of the few positions that is currently combined; while the responsibilities vary, the skillset is similar.
Ooligan Press is a student-run trade press that operates in conjunction with the book publishing master’s program at Portland State University. Those of us inclined to bite off a bit more work operate as project managers (those who manage the publication of a book project) and department managers (those who run the various departments within the press). As copy chief it is my responsibility to oversee and edit all the copy that goes through the press.
Marketing plans are a foundational document that make sure the entire process of publishing a book is cohesive, intentional, and appropriate to the audience and the goals of the book. The marketing plan is referenced in almost every other stage of the publishing process, so we have to be careful and put a lot of thought into the decisions we make because mistakes could cascade throughout the process and cause problems later.
What does it take to get a book published? The person who ends up dealing with all the loose bits and bops is the Publisher’s Assistant, also known as the Operations Manager—my role.
With our most recent audiobook title Faultland by Suzy Vitelllo, Oolies are now in charge of the entire production process. This is an exciting opportunity for students to get hands-on experience with a vital part of the audiobook production process. Although it may sound daunting, editing audio is an incredibly satisfying process and a marketable skill that students can add to their growing repertoire of qualifications.
Sometimes a book moves through its journey from acquisition to publication quicker than the average two-year timeline, 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.