In a gratifying collaboration between Kait Heacock, Ooligan’s editorial lead, and the members of our project group, we have finalized the copyediting for this title! We didn’t waste any time sending this shiny, clean manuscript off to reviewers and authors we admire for early blurb requests. In our classes, we often discuss how much blurbs do or do not actually help in the life of a book. Whether they result in higher sales or not, blurbs are still a standard practice in the industry, and we believe that Heacock deserves plenty of praise and compliments for her work—blurbs are a great way to get that feedback early and from people whose opinions we value. In addition to requesting blurbs, this week our final manuscript will be divided up and XML coded in preparation to be passed to the designer of the book’s interior.

With our final passes of copyediting, our team brainstormed, vetted, and eventually fell in love with a new title suggested by Heacock. This rich collection of short stories will be on the market as Siblings and Other Disappointments. We love the punch and multidimensionality that this title has, and we have been drawing inspiration from it for the cover designs that have been evolving and improving for the last three weeks.

The book cover is often referred to as the title’s best marketing tool, and with a short story collection, the task of epitomizing the work in a single image is that much more challenging and important. We need something that will capture the Pacific Northwest regionality, the relational tensions of familial relationships, and the characteristic wit and darkness of Heacock’s storytelling. The strong designs we have seen are coming from Ooligan Press students with every level of design experience, composing images in PowerPoint and InDesign alike. There are so many strong aesthetics to chose from, and with the final cover vote fast approaching, we will soon be able to put a face to a name.