A Brief History of the Oregon Book Awards
Since its founding, the program has honored over six hundred local writers and publishers and distributed more than one million dollars in fellowships and awards.
Casting the Spotlight on Third Eye Books, Portland’s Only Independent, Black-owned Bookstore
About once a month I visit Third Eye Books, Portland’s only independent, Black-owned bookstore. Located right off Division Street and 33rd Ave in inner SE Portland, this delightful bookstore is tucked away inside an old Portland house.
SHORT, VIGOROUS ROOTS: A Brief Account of a Project Team’s Blurb Journey
The process of requesting blurbs begins with a massive contact sheet—a focused list of people who may be interested in writing a blurb for the book. It involves reaching out to a lot of people: “the more names, the more likely you are to get a yes,” Tucker says, adding that we want to ask people who have a “strong connection with both [the] audience and the material…because the more focused the blurb list is on your audience, the better.” In our case, this all proved true.
BookTok: The New Platform for Independent Bookstores
The key to these promotional videos is that the content on TikTok is randomized—this means that anyone can stumble upon the store’s account, which makes reaching new customers relatively simple. By reaching out and establishing a presence in communities like BookTok, independent bookstores can definitely increase sales and establish more loyal customers.
Why Transparency Matters in Marketing
Consumers often choose companies that they can trust and that they feel connected to. Transparency goes a long way with current and future customers.
Marketing Emails and Their Effectiveness in 2021
Email marketing is not dead, but the way it has been traditionally approached might be. The design and personalization of emails matter, and people will know the difference because inauthenticity is easy to pick up on. Many people get hundreds of emails in their inboxes every day, and this is the exact reason why personalization matters so much.
Launching Faultland With a Scavenger Hunt
After launch, the project team was hard at work conducting social media marketing and spreading the word about Faultland. While Suzy was busy visiting multiple podcasts and giving interviews, Ooligan was not quite ready to hand over the full weight of the marketing just yet. We still had one more trick up our sleeve: a Portland scavenger hunt.
Marketing to Millennials: Native Advertising
If you have some experience in marketing, you may have heard that “the best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all.” But what does this really mean, and is it actually true?
The Perfect Content Cocktail: Newsletter Curation & Creation
As the publicity manager at Ooligan, one of my tasks is to send out quarterly newsletters. But getting people to read them is another story. That’s why I decided to change up how we do our newsletters while simultaneously giving some love to our backlist titles.
Preparing Authors for Digital Readings
Although digital readings are great opportunities for publicity, it can be daunting when a digital event is one of the only events that will occur, as was the case for many events for debut authors in early 2020. With all of that pressure, how can publishers get their authors ready for these events? What is the best way for an author to prepare for an online reading?