The Perfect Travel Companion
Next time you’re on an adventure through the friendly skies, stop by an airport bookseller. They may not have the title you’ve been searching for, but they’ll somehow have exactly what you need.
Three Horror Novels by Latina Writers for Spooky Season
Drawing from folklore, oral tradition, and real-life horrors, contemporary Latina writers like Enríquez are transforming the genre, offering powerful commentary on colonialism, capitalism, gender violence, autonomy, power, and more. If you’re a fan of horror, you’ll want to add these books to your reading list.
The Rise of Sapphic Fantasy
In a genre that has predominantly featured stories by men about men, the rise of sapphic fantasy in the mainstream is long overdue. Readers are demanding more women with swords falling into adventure (and love) with other women. This fresh subgenre expands fantasy with new voices and stories, but it also empowers and validates the LGBTQIA2S+ readers who have been a fan of the fantasy genre for years.
Guess the Book Based on the Hook
An effective hook gives readers a taste of what the book is about and why they should read this particular book, as compared to any other book on the shelf. An effective hook might shock a reader or get them to ask questions, leaving them wanting more.
The Enigmatic Role of Literary Scouting in the Publishing Industry
When it comes to publishing, there’s quite a bit that goes on behind the scenes, unseen even by other people in the industry. Literary (or book) scouting is a very specific niche of the industry that often gets overlooked—even as a publishing student, it wasn’t until I got a job with a scouting agency that I fully started to understand what the job actually entails. Over the past few months, I’ve gotten an inside look into the world of scouting and the impact that scouts have on an international level. So, in the spirit of more transparency in the industry, here’s a quick run-down on scouting.
All About University Presses
A university press is, generally speaking, a publishing company that is housed inside an academic institution. In contrast to the “Big Five” multinational corporations in publishing, university presses are nonprofit and mission centered, although not always small.
The Shelf Debate: How We Choose Your Book’s Forever Home
One of the most carefully considered decisions in the early stages of the publishing process is how to classify and categorize a book. These decisions are often the cornerstone of how a book finds its way home to readers who will most appreciate it. It’s a delicate balance between enticing readers to pick up just the book they’ve been waiting for, and gently signaling what readerships might not enjoy the book so that readers don’t end up feeling tricked into purchasing something that isn’t what they wanted.
The Acceptability Clause in Publishing Contracts and Its Controversy
The acceptability clause allows publishers to determine whether a submitted manuscript is acceptable. For authors who don’t have any legal knowledge or literary agent to help them negotiate the contract, they are often left to do their own research or accept what’s offered to them. This leaves the author with very little power over the development of their work, resulting in a generally unfavorable opinion of the clause.
Acquiring Translation Rights for an Anthology at Ooligan
When I started managing the rights department at Ooligan Press about a year ago, I took on one of our first major projects: acquiring the rights to nine different French science fiction short stories for an anthology. It was an ambitious enterprise, but the previous managers did all of the legwork for setting it up. They found a French professor at our university who already had the idea for the anthology and agreed to translate (with the help of a few others); all that was left to do was find the owners of the rights to each story and acquire them for the anthology.
Four Translated Books You Have to Read
In celebration of Ooligan Press’s first translated title, Continuum, being released, we have compiled a list of other must-read translated titles for every kind of reader!