At Ooligan Press, we have the opportunity to work on all manner of projects. Most of those come to us already fully written, or, in the case of some nonfiction titles, we at least know that they will be fully written by the author. But every once in a while, we the students are given the chance to build something from the ground up. Not only are we the editors, designers, and marketers; we are also the writers. 

Currently, Ooligan Press is collaborating with Book Industry Study Group (BISG) to develop a guide for publishing professionals to refer to when looking for advice on how to make their practices more sustainable. While it won’t be published until Spring 2027, it has already undergone a number of changes, as is typical in project management. A constant change is that the members of Ooligan Press are always fluctuating due to its nature as a student-run organization. This adds and subtracts who is available to complete writing assignments as well as the overall interest in the project. The prospect of being the writer and researcher on the carbon emissions of a book publisher can be intimidating. The summer term is particularly difficult for Ooligan as less students are taking the Publishing Lab/Studio course and manpower is affected by vacations and distance learning. 

As we have entered the Fall 2025 term, I have had to readdress what the Quick Start Guide project is and its relevance to the publishing industry we hope to soon enter. Most importantly, there has been a major alteration to the scope of the project. There comes a time in many projects that their scope creeps and creeps until it is an outrageous size. It is unattainable in the given timeframe, it has derailed from its original intentions, and it feels like it will never be done. As a project manager, this can be demoralizing. There are times you may stop trusting yourself. 

Luckily, the people in the worlds of Ooligan Press and BISG have provided a number of lightbulb moments that keep the ball rolling. I have met with enthusiastic publishing professionals who are doing their best to make any small change necessary to make the book publishing industry more sustainable. Thus, the project is adapting to focus on issues that a publisher can control—namely design and production choices—rather than the ones that rely on government regulations and ever-changing industry relations. 

The Quick Start Guide is built out of the larger research of BISG and Ooligan Press’s previous project Rethinking Paper & Ink. Out of those iterations, with technical jargon and ten-plus-year-old information, the new guide is focused on the real-life case studies from BISG Sustainability Working Group members from around the world. We believe that bringing a human-first approach will make this guide all the more applicable to publishing professionals, new and old. Sometimes what we need isn’t the most groundbreaking change but something straightforward and approachable. 

There is no doubt in my mind that in the coming months, as students write chapters and formulate their own thoughts on sustainability in publishing, the Quick Start Guide will change again. While the previous few months might have felt like sailing a ship without wind, there is now a beacon of hope that this project will become what we feel it needs to be: a way for the book industry to become more sustainable one small change at a time.