Like Brandon, my fellow co-manager for Write to Publish, I thought that I knew about book publishing because I grew up with a father who was an avid reader and who in turn instilled me with a love of books. After the first week in the program, I realized how little I really knew. Throughout my time working at Ooligan Press, attending classes, and shadowing my internship supervisor at Ex Libris Editing, a local freelance editing firm, I have learned much about all aspects of the industry. Brandon and I both hope that next year’s conference will help aspiring writers navigate the publishing process—because let’s face it, not everyone has the luxury of joining a graduate program like Ooligan. Or an MFA program for that matter. Publishing is a lengthy, complex, and, quite frankly, scary process, but by passing on our knowledge to others, Ooligan Press can at least take away some of that fear and anxiety.
In case you don’t know much about Ooligan, the press is divided up into projects. Each project manager is assigned a team. Last fall, when I took the leap and moved from California to Portland to begin grad school, I was assigned to the Write to Publish team. Although I enjoyed the process and volunteering on the day of the event, most of the planning had already been done. As I take over the management of next year’s conference, I am excited to shape an event—from start to finish. We believe it’ll be a great one!
This past week, we sat down to brainstorm locations for the event as well as potential dates. We settled on a tentative theme (which we hope to announce soon!) and will run it by the press at our next weekly executive meeting. We realized that with last year’s theme, which was the New Adult Revolution, we may have unintentionally limited our audience, so this year we are aiming for a broad yet specific theme that will help our attendees get the most out of the day.
To echo Brandon’s last update, the conference is far off, but with so much to do in between now and then, we are diving into the deep end. We are also more than willing to open our ears to suggestions that anyone may have for us, whether that’s in the form of potential themes, panel ideas, or more. You can contact the Write to Publish team at w2p@ooliganpress.pdx.edu.
Just want to say a friendly hello? We’ll take that too.