The Face of Success
The age of smartphones and social media has seemingly made anonymity a thing of the past. So where does that leave authors who truly want to remain unidentified? Is it even possible to be successful as an anonymous author today?
A Democracy for All: How Ooligan’s Pitch Process Differs from Regular Houses and Presses
When Ooligan acquires a book, we give the decision to the entire press—consisting of students and staff. Everybody gets a say in what this press publishes, and everyone gets to vote.
Books Abroad: Oolies Study Publishing in the UK
For the past three summers, PSU’s Director of Book Publishing Dr. Rachel Noorda has been leading a short study abroad in the city. The goal: to educate students about the publishing industry in the United Kingdom. Here’s a glimpse into the program from one of the eight Oolies in the 2024 cohort.
Being in the Know about InDesign
From covers to interiors to collateral, InDesign is great for book designers, especially because it is a publishing industry standard. However, learning InDesign can be quite a task, especially if you are new to the industry. Here are some helpful InDesign tips that I have learned during my time at Ooligan Press.
Queering the Narrative: The Past and Present of LGBTQ+ Publishing
Queer literature has long been subjected to morality clauses, bans, and pathologizing narrative requirements. For the first time in history, publishers today are facing the expectation that they will have queer titles in their catalogs, lest they lose sales. Even in the face of a rise in book ban attempts, queer readers are being recognized as a valuable and essential market.
What Is Your Query?
Ooligan strives to handle every manuscript with care and to take into account every aspect, and angle, of the potential of each one that comes our way. It is an anxious time waiting for a publisher to get back to you about your story that has been worked on for years. That is not something that we take lightly.
Pieces of Place
When the weather doesn’t want to play by the rules and it’s forty degrees and constantly pouring in April, or it looks fine outside but you just can’t bring yourself to change out of pajamas to go outside, Ooligan Press has you covered. We’ve got books that will take you to another place or even another time.
A Library Writers Project Book Start to Finish: The Blue Line Letters
Sometimes a book moves through its journey from acquisition to publication quicker than the average two-year timeline, and in the case of our Multnomah County Library Writers Project titles, like the forthcoming The Blue Line Letters, we are on an expedited one-year publication cycle. As the book’s project manager, I’ll take you through what I have been working on with the project team in the first several months of its publication process and give you a glimpse into what comes next.
The Ins and Outs of the Publicity Department at Ooligan
Like many Oolies before me, when I first started the graduate program in Book Publishing at Portland State University, I thought I would be most interested in editorial. In fact, besides being an editor, I didn’t really know anything about the other jobs that existed in the publishing industry. I had a lot to learn!
Books to Get You Hyped for THE KEEPERS OF ARIS!
As we at Ooligan prepare to publish our own YA fantasy novel, THE KEEPERS OF ARIS, here’s a list of Black YA fantasy novels that I recommend in no particular order.