Here at Ooligan Press, acquiring a book for publication is a democratic process, meaning that multiple people read each manuscript, and if it is chosen for a pitch, the whole press votes on whether to acquire the book or not. But what does the manuscript evaluation process look like? Here, I’ll do a deep dive in the process.
The press kit should give a grand overview of the book itself but in the most condensed way possible. It’s important to touch on themes and highlight the very best of the book and its author. These things all add up, and scoring reviews is great publicity for us and helps us sell more books.
Ooligan Press is a student-run trade press that operates in conjunction with the book publishing master’s program at Portland State University. Those of us inclined to bite off a bit more work operate as project managers (those who manage the publication of a book project) and department managers (those who run the various departments within the press). As copy chief it is my responsibility to oversee and edit all the copy that goes through the press.
What does it take to get a book published? The person who ends up dealing with all the loose bits and bops is the Publisher’s Assistant, also known as the Operations Manager—my role.
What is it like to read and evaluate manuscripts from real authors? What is the best way to give authors feedback on their work in order to bring it one step closer to publication? How do you know if a story is the right one for our press to publish? These are just a few of the many questions I had when I became an acquisitions assistant for Ooligan Press.
When people learn about what we’re doing, entering the world of comics with no experience, with only logical reasoning and a sincere desire to learn spurring us on, I generally get two reactions: enthusiastic delight or doubtful dissuasion.
Support diversity in publishing by reading Latinx authors. Feel free to let us know what authors you loved from this list and share other Latinx authors you love reading!
Most books that are published these days have some number of quotes of praise from various sources, usually other authors or major newspapers… The question becomes, how do publishers choose who to contact for a blurb or review of a book?
Book fairs and literary festivals are both important events in the publishing world, but is there a difference between these two literary exhibitions? Before learning more about publishing and becoming the rights manager at Ooligan, I had always assumed they were interchangeable.
So, you wrote a killer query letter and submitted a proper proposal. You won over Acquisitions and we pitched your project to the press successfully, then we offered to publish your book: now what? For the sake of transparency and in an effort to demystify this crazy little thing called publishing, I humbly offer you an inside look at what you can expect when working with Ooligan Press.