Since Ooligan Press is a teaching press, the manuscript evaluation process looks a little different for us than it does at most traditional presses. If you’ve ever wondered how a manuscript gets evaluated at Ooligan Press, read on to get a peek into our process.

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 acquisitions managers choose several manuscripts from our Submittable to have students evaluate. Each student enrolled in Ooligan must evaluate at least one manuscript per term, sometimes more, depending on the number of credits each student is enrolled in. There are two types of evaluations: proposal evaluations and manuscript evaluations. All manuscript evaluations start out as proposal evaluations. The evaluators are given one week to read fifty representative pages of the manuscript and decide from there whether to read the rest of it or reject it. If a student chooses to move on to the manuscript evaluation, they are given a second week to read the rest of the manuscript and decide whether to accept or reject it.

Readers evaluate each manuscript to determine whether they would be a good fit for our press based on many aspects: whether they fit our mission statement, would provide learning opportunities to our students, and what value they would add to each of our departments (acquisitions, editorial, digital, design, marketing, publicity, and DEI). At least two students read each manuscript. If both students decide to reject, then the acquisitions managers reach out to the author to let them know. If both students decide to accept, the acquisitions managers read the manuscript as well and then decide whether it is a good fit for a pitch to the rest of the press. If it is a tie, then a third and potentially fourth evaluator is brought on to the manuscript to settle the tie. All manuscripts are reviewed by the acquisitions managers, who then decide whether or not to pitch the manuscript to the rest of the press.

Each manuscript is carefully read and evaluated, and each student spends several hours evaluating the manuscript they are assigned. It is a time-intensive process, but each student who comes through Ooligan gets to play a part in helping us publish great books.