One woman in the media
Bringing new writers to the publishing table.
Consider the acquisitions editor
During my work with Ooligan Press, I worked mostly in the Acquisitions Department and in the Marketing Department for a term. I also wrote for the Ooligan Press blog and had some road trips--on behalf of the press, of course.
For my Winter 2012 term in the Marketing Department, I helped to write some cover copy for Blue Thread and wrote a piece about the acquisition of the book for the Ooligan newsletter. I also contributing to event planning spreadsheets and helped to write an award letter for the book.
As an acquisitions manager, first in solicitations and then as a slush pile manager, I tried to both boost the quality of Ooligan’s submissions and to reach out to prospective authors. In the Spring 2012 term, Kait Heacock and I road-tripped out to Spokane, Washington, on a wild hair to sell Ooligan books and solicit authors at the Get Lit! Festival. I also reached out to writers in various MFA programs and Write Around Portland.
In Summer 2012, I managed the slush pile, coordinated developmental edits, and worked with Lauren Adam to develop an in-house project. The highlight of this term came at the very end, when Laura Larrabee and I attended the Willamette Writers Conference.
At the WW Conference, we received a proposal from Karelia Stetz-Waters, for the literary fiction coming-of-age novel called As Though Our Beauty Were a War. I fell in love with this book after reading merely the proposal and followed up with her. The novel is sweet and coyly humorous. As an acquisitions editor, I also knew that Ooligan (like so many other publishers) was in need of literary fiction by a woman. I look forward to voting for this novel when acquisitions pitches it this term.
During my Winter 2013 and Spring 2013, I’ve been a project manager for The Wax Bullet War, Sean Davis’s memoir of war in Iraq and his struggle with PTSD. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with him several times and get a sense of how to communicate his concerns to the rest of the press. During my last term, I’ve had to oversee the book cover design process and make sure that the designs did not travel too far from what he was comfortable with (no overt references to war).
And speaking of war, Kait dragged me out to the training grounds for soldiers (Central Oregon) in early April. If only publishing were always this much fun.