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Project Management:

Write to Publish

Mission Statement

Ooligan Press’s annual Write to Publish conference aims to familiarize people with the publishing process and industry in a way that fosters knowledge and long-lasting relationships between writers, designers, and other publishing professionals.

 

The goals of the conference are to:

● promote and support Ooligan Press

● take the mystery out of the publishing process (but not the magic)

● forge connections between local writers, designers, and other publishing professionals

● offer workshops for hands­-on experience

● pass on techniques and information to successive years to promote the continued growth of the conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I keep thinking about what a terrific job you two did for this year's conference. It was an amazing experience, and the atmosphere was so professional, entertaining, and well planned. I am very grateful that you let me be a small part of the experience. I imagine you will receive a lot of kudos for this accomplishment, but however vast the praise is, it's likely not enough. You guys rocked it!"

Meagan Lobnitz, Write to Publish 2015 Participant and Fellow Student

I was offered and accepted the Write to Publish project comanager position going in to my second term in the book publishing graduate program. I attended Write to Publish 2014 and immensely enjoyed the event; however, I couldn't stop thinking about things I would have done differently. Even though I had originally planned on applying to be Acquisitions Lead for Ooligan Press, I followed my heart and applied for Write to Publish. The two areas that I really wanted to improve upon were the practicality of what Write to Publish offered for attendees, and the conference's sustainability, making sure I left behind a legacy to help next year's team acheive even greater results.

A Different Direction

When I attended Write to Publish 2014, it seemed to me that the panels focused more on the art of writing and being creative than it did on the business side of the publishing industry. I thought this did not use the abilities of Ooligan Press to the best effect. We were a publishing house teaching students how to be successful in careers; that practicality was why I came to Portland State in the first place. I also knew from having attended other writing conferences that there was a real hunger in writers to learn the business side of their profession, and that writers expected a lot of perceived value in a conference in return for the money they spend.

 

Three Tactics

There were three main ways that I wanted to add practicality and perceived value to the conference: having more panels discuss business, rather than artistic, topics; having more workshops; and having a pitch session, where authors could sit down with publishers. You can see the schedule we eventually came up with here.

 

Success

Post-conference surveys showed that the reason most attendees came to the conference was because of the workshops; the pitch session times were booked, and I received compliments from attendees, publishers, and agents; and the most popular panel was the one on contracts and rights. Of course, one of the measurements of success is in the financials. You can see by our budget that we were successful there, too.

"I had a great time, learned a lot, made many helpful connections and got asked for pages from two people at the pitch roundtable session, so it was a good day."

Brenda Stevens, Write to Publish 2015 Attendee

Bookfair

While most of the income for Write to Publish is generated by ticket sales, vendor tables also bring in a good amount of money, and greatly effect the tone and ambience of a conference. A full bookfair will make the conference seem lively, while a sparse vendor section will make an otherwise successful conference seem empty. I handled vendor confirmation and made sure to keep the bookfair full and organized; I even got Conferences and Events to add some extra tables when we sold out of our original allotment. You can see the list of our vendors here.

 

We held Write to Publish 2015 in Smith Memorial Student Union on Portland State campus. There was a student lounge right outside the rooms we reserved for the conference; while technically the area is not available to be rented, I negotiated our ability to use the area by keeping the bookfair open to the public. Having the vendors right outside the panels encouraged a lot of circulation through the bookfair. 

"It was my first time as a vendor and I was very pleased with my interactions with the public, PSU's W2P team, and the other vendors. A great success, to my mind. I really appreciate how well organized it was, as well. Kudos!"

Write to Publish 2015 Vendor, via anonymous survey response

"Overall, tabling for Write to Publish was a great experience. I was able to talk to a number of new people and recruit/publicize to students. I really enjoyed the experience and would happily do it again."

Write to Publish 2015 Vendor, via anonymous survey response

What Comes Next

The hope in throwing a great conference is that next year's conference will be even bigger and better. I wanted to do my best to give the next team all the tools and information they would need to be able to do that.

 

Website

Before Write to Publish 2015, each year's conference would design their own website from the ground up. The website also was not attached to the Ooligan Press website. I had our digital lead incorporate the Write to Publish website under the Ooligan Press website, in order to make maintenance easier and to facilitate cross-traffic. I also worked with my comanager and a web designer to set up a site that could be updated each year, rather than reconstructed. You can view the website here.

 

Manual

Another challenge we faced at the beginning of planning Write to Publish 2015 was a lack of guidelines. We had some input from the previous year's management team about what could be improved, but we didn't have any plan or instructions on how to go about setting up the conference. While it was exhilarating to have that much freedom, in some ways we had to reinvent the wheel, which was time that we could have used elsewhere. The mission statement displayed at the top of the screen is one way we came up with to improve continuity. My comanager and I also wrote a manual, in which we distilled everything that we learned over the year of managing Write to Publish.

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