Three of The Teaching Press’ interns of Golden Era: The Heart of Wisconsin Sidelines. Ongnia Thao, Karly Wigand, and Grace Zander recount the editing and marketing process for Kris Leonhardt and Tori Wittenbrock’s new book.

Firstly, would you each give a brief introduction of your role in creating Golden Era: The Heart of Wisconsin Sidelines, as well as your major and what year of school you’re in?

Ongnia: I’m the Marketing Lead. I’m a Senior majoring in Writing and Applied Arts. 

Karly: I’m the Chief Copyeditor. I’m a Senior majoring in English with a focus in Creative Writing.

Grace: I’m the Project Manager. I’m a Senior majoring in Writing and Applied Arts with an emphasis in Editing and Publishing.

Ongnia, how has this project’s historical book impacted the marketing process? How have you had to balance modern and traditional marketing practices?

The historical book serves as a unique asset that differentiates the project in a crowded market. The historical content offers a wealth of material for ongoing marketing campaigns. Instead of generic promotion, the project can draw on specific stories, facts, and themes from the book for blog posts, social media snippets, and email campaigns, ensuring content is both informative and engaging. In an age of digital transformation, a physical book offers something tangible customers can hold, which can leave a lasting impression. 

Grace, how did you balance your own editing responsibilities with allocating work between your teammates?

Balancing my responsibilities was a lot easier than I had initially thought. A big part of this is because I had a team that was eager to help wherever they could. Early conversations with the authors clarified the style they wanted to use and how involved we could be with editing. When I relayed this information to the team, our Chief Copyeditor, Karly, ran with it and created the style guide we used throughout the process. When we started hands-on editing, it was easy to divide the work so the manuscript received as many eyes as possible. For the most part, my editing responsibilities involved reviewing what everyone else was changing to ensure we stayed as true to the author’s voice as possible. 

Karly, what strategies did you implement to ensure accuracy, consistency in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style? Did this deadline-driven environment help you gain new skills?
Much of it involved reading, re-reading, and, when in doubt, proofreading again. Our authors did an amazing job of finding a consistent style, which I had to apply throughout. Dr. Meacham has a rule: do at least one copyedit in “old school” style, where we read aloud to one another. This was really helpful for finding misplaced punctuation or rewording sentences. I often went back to The Associated Press Stylebook and my notes from ENG227 with Professor Rysavy. Having a deadline allowed me to stay consistent with my day-to-day plans, it created a sense of structure, and gave me experience for future projects.

Ongnia, you’ve had a unique perspective of both marketing the book and being involved in the editing process. How has this been helpful or difficult?

I would say this has been very helpful in having a dual role as in editing and marketing. This helped provide a unique perspective that involved understanding of the entire book, but also  stepping back and viewing the work with a “fresh set of eyes.” 

Grace, as a project manager, how did you ensure that all team members were on the same page regarding project goals? Has this project experience shaped you for future projects that you might partake in?

I did my best to ensure my team members got information at the same time I did. Communication is key to staying on track with our project. Especially since there was a lot of work done outside of class. We also stayed on the same page by having lengthy discussions about our views on the book and the direction we wanted this project to take during class time. 

Working on this project was my first time in conversation with authors and was responsible for relaying their vision to the team. This experience has given me the opportunity to test how well I do in leadership roles. I was also given an inside look at just how much work goes into making a book. Everything I’ve learned from Dr. Meacham and my team has shaped me into a better editor and team player.

Karly, how did you balance the authors’ voices and historical quotes while ensuring clarity and accuracy?

It was a challenge at times; we had to look up words in a few quotes because our dialect has changed significantly over the last 100 or so years. I often ran things by our project manager, Grace, and she really wanted to keep the quotes as original as possible, which is important given the book’s historical aspect. Creating a consistent voice between the authors was easier than I thought. In the book, both Kris and Tori still have their own unique voices, which is crucial as writers, but the text follows a single style to keep everything consistent. I never intended to change what Kris or Tori intended to say; it was about correcting grammatical inconsistencies.