The Teaching Press

UW-Green Bay's student-managed publisher and press

Category: Publishing Business (page 1 of 2)

Meet the Lead Designer of The Viking House Saga and A Portrait of Grief and Courage

The Teaching Press had 21 students working as interns and staff in Fall 2023. We’re featuring their work in small batches—the same  way we print books at the Press! 

Emily Heling was lead designer for two  Teaching Press titles in 2023: The Viking House Saga: A Journey into Experiential Archeology at UW-Green Bay, by Owen Christianson and Heidi Sherman (October 2023), and A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, by Sandra Shackelford (December 2023). Her design work included researching Old Norse carvings and Hmong story cloths, boosting photo quality for color and black and white images, designing book covers and interiors, choosing fonts and colors, and meeting about  style options with three different authors.

 


Meet the Project Manager and Chief Copyeditor of A Portrait of Grief and Courage

The Teaching Press had 21 students working as interns and staff in Fall 2023. We’re featuring their work in small batches—the same  way we print books at the Press! 

Olivia Meyer became the Project Manager on A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales, in early 2023, when the manuscript was still part of a collection Sandra Shackelford was arranging to donating to the UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library Archives. She met with the author, guided the project through its full year of workflow, collaborated on the book’s “Introduction,” and wrote the biographies of  translator May Lee Lor and transcriber Ma Lee Lor.

Kat Halfman has been the Chief Copyeditor of this title since early 2023. She created the most ambitious style guide The Teaching Press has encountered, standardizing spelling of  numerous individuals’ names and dozens of place names from multiple spellings from multiple translations; researching the use editorial  conventions in oral histories; and leading two semesters’ staffs through multiple rounds of copyediting.

 

 

Meet the Interns: Promotion, Publicity, and A Portrait…

The Teaching Press had 21 students working as interns and staff in Fall 2023. We’re featuring their work in small batches—the same  way we print books at the Press! 

This team of Fall 2023 interns focused on creating engagement and interest in our books, especially our 2022 titles Call Me Morgue and Wandering Toft Point: A Nature Journal. They brainstormed memes and campaigns—one even took a road trip up to Toft Point for blog and social media content.  They also fact-checked and copyedited the page proofs of A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales.  for which they created the Media Kit, designing the project web page, writing  blog posts, and conducting  the author interview.

 

Meet the Interns: Promotion, Production, and A Viking House Saga

The Teaching Press had 21 students working as interns and staff in Fall 2023. We’re featuring their work in small batches—the same  way we print books at the Press! 

This group of interns  focused on creating press publicity for our titles, including our Fall 2023 launch of The Viking House Saga: A Journey into Experiential Learning at UW-Green Bay, by Owen Christianson and Heidi Sherman. After a quick summer of editing and designing this book, Manager Matthew Everard and our team were still ready to launch in time for the Midwest Viking Festival in October.  They also worked on printing The Lower Fox River PCB Clean Up , creating publicity for our other titles, and copyediting A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales.

 

The Teaching Press had 21 students working as interns and staff in Fall 2023. We’re featuring their work in small batches—the same  way we print books at the Press!

This group of interns operated our machines and print our books—and Fall 2023 was challenging! Managers Jair Zeuske and Ethan Craft taught our team how to print, bind, and trim two of our titles this semester. Their favorite book to print is Wandering Toft Point: A Nature Journal.  See how our team crafted our Lower Fox River PCB Clean Up book with its fold-in, fold-out timeline and QR codes on every page, in a behind-the-scenes report from our team. They also engaged in community outreach with Sullivan Elementary School’s YMCA Afterschool program, and copyedited  A Portrait of Grief and Courage: Hmong Oral Histories and Folktales.

 

Meet the Press Director

Who gets to work with all of these amazing interns? Meet the Press Director!

Dr. Rebecca Meacham founded The Teaching Press in 2018 and, with the Press’s first interns,  launched the first book, The Village and The Vagabond by Tim Weyenberg, in 2019. Since then, she’s worked with over 100 interns on a wide range of stories of our region, created two imprints, and engaged the Press in community outreach events and collaborations.  An author of three books of prose, she  is a professor of English, Writing, and Humanities, and founder and Chair of the Writing and Applied Arts B.F.A. program.

Inside the Press: The “Foldie-Outtie” Experience

How does our Press hand-craft an ambitious book of fold-out —or foldie-outtie—pages? Learn more from Production Team  insider Brady Hurst! 


There is nothing that our team fears more than failing to deliver. So, once our Lower Fox River PCB Clean Up Timeline book hit our production line, we all knew that we would have our work cut out for us. Thankfully, with the bright minds at our printing press, our staff quickly formed a method to create what we now deem as “Foldie-Outtie” books.  Here, we share our secrets.
 

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Mimi and Rupert Books: Our New Imprint Takes Wing

The newest descendants of the Mimi and Rupert dynasty would like to return to the nest, please. (Photo: UWGB News and Marketing)

The signs of spring have arrived at UWGB.  On our Green Bay campus, Peregrine falcons nest atop the David A Cofrin Library.  One pair of falcons began nesting there in 2017 to lay eggs and teach their fledglings to fly. This first falcon couple was named “Mimi” and “Rupert,” and their descendants have now brought three new fledglings into the world.

Through the falcon cam , UW-Green Bay students, staff, and nature lovers all over the planet can enjoy and encourage the growth of this delicate species.  (You can even help name the new chicks each year.)

Mimi & Rupert Books, an imprint of the Teaching Press at UW-Green Bay. Logo designed by Samantha Vondrum.

Mimi and Rupert’s annual return inspired the name of our first imprint at The Teaching Press, Mimi & Rupert Books. What is an imprint? you may ask. An imprint is a division of publishing dedicated to specific projects. Mimi  & Rupert Books interlace art and words, voice and image, into finely crafted, collaborative and inspiring stories.  Continue reading

STOP THE PRESSES! Wait, which ones?: A brief look into trade book publishers (& a bit about The Teaching Press!)

By: Kimberly Davis, Blog/Web Editor & Copywriter for The Teaching Press during Spring 2021

In the big wide world of publishing presses, it can be overwhelming for the most savvy of clients (and the most eager of interns) to not only narrow down their options from a professional perspective, but to pinpoint what exactly each and every press does from an organizational one. Although publishing presses can certainly offer their clients and staff with an extremely individualized experience—due to their wide range of services/capabilities, community/literary focus, and even the unique personalities they have on staff—there are undoubtedly similarities that can be detected across the board. So, let’s go on and ahead and get down to business. (The publishing business, that is!)

THE TRADE BOOK PUBLISHERS (THE BIGWIGS!):

Trade book publishers are most likely the type of publishing press that most of us are familiar with. These presses follow the publishing process from start to finish—from the selection process all the way to retail/bookstore/library distribution. In a way, these large scale publishing presses are most known to focus on the consumer appeal of their projects. These books can come in all forms (such as paperback, hard cover, and e-book) and concern a wide, if not all inclusive, range of topics. Publishing through a trade book publisher is considered to be the most ‘conventional‘ or ‘traditional‘ method for clients when it comes to editing, publishing, and distributing their work. Sometimes, independent publishers outsource to these bigger trade book publishers.

The Big Five!

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EXAMPLES OF TRADE BOOK PUBLISHERS (‘THE BIG FIVE’):

Hachette Book Group

HarperCollins

Macmillan Publishers

Penguin Random House

Simon & Schuster

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SO, WHAT IS THE TEACHING PRESS?

To gain the best understanding of what The Teaching Press is considered to be, it may be best to hear straight from our director, Dr. Rebecca Meacham, herself.

As Meacham states, “The Teaching Press is most like a ’boutique/hybrid’ press. We offer clients our services to layout, edit, and design work; offer feedback and beta readings; and make books. Sometimes, we can print those books in limited editions (ex. 100 copies); sometimes, we create a file for the client to take elsewhere to print. We do not do marketing for all of our books; we do not hold copyright; we do not keep inventory; we do not sell books directly unless they are part of a launch event. We charge clients fees for our services. Our clients’ books, currently, would be termed ‘self-published.'”

However, she adds: “[The Teaching Press is] also like an ‘undergrad/university-affiliated’ press. Core to our identity is the ability for students to learn from, and assume leadership roles in, making books. Our projects and all steps of client engagement, and Teaching Press media and management, are meant to teach both ‘soft’ skills and technical skills. Our mottos, thus, are: ‘Failure is baked in to what our learners do;’ and ‘our clients should not expect competence.'”

Hard at work with The Teaching Press!

Now, although The Teaching Press may align more so with these two categories of publishing presses, there truly is no doubt that we are just as dedicated and eager to offer the best experience we are capable of just like all the rest!

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BIBLIOGRAPHY (& ALSO RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING!):

THE TRADE BOOK PUBLISHER

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/types-of-book-publishers-2799865

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-trade-publishing-2800076

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MORE FROM THIS SERIES:

University-affiliated presses

Independent, small, and micro-presses

Boutique, hybrid, and vanity presses

STOP THE PRESSES! Wait, which ones?: A brief look into independent, small, and micro-presses

By: Kimberly Davis, Blog/Web Editor & Copywriter for The Teaching Press during Spring 2021

In the big wide world of publishing presses, it can be overwhelming for the most savvy of clients (and the most eager of interns) to not only narrow down their options from a professional perspective, but to pinpoint what exactly each and every press does from an organizational one. Although publishing presses can certainly offer their clients and staff with an extremely individualized experience—due to their wide range of services/capabilities, community/literary focus, and even the unique personalities they have on staff—there are undoubtedly similarities that can be detected across the board. So, let’s go on and ahead and get down to business. (The publishing business, that is!)

THE INDEPENDENT/SMALL PRESS AND THE MICRO-PRESS:

The independent (or small/indie) publishing press may be one of the most diverse publishing types out there when it comes to comparing all their individual characteristics down to the nail. Although these presses run their operations similarly to your standard, traditional trade book publishers, they do so on a much more condensed scale. Independent publishing presses may hold rights to their projects, while also curating submission quality. For the independent press, success is key! Notably, these presses also do not charge their clients due to their selectivity.

Many times, these presses will strive to provide their clients with a full publishing team experience (including editors, designers, and the like) when it comes to their projects; however, they are also all about providing a more involved, considerate approach than some larger publishers. In other words, they work to supply clients with the best of both worlds by connecting with their clients in both a professional and personal manner. It is possible for these types of presses to rely on out-of-house resources as well though, especially when it comes to marketing and specified printing services.

Similar in nature, the micro-press produces primarily smaller works, such as chapbooks and short stories, on an even smaller quantity scale. They also may not take on quite as many projects as other presses will throughout the year (with many of them only taking on one project within those twelve months!). Due to their limited services and financial output, these presses are considered to be more of a hobby or side-gig for many of those who work them. It is not entirely unknown for these presses to be run by a single individual either. Unlike the small press, however, the micro-press tends to keep all of its services in-house—taking on copy-editing, binding, printing, and sometimes marketing responsibilities for their clients.

A hefty stack of books published by Belt Publishing, an independent publishing press (image courtesy of Belt Publishing).

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EXAMPLES OF INDEPENDENT, SMALL, AND/OR MICRO-PRESSES: 

Belt Publishing

Apt. 9 Press

JackPine Press

Ninepin Press

Milkweed Editions

Coffee House Press

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BIBLIOGRAPHY (& ALSO RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING!):

THE INDEPENDENT/SMALL AND MICRO-PRESS

https://www.standoutbooks.com/small-press-publishing/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_press#Micro-presses

https://blog.reedsy.com/small-press/#what_is_a_small_press_

https://authorchristopherdschmitz.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/knowing-the-difference-between-types-of-publishers

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MORE FROM THIS SERIES:

University-affiliated presses

Boutique, hybrid, and vanity presses

Trade book publishers

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