Emily Casillas, Acquisitions Editor at the University of Nebraska Press, reports on visiting the University of Illinois Press

The University of Illinois Press was particularly well suited as my residency host due to their comparable size and list areas with the University of Nebraska Press. As a newly promoted acquisitions editor, I wanted to learn more about and gain skills in scholarly list building, specifically in American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. In addition, I wanted to learn how another university press handles funding and distribution of open access (OA) publications and also how to manage a successful internship program.

The staff at the University of Illinois Press was extremely welcoming and accommodating. Although the majority of the press’s employees work remotely, I participated virtually in all the acquisitions department’s weekly meetings, including transmittal, project, cover, and launch meetings. I also met with:

• acquisitions editors Dominique Moore (via Zoom) and Alison Syring,
• journal production editors Kate Kemball and Kristen Dean-Grossmann,
• press interns Jesus Chavez and Hollis Druhet,
• press director Laurie Matheson, and
• marketing and sales manager Michael Roux, who also was kind enough to drive me to and from the airport, my hotel, and the press.

I learned an enormous amount during my residency and plan to share many takeaways with the rest of my press.

Acquisitions

Nebraska’s regular acquisitions meetings are like Illinois’s, but with some differences. Both of our transmittal meetings are a type of checklist discussion for our transmitted projects with our EDP and marketing departments, with the rest of the press in attendance. Illinois includes a separate launch meeting where acquisitions editors meet with marketing to discuss publicity, exhibits, awards, promotions, and marketing of each project. Our acquisitions projects meetings are similar, with Illinois’s happening biweekly instead of weekly as they do at Nebraska. Cover meetings at both presses are very much alike.

Dominique and I discussed acquiring strategies in detail, coming back repeatedly to the importance of relationship building. For example, Dom suggested emailing appropriate people on conference programs, participating in publishing panels or talks, following up with individuals after conferences, having conversations with seasoned professors on what is trending in the field and what their graduate students are working on, and workshopping proposals with authors over Zoom. Dom also talked about finding appropriate projects for her list by researching readers’ projects, skimming through her authors’ bibliographies, seeing who’s doing what in the field, and managing book prizes. We also discussed managing series editors, whose work balances and supports her list.

Director Laurie Matheson advised approaching game changers in the field, determining spaces or gaps in the field, and tracking journal articles of what presses publish as relevant ways to acquire for a new list.

Internship Program

Illinois has an internship/student worker committee that meets twice each semester and is made up of one person from each department. This committee selects a departmental intern, a Round the Press graduate student intern, and a Women’s and Gender Studies intern, who works specifically on marketing these types of books via social media. The press advertises these positions with the university via a student job board or through collaboration with a specific department. Interns are paid through a federal work study program, grants, subsidies for diverse student workers, and class credit.

I spoke with sophomore Jesus Chavez, an intern who works eight paid hours per week, half with marketing and half with EDP. His tasks consist of data collection, epub verification, copyright research, and identifying keywords. He uses Clikup, to organize, communicate about, and complete  assigned tasks.

Graduate student Hollis Druhet is Illinois’s Round the Press intern, and he has worked sequentially with the acquisitions, EDP, and marketing departments at the press, obtaining an overview of the press and the publication process. He has met with editors, completed editorial tasks, helped with peer reviews, created a proposal, and networked with similar scholars, instead of teaching a graduate course for a semester.

Marketing

Michael Roux and I discussed the press’s marketing strategies for trade and scholarly books. To encourage authors to promote their own books, the marketing staff hold a Zoom session every season for authors with forthcoming publications, opening up communication, introducing who’s who on staff, and indicating what marketing does for authors. In addition, the staff sends them author kits that include a friends-and-family discount, book flyer and social media graphic and op-ed writing tips. A “your book is here” email follows after the book ships. To market books for classroom use, Illinois participates in inclusive access programs and they distribute the book digitally via Redshelf.

Open Access (OA)

Illinois utilizes JSTOR (Path to Open), Project Muse, and BibliOpen as platforms for their OA titles, which are typically titles with low ebook sales and small course-adoption prospects. The press has been awarded a TOME grant and has also participated in OA through a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant where the print book is published first. This strategy resulted in no change in sales as the books tend to earn out before going open access.

Press Promotion

Press director Laurie Matheson shared with me her ideas about promoting the press and building the press’s relationship with the university. The press participates in workshops and presentations throughout the year including a semiannual Publishing Symposium, a publication program for early-career scholars through their university library, and a publication presentation for early-career scholars. In addition, the press stocks a Little Free Library in the student union, prepares and shares a digital annual report, and co-sponsors internships with university departments, including women’s and gender studies, English, and library science.

I returned from this Week in Residency experience with a number of recommendations for my colleagues at the University of Nebraska Press, including researching funds to pay our interns, developing a Round the Press internship for graduate students, nurturing connections with relevant university departments to advocate for students and scholars writing their first books, and identifying funds to support OA projects. Finally, I think putting together a publishing symposium for authors and scholars from Nebraska would be a wonderful resource and would also provide a meaningful way to collaborate with the University. I also plan to organize and participate in publishing panels at relevant conferences and to research creating a book prize or new series to support my American studies list.

My experience at the University of Illinois Press was extremely beneficial and enlightening. I learned so much and made a network of connections with staff members with whom  I can meet at future conferences or discuss possible strategies for personal development or press growth.