Aurora Bell, Associate Editorial Director at the University of South Carolina Press, reports on visiting the University of North Carolina Press

In early February 2024 I spent the better part of a week in residence at University of North Carolina Press. It is with deep gratitude that I thank UNCP staff, especially Assistant Editorial Director Dawn Durante and Director John Sherer, for their warm welcome and candid conversations, and the Association of University Presses for funding this program. It was an unparalleled opportunity.

University of South Carolina Press (USCP) is going through a phase of change and opportunity, including several new staff member and department head hires and my own promotion to a newly created position. With our full leadership team now in place, we are evaluating and refreshing our systems and planning for the future, making it a perfect time to seek new ideas from outside the press. It was in this spirit that I applied for the AUPresses Week in Residence program.

University of North Carolina Press (UNCP) was at the top of my list as an aspirational peer within our region, due to their exceptional publishing program and the relative similarities between the constituencies we serve and the role that regional trade books play in our lists. In planning for my residency, I hoped to learn about how UNCP plans and builds seasonal lists; how my host, Dawn, navigates her non-department-head leadership role (my own role is somewhat parallel); how acquisitions works with EDP and marketing at various junctures (both at the management level and in the day-to-day work of acquiring editors); how acquisitions works with UNCP’s faculty board; and what work acquisitions assistants are doing.

Dawn and John kindly invited me to be a fly on the wall in several weekly meetings—the acquisitions management team, the acquisitions department, and the larger New Projects Group—and based on my interests and goals, Dawn filled out my schedule with a thoughtful roster of meetings with John; acquisitions, marketing, and EDP departmental leaders; the acquisitions support staff; and invaluable one-on-one time with her. I am incredibly grateful for the time that she invested in organizing and hosting my visit. I also met offsite with Elaine Maisner (executive editor emerita).

In my first meeting with Dawn and Interim Editorial Director Debbie Gershenowitz, I learned that, in terms of seasonal planning, our presses share many problems and have recently turned toward many of the same solutions—such as implementing “first look” meetings that help move information from acquisitions to marketing and EDP ahead of launch and list close. We all struggle with manuscript transmittals bunching up close to the seasonal deadline, but Dawn and Debbie shared the schedules that they’re implementing for the upcoming seasons, which I am now comparing with existing and aspirational schedules at South Carolina.

I did not start the week specifically seeking information about the book “profiles” that shape each title’s publication plans, but this topic came up in several meetings and was incredibly helpful to think about. Both publishers have fairly clear definitions and expectations for monographs and trade books, but ongoing questions about the titles that live in between. Discussing how our respective “midlists” behave with Dino Battista (assistant director and senior director of marketing) and with Dawn provided valuable points of comparison for USCP’s ongoing discussions about the categories of books we publish.

These conversations about publication plans and the comparatively high number of books published by UNCP provided an important reminder that it’s okay not to spend equal time discussing all types of books—which we can do at USCP because of our smaller list, but perhaps should not. I was surprised when this line of thinking dovetailed with my conversation with UNCP’s incomparable acquisitions support staff, Alyssa Brown (coordinator), Thomas Bedenbaugh (assistant editor and former USCP intern!), and Carol Seigler and Alexis Dumain (assistants). Learning just how much they do made me gauge my own productivity and that of our acquisitions department at USCP. Understanding all that UNCP’s coordinator and assistants manage has motivated me to ask what time we at USCP can reclaim from meetings and inefficient processes, while continuing to work toward increasing our staff size. As Dino said in our meeting: Put the time where it matters.

With Kim Bryant (EDP director) and Mary Caviness (managing editor), I discussed the nitty-gritty of acquisitions–EDP collaboration. As a process-oriented person and self-professed book nerd, I could have talked with them, and the rest of the UNCP staff, for a month!

As many past Week-in-Residence participants have reported, I came home with pages and pages of notes, my head even fuller of ideas, and my proverbial Rolodex brimming with new professional relationships.