Create & Connect

We help create what matters to you and connect it with what matters to your audience.

Editorial

We research, write, and edit manuscripts, articles, op-eds, and various marketing and advertising pieces, for print and digital platforms.

This can include developing the editorial direction of your publication, crafting custom written and visual content for your site, brainstorming and ghostwriting op-eds with you, editing your manuscript, and producing message-specific marketing materials.

Sharing

Our goal is to create direct connections and long-term relationships between our clients and their audiences, and to grow that audience every year.

We believe in stories and sharing instead of cold pitching, so your message is individualized to each person we reach out to—whether that person is an online influencer, head of a book group in your hometown, or a network producer.

Special note: If your goal is the best-seller list, you’ve come to the wrong place. If your goal is long-term success instead of short-term stardom, then we’re here to help you. Our work could (and it has in the past) result in your project hitting the best-selling list (or similar types of recognition depending on your industry), but such lists aren’t our goals.

Project Management

We provide A-to-Z project management and consulting for authors and publishing houses.

From idea to inception, we’ll work with you on each step of your project—whether it is a new book in need of writing, editing, designing, and printing; a niche site in need of visual and written content; or a business in need of marketing, distribution, and sales.

Featured Work

For Steven Pressfield, bestselling author, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire, The War of Art:

Callie knows everybody. She is notoriously tough on clients, in a good way, continually pushing them out of their writerly cocoons and into the promotional limelight. She’s the best! Run, do not walk to enlist her in your service.

“Writing Wednesdays” was Callie’s idea. Without her, it wouldn’t exist. In fact, the blog itself was Callie’s idea. She cracked the whip over me to make me do it.

—Steven Pressfield

• 2006–2019: Writing, Publicity and Community Building.
• Wrote over 200 articles for the blogs “What It Takes”, “War Stories”, and “The Creative Process”, which appear on Steven’s site. “War Stories” articles were later featured on the Marine Corps Association’s blog.
• Helmed traditional public relations, social media outreach, and community building.
• Outreach resulted in interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Seth Godin, Marie Forleo, and other thought leaders, and in print and/or digital coverage in O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine; The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Inc., Forbes, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and hundreds of other publications and blogs.
• Steve’s book The War of Art hit the The New York Times’ bestsellers list for the first time—over ten years after it was first published—and many of his other titles became backlist bestsellers.
• Suggested to Steve that he write a blog titled “Writing Wednesdays”. It is now one of the most-popular writing blogs online and celebrates its 10 year anniversary this year (July 2019). Launched it and managed its growth over almost 10 years.

For Black Irish Books, independent publishing house co-owned and operated by Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne:

Black Irish would not be anywhere without you, and I wouldn’t be either. Thank you thank you thank you for actions, many many of them, above and beyond the call of duty.

—Steven Pressfield

• 2012-2019: Editing, Publicity and Community Building, Production Coordination, Ecommerce Management.
• Helmed social media outreach and community building.
• Managed ecommerce site, orders, and customer support.
• Negotiated and managed vendor contracts.
• Oversaw print production, warehousing, and distribution of books.
• Edited select titles and formatted ebooks.

For CommandPosts.com, military history Web site owned by St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Publishers:

[I’m] continually impressed with the level of dedication and professionalism Callie Oettinger brings to our endeavors. Her eye for a good story; her editorial work with authors developing compelling articles; her contacts; and her ability to find primary source reference materials are tremendously valuable assets.

—Matthew Baldacci, vp, associate publisher, St. Martin’s Press

• 2010–2013: Managing Editor
• Supervised launch of site, working with contract designer/site developer and St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Publishers staff to determine the appearance of the site, what it would feature, and how it would operate.
• Established editorial calendar, including robust “This Day in Military History” element.
• Assigned original articles to dozens of authors and networked with leading publishing houses to obtain book excerpt features.
• Wrote and/or edited 800+ articles and pictorials; fact-checked original articles.
• Researched and obtained historical documents for featuring on the site and for use within the articles.
• Collaborated with St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Publishers editors about outreach options and strategies for their individual authors.
• Helmed social media outreach and community building.
• Monitored and analyzed statistics for the site.

For Robert J. Danzig, former CEO of The Hearst Newspaper Group and Vice President of The Hearst Corporation:

My wholly satisfying affiliation with Callie Oettinger affirms over and over that her talent is uniquely abundant, creative, and energetic.

—Bob Danzig, author, speaker, former 20-year CEO of The Hearst Newspaper Group

• 1998–2012: Editing, Writing, Production Management, Publicity
• Co-wrote the books Angel Threads (2000) and Every Child Deserves a Champion (2003) with Robert, and edited four other books by him.
• Negotiated and managed vendor contracts, and oversaw print production, warehousing, and distribution of five books.
• Garnered coverage in publications such as Parade Magazine, The Houston Chronicle, and The San Antonio Express-News.