Creating The College Girl’s Guide to Fayetteville, AR

Author: Sydney Johnson | Major: Hospitality | Semester: Summer 2023

During the summer of 2023, I wrote an entire manuscript to benefit the future female community that will attend the University of Arkansas and experience the magic of Fayetteville. Under the guidance of my wonderful mentor, Dr. Dede Hamm, we formulated a plan of action to create The College Girl’s Guide to Fayetteville, AR. The heart behind this project was to cultivate culture, confidence, and community at the University of Arkansas campus. As an out of state student from Austin, Texas with absolutely no friends when I first attended Arkansas as a freshman, I would have loved a guidebook that provided advice from older girls, activities around Fayetteville, and allowed me to plug myself into the community faster. Scientifically, activities are shown to be a major contributor to building strong relationships. With this in mind, I focused on including opportunities that could easily be done alongside others.

This summer, my goal was to finish the guidebook and get it copyedited prior to sending it in to publish this fall. I started out by deciding the sizing, branding, and layout of the book as well as choosing the formatting application that I would utilize. After research and consideration, I decided the best platform to utilize would be Canva, and I made a checklist of what to include. Once this was chosen, I began reaching out to local businesses explaining the vision as well as requesting professional photographs and information that would be relevant to a college female. If the business did not have photographs readily available, I set times to capture my own, or requested access to local NWA bloggers photographs with proper acknowledgement. This allowed me to plug into the community and get them involved in the process. I then reached out to ten women regarding sharing a different aspect of their time at the University of Arkansas: Work/study balance, favorite Fayetteville spots, ways to make friends, and more. In May, I met with the VP of Experience Fayetteville to discuss marketing techniques, partnership opportunities, and access to their photo repertoire. The next step was plugging in photos, information, anecdotes, and editing the guidebook. Once I felt there was no further edits to be made, I sent the Canva document to a design editor as well as a copyeditor to give feedback and make edits. The final step of the summer was shooting the book cover, which was a unique experience as I hired a freelance photographer friend that shared the story of her starting the company in the guidebook.

Overall, this semester has been my favorite part of the project thus far because I got to watch my idea come to fruition. From a random thought that popped into my head one night to a full manuscript that will showcase the beauty and intrigue of Fayetteville, I am beyond excited for the impact this will make. I am unbelievably grateful the help from my mentor and editors. The guidebook is unrecognizable from when I first began the project, but it was through countless hours of work, patiently making edits, and restructuring that I ended up with the finalized version of The College Girl’s Guide to Fayetteville, AR. Following the completion of the novel, I am now moving into creating a marketing strategy and a book launch plan. This includes planning a launch party, looking into retailers, and planning how to incorporate the book into the campus. Eventually, I would love for it to be sold within the University Bookstore, shared with students during college visits, and placed inside the girl’s recruitment bags during rush week. I am grateful for the University’s trust in my abilities and the financial generosity towards this project. I cannot describe how blessed I feel to have the school I’ve gotten to call home the past 3.5 years support me in becoming a published author. I cannot wait to see how this will build community and showcase Fayetteville to incoming women at the University of Arkansas.