Authors Provide Visual Look at Publishing

Posted on January 3, 2001

Have you ever stopped by Random House? Or seen the Putnam Building? Where did you send your novel last week? Usually writers don't have the chance to visit New York, let alone explore where their work arrives for editorial review. According to authors Johnna Wolfe and Jodi Reading, missing that piece of the puzzle makes it exceptionally hard to understand how the editorial decision process works with most of the New York City Publishers.

Johnna Wolfe, co-artist of the project, says, "As a writer, I wanted to know where my manuscripts go. I live in Washington State and don't get the chance to see where my novel series goes after I drop it off in the mail. I must focus on my series, that's my job in the creative process. The same is true for my other writer friends. I felt that Visuals of Publishing was something we needed to discover to understand the atmosphere of the publishing industry. So Jodi and I collectively figured out a way to show writers and readers, no matter where they lived, the other side of publishing."

The artists, Johnna Wolfe and Jodi Reading are both professional writers with articles and book length projects under their belts. Their experience in the publishing field collectively totals more than sixteen years in writing and publishing. Hoping to share the journey of the publication process with others, they went to NYC to see how their manuscripts got to the publishing houses and how this procedure personally influenced their work.

Reading says in the announcement, "When we visited the buildings in New York City, it made us tingle to the bone. We felt a great editorial presence. The buildings and history of each publisher gave us a sense of the publishing industry we could not find in reference books or writer's conferences. It made us appreciate the industry in a new way. The pictures on the website and the photographs in our conference exhibit, give others the chance to understand why the written word is so important. Hopefully, they too will feel the uniqueness of the creative process"

The Visuals of Publishing site is an opportunity for anyone interested in publishing to grasp the importance of the field. Highlighting over twenty pictures, Visuals of Publishing Online gives the writer and reader a chance to see where editorial decisions are made and how the publishing atmosphere is different than the creative process.

Also part of the project is Visuals of Publishing: The Photograph Journey. The gallery is a compilation of over forty-five different pictures to better explain the publishing industry of the New York City area. This exhibit hits the road in January with displays at writer's conferences and book festivals.



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