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Feature
On Wellness
or How I Published an Award-Winning Book of Humor, with a Little Help from My Friends
Editor's Note: Here is the first in a series of articles highlighting some of this year's IPPY Award-winning books; how they were conceived, created, and brought to market. The Official Guide to Office Wellness won a bronze medal in this year's Humor category. The author explains how the unique project came about, "with a little help from his friends."* * * * *
Why would one hundred office workers pose in bizarre positions on, over, and in their desks and cubicles? Why would they allow themselves to be photographed while doing so?
Simple: to be part of the zaniest literary project ever.
The Official Guide to Office Wellness purports to treat office “maladies” through animal-inspired positions, postures, and movements. Because animals have wisdom. This office-based spoof on exercise programs may result in incidental toning, but the real workout was in publishing the world’s first animal-inspired office exercise manual. Its Pennsylvania author has taken the entire task of producing and marketing the book into his own hands. I am that author. This article is about the process of creating the book, the odyssey of getting it into print, and of lessons learned along the way.
ABOUT WELLNESS
The Official Guide to Office Wellness marries ludicrous photos with even more ludicrous exposition, under the guise of self improvement. Although the idea may have emerged when I was doing Pilates with my Chihuahua, sixteen years in a cubicle as a state worker undoubtedly contributed to the underlying premise. Sometimes you find inspiration where you are.
Office workers have many issues peculiar to their environment, and conditions such as Cooler Phobia, Break Amnesia, Printer Envy, and Cubicle Fatigue are carefully addressed in this 120-page photographic tome. While office workers arguably get less exercise then any other cluster of humans, provoking them to move presented an insurmountable challenge, so I opted to make them laugh instead. The animal-inspired postures and movements included in the book represent the most advanced effort at corporate stress reduction known to man. Oh, the humanity.
A LOCAL ADVANTAGE
As an employee of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, the major higher education institution in northwestern Pennsylvania, I was surrounded by a vast source of potential volunteer models. Before moving forward, however, it was necessary to obtain permission from the highest level of university leadership. The idea was presented to the President’s Executive Council, and after careful review, permission to proceed was granted. Wellness was on its way.
The success or failure of the project turned on participation. An invitation was issued, but would anyone respond? After all, people would have to pose in ridiculous positions, and would be photographed doing so. Their pictures would be published in a book available to the world. Risky business for the career minded, perhaps. And yet, silly does have a certain appeal…
At first there were only about a dozen volunteers, and it looked like each model would have to pose several times to fill out the one hundred anticipated techniques that this book would include. Each model was contacted and scheduled for a photo shoot in an office or cubicle, a process that quickly degenerated into chaos.
The problem was planning. Although the maladies to be addressed had already been identified, the associated positions had not. How should the models pose? At first, upon arriving at the model’s office, I would evaluate the scene for the most ludicrous potential. On the desk, on a chair, upside down, or some combination thereof was usually best. In many cases, upon seeing a coworker having such great fun, others would volunteer on the spot. On one occasion six additional volunteers were acquired in this manner, which meant more positions, and each had to be unique. My photographic creativity was challenged in this time sensitive environment.
The solution to this difficulty came in the form of stick figures. I realized that I needed a reference, a manual of sorts to help me guide the models. I took a break from photographing and proceeded to sketch out all of the remaining positions. The sketches—which I drew as stick figures—were compiled in a binder and carried to every photo shoot. This allowed appropriate positions to be readily selected, and thus the creativity gap was bridged.
This was a timely remedy, as the number of volunteers increased to twenty, then thirty. My Sony four mega-pixel digital camera used for the project started to get a workout. When the number grew to fifty, sixty, and seventy, it looked like optimism just might be justified. The last ten models were somewhat of a struggle to find, but finally one hundred models were on the list, and at long last, all of the photos were taken. In all cases I shot from multiple angles and with the best local lighting I could muster.
PROCESSING THE PICS
The photos were taken in color with a digital camera, as mentioned above. For the book they would be processed as black and white, as color photos are prohibitively expensive for all but the largest print runs. Prepping the photographs required significant care. Half tones had to be adjusted so that the blacks and whites fell within a certain range. Also, when the ink hits the paper a phenomenon knows as dot gain occurs. This expansion of ink darkens printed photographs, so they must be lightened to a certain degree to counter this. While there are guidelines to follow, each photo is unique, and a blend of science and art is called for. With one hundred models, the process was time consuming, yet critical. I used Photoshop to process each picture individually, which I later imported into Indesign.
WRITING THE TEXT
The first draft of the text—the written description of the techniques—was actually created before the first picture was taken. This writing provided a guideline for how to take the photo, but the specific features of the final picture dictated the ultimate direction of the writing. You might call it a photo-literary feedback loop. It took a few months of editing and re-editing to get this part right. The process was facilitated by the careful eyes of Marilyn Goellner and Jan Walker of Edinboro University, who read over the descriptions and caught a number of errors. Their editing assistance was invaluable.
THE COVER
The cover was designed by Dorota Swies of Lyons Den Productions, an Erie-based graphic design outfit (www.LyonsDenProductions.net). Her idea to incorporate one of the models on the cover set the perfect tone. With the interior and the exterior accounted for, the only remaining task was to publish the book.
DECISION TO PUBLISH
I had written two previous books, which I had published through a Print on Demand company, and was generally satisfied with the results. However, in the case of Office Wellness, I wanted something different. I had decided early on that the book should be hard cover, should have lots of photos, should be of good quality, and should be reasonably priced. I also wanted greater control over sales reports. I knew that POD would not fit the bill on nearly all counts, so I considered self publishing. After researching what would be involved, I concluded that this would be insane. I then proceeded to self publish and can confidently report that my suspicions were confirmed. Nevertheless, I would not have done the project any other way.
FUN STUFF
Despite the fact that The Official Guide to Office Wellness was not intended as an actual exercise program, it did provide a workout. This was apparently due to the unusual sessions to which the models were subjected during photo shoots. Human musculature responds to perverse stress with varying degrees of soreness, apparently as some sort of bizarre evolutionary reward system. Many of my models—in fact, most of them—reported aches and pains following their shoot. I did not charge them for this service.
When taking the photos the models nearly always laughed at what they were asked to do. However, for the actual picture I insisted on complete seriousness of expression. I felt that this juxtaposed nicely with the silliness of the position itself. The models were awesome in this as well as in every other regard. We shared many giggles, mostly at their expense.
LESSONS
Every book that you write teaches you a thousand small lessons. It also teaches you one big lesson, one major thing that you will remember and apply to your next book. The Official Guide to Office Wellness taught me the importance of involving others. To be sure, I made many mistakes. However, letting others be involved in the process allowed me to share the progress, joys, and tribulations with at least one hundred people who cared about the book. That experience alone made the whole thing worthwhile.
* * * * *
William R. Vitanyi, Jr. is the author of The Official Guide to Office Wellness, as well as Kyuboria, the tale of a State Worker who tries to get fired from his cubicle job to qualify for a grant to start his own company—but the State never fires anyone. He also wrote Palm Sunday, a technological thriller about the organized violation of our online privacy. He works during the day as a programmer for Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, and has a degree in Russian language. For more information visit www.baylapublishing.com