Jon Keegan Illustration: Publishers Weekly


	Publishers Weekly BACK TO PORTFOLIO December 21, 2007 Title: Soapbox: Busted! Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This is another illo for Publisher's Weekly 'Soapbox' column. The author, Mary Murphy writes about Jessica Seinfeld's book, "Deceptively Delicious". Seinfeld's book gives tips for busy parents on how to sneak pureed veggies into kid-friendly dishes, without them detecting the spinach you've surreptitiously included in the brownies. Murphy writes about how the culinary deception wasn't so successful with her kids. November 6, 2007 Title: Truth Seeker Client: Publishers Weekly Description: The story for this month's Soapbox in Publisher's Weekly was a pretty fascinating one. Ben Cheever (son of John Cheever) writes about two seemingly unrelated topics: running and seeking the truth. Yet they come together in a most interesting way in his life. Having just written a book about running ("Strides"), Cheever talks about how in his family of runners, running together lead to moments of surprising honesty because "the brain doesn't get enough oxygen to support a falsehood". I was struck by the mention of his family's deepest secret, his father's bisexuality (thus the closet imagery) which lead to the idea for the illustration. October 11, 2007 Title: The Reluctant Expert Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This is another illo for the "Soapbox" column in Publisher's Weekly. Author Steve Weinberg laments the fact that once you are a bona fide published writer, you immediately become besieged by people looking to get their manuscripts (of varying degrees of quality) published. He writes: "When my telephone rings, I almost always check the caller ID before I answer. If the number and name look unfamiliar, I assume that the caller probably is (a) a prison inmate, or (b) a would-be author seeking advice about publishing a book." October 2, 2007 Title: Now about the title... Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This illo for Publisher's Weekly was for a story about a book with a tricky title. Robert I. Sutton's "The No Asshole Rule" proved difficult to discuss on public airwaves, and the way the interviewers approached the title varied greatly. An NPR producer killed the interview after a producer got squeamish, and anything-goes satellite radio actually asked him to mention the title frequently as they figured their audience would enjoy hearing it on their radios. August 29, 2007 Title: A Bookseller's Education Client: Publishers Weekly Description: A pretty simple Illo for Publisher's Weekly. A writer (Pete Croatto) working at a bookstore tells how he found peace in the simple job of selling books: "I've been snapped at, lectured to and dismissed, all of which could happen in an hour". Even after being threatened with violence, and talked down to, he found helping readers rewarding. July 14, 2007 Title: Christopher Hitchens and Me Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This illo for Publishers Weekly Soapbox column, was about a writer who while on her day job, had the task of taking super-athiest and author Christopher Hitchens around on his book tour while he was in Los Angeles. She formed a bond with him while smoking in her car, and realized that she wasn't so different from him, just on a smaller scale of success for the moment.. June 1, 2007 Title: The Editor and the Sword Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This is an illo I just did for Publisher's Weekly. This installment of the Soapbox column was penned by author Harriet Rubin who sums her rallying cry for more old-fashioned editing as follows: "Builders of ancient temples in Asia typically carved two huge statues at the temple gate. One holds a book, the other a sword. The book symbolizes knowledge. The sword is there to remind people to cut things off: to edit. Knowledge is not wisdom until you slice through the words you hear, judge them and are moved to silence." June 1, 2007 Title: Steal This Title Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This is an illustration I did a few months ago for Publisher's Weekly "Soapbox" column. This is a regular feature where authors, editors and other publishing figures get a chance to rant, rave or tell a personal anecdote about the industry. This installment of the column was a particularly painful (yet funny) account by the author Liam Callanan who had just published his book "The Cloud Atlas". Thinking he had coined a clever and unique title, he was more than disappointed when he found that his own publisher had just released David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas". This all lead to confusion at the book store, and misguided letters to the author. So for the illustration, I imagined Callanan engaging on a guerrilla street campaign to alter the promotional campaign for Mitchell's book, and co-opting it for his own title. February 1, 2007 Title: The Editor's Alter-Ego Client: Publishers Weekly Description: The story for this Publisher's Weekly Soapbox column was a funny essay by an older experienced children's book editor, where her agent is interviewing both her, and her young, over-eager naîve alter ego – newly published children's book author. October 31, 2006 Title: The Road Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This illustration was for Publisher's Weekly Soapbox column. The author of the editorial described the joy of getting lost in Cormac McCarthy's apocolyptic tale "The Road", and how rare that kind of escape is in today's fiction landscape. July 27, 2006 Title: Romancing the Store Client: Publishers Weekly Description: For the Publisher's Weekly "Soapbox" column. The editorial was about how although serial romance novels make up 40% of all fiction sold in the U.S., the entire genre is shunned by small independent booksellers. July 10, 2006 Title: The Black Power of Fiction Client: Publishers Weekly Description: Another Publisher's Weekly illo for their Soapbox column, where writers and editors get to share their own thoughts on the publishing world. "The Black Power of Fiction" was written by a publisher of black fiction who felt that the controversy surrounding 'street lit' was obscuring the important entrepreneurial avenues that it is creating in the publishing world. June 12, 2006 Title: Ready for Your Close-Up? Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This image was originally just for an inside column in Publisher's Weekly, but it was bumped up to the cover image at the last minute. I had to rework the file slightly, moving some elements around, and I scanned in the drawings again at a higher resolution, as it was not intended for such a large space. The story is about how often authors are not prepared for the media exposure they will get in the promotion of their books, and how frazzled publicists are bending over backwards making sure the author's image is as polished as can be... May 11, 2006 Title: The Book Mothers Client: Publishers Weekly Description: For Publisher's Weekly, this opinion piece was written by an editor at a book publisher (Jenny Minton) who never had any desire to write a book, until she gave birth to preemie twins. She had concluded that if she could make a child, she could write a book, and felt she finally had a story to tell. March 30, 2006 Title: Christian Book Sales Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This ran with an opinion piece in Publisher's Weekly, which argued that if Christian book sales were counted along side all other books, they would dwarf those at the top of The New York Times Bestseller list. April 2, 2001 Title: Male vs. Female Detectives Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This illustration ran with a story about the competing categories of male versus female detective stories in the publishing marketplace. August 7, 2000 Title: Large Print Editions Client: Publishers Weekly Description: This illustration for Publisher's Weekly ran along side an article discussing large print editions of books, and how they make life easier for those with limited vision. June 19, 2000 Title: Readers Lost in Their Books Client: Publishers Weekly Description: Article about how people can get lost in the world of their books...and end up in Coney Island after missing their stop on the subway.