The Head & The Hand Press is a craft publishing company that treats writing as a craft and considers writers to be artisans. We are heavily influenced and inspired by the movement in Philadelphia and beyond to revitalize our declining manufacturing sector into more locally based, handcrafted industries. So it's natural that we would need a workshop where we can build our books with our writers.

During the editing process of Seeds of Discent, Nic Esposito realized that an editor and a writer should not work in the separate vacuums of computer documents and email. Nic and his editor Carl Cheeseman sat in the same space, going through each thought, each line, each story and each word, refining and reworking the entire book in a creative and collaborative effort. Nic credits this process as the defining factor for turning a collection of thoughts, theories and stories into a narrative novel. 

With the founding of The Head & The Hand Press, Nic and the Press staff want to take this process to as many writers as we can. We are not looking to always work with traditional writers, so we realize that most people we will work with won't have MFA degrees. Our intended writers are the "do-ers" of our society, and they have great stories to tell. And with this intimate, collaborative, artisan based editing process, we can continue to produce great stories and well-made books. 

We also feel that writers do better in a community than in the hermitage of their homes or tucked away in the corner of the coffee shop. So we also want to use the space to build our community of writers. We will be offering private space for people to write, and we will be holding events to bring people together to tell their stories and share their insight on how to build a book. At the very least, we want writers to hang around our shop to get inspiration and share a little bit of their own. Our workshop will transcend the basic idea of office space with a few desks and an internet hook-up. It will be a space where we can foster creative thinking and do some good work. And while we will not be physically printing and binding the books in our shop, we will be crafting them.

But like most start-ups, we are still refining our concept and are in no position to buy a building. We need to start producing material. And in order to start producing, we need our workshop. In too many neighborhoods in Philadelphia there are storefronts that were once thriving and are now in decay. And there are many building owners and community organizations that will work with an arts group to bring a positive energy to the space. Our ideal location for our workshop will be on Frankford Ave., right in the heart of Fishtown. Not only is it Nic's hood, but it's also surrounded by a lot of great young entrepreneurs bringing positive energy back to the street. 

Ideally we would like to create a Pop-Up shop where we can act as a temporary use for a building while we develop our concept and the owner finds a longer term tenant. This will help us as much as it will help the surrounding community of business owners and neighbors to once again feel the benefit of a thriving and vibrant commercial corridor. But this is just one idea, there are many more we are looking to explore. For now, we just need a kickstart to begin exploring this process and to begin building the vision of our workshop. And that's where you all come in. Please consult the graph for how your money will be used.

We thank you for your support and contributions to helping this project along. If you still need a visual guide on what we are trying to do, please consult the How-To guide below. And please check out our video made by Brandon Reynolds, with design help from our design team and with a soundtrack by the always talented Carl Cheeseman.

-The Head & The Hand Press

A How-To Guide For Building a Publishing Workshop 

Materials:

• A community-minded building owner 
• A commercial corridor that is revitalizing 
• A publishing company that treats writers like artisans 
• Writers who think of writing as a craft
• Talented craftspeople who can build out the space with reclaimed materials