John has been in publishing in numerous capacities for over 25 years. He got into publishing for a simple reason. Coming of age in the '60s, it seemed a career in which the products were "moral" (for lack of a better term) and one in which he did not have to compromise his values. It also involved the opportunity to be creative and be responsible for books that might not have happened were it not for his efforts. He's still at it.
His career has evolved from working for publishers to working for himself. As the head of CWL Publishing Enterprises, he works with publishers to identify authors and work with those authors to develop various books, often also managing the production for the publisher. He has also become an author himself. Among the pages in this site you'll find an overview of the books John has packaged and those he has written or edited himself.
Some more on John's background:
- He first became interested in books and writing through the efforts of a wonderful high school English teacher, Miss Eleanor Weiherman, at Millikan High School in Long Beach, California.
- He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965. His senior year was the Free Speech Movement. (See The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s edited by Robert Cohen and Reginald E. Zelnick.)
- He was in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia from 1965 to 1968.
- He has been married for over 30 years to Nancy (Stair) Woods.
- He has a long and abiding interest in understanding human nature, the human brain, and what he calls "the gift of self awareness."
- He is a member of First Unitarian Society in Madison, Wisconsin www.fusmadison.org.
- He is a big fan of books on tape, which allows him to keep up with books while exercising, driving, and working on other relatively mindless activities.
- Some favorite authors and books:
- Ivan Doig, especially Dancing at the Rascal Fair, but all of his books.
- Will Henry, a western writer from the '50s, '60s, and the '70s—a really wonderful storyteller and writer; among others, check out the books I, Tom Horn and One More River to Cross.
- Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, a pretty amazing story of a missionary family in the Congo during the revolution in the early '60s.
- Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book filled with insights and a unique way to tell a story and teach you some philosophy. His second book, Lila, is not nearly as good.
- Stephen Jay Gould, whose essays on natural history are metaphors for helping us understand our human nature.
- Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, which does a great job of explaining the systems view of organizations and what that implies for sound management.
- Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, (link takes you to new edition) a book that seems to be about learning to draw but is really about how we think, understand, and act.
- John Woods and his co-authors. I like the books I have written because they are practical, easy to read, and incorporate a holistic view of the human enterprise.
- Ivan Doig, especially Dancing at the Rascal Fair, but all of his books.
"The world is exactly like we think it is, and that's why."
"Every enlightened theory about human nature is really the brain explaining itself to itself using the metaphors of its experience."
The mission of CWL Publishing Enterprises and the mission of John Woods coincide: To create and deliver on time well written books that meet the needs and expectations of the publishers who are our customers and the readers who are theirs—and along the way help people gain some insight into themselves and the world they're part of.
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