Author and Illustrator Geo Rutherford was a guest at Schoolcraft College March 11 during an event put on by The Center for Experiential Learning highlighting the publishing industry.
Nothing about Geo Rutherford’s path to publishing her book Spooky Lakes was ordinary.
The author and illustrator for Spooky Lakes, a book based on her viral TikTok and Instagram series highlighting fascinating tales of bodies of water across the globe, found success in a way most authors don’t: through their social media account.
“It’s a weird journey. You can’t replicate it very easily, I would say,” said Rutherford, who lives in Wisconsin. “It’s hard to get online and accidently become internet famous and have people reach out to you and then you illustrate a book even though you were really just a high school teacher and you don’t really know how you ended up here in the first place.
“It’s definitely a different approach for the whole thing.”
Rutherford was a guest at Schoolcraft College March 11 during an event put on by The Center for Experiential Learning. Taking part in a panel discussion on the exciting world of publishing, Rutherford joined several Schoolcraft College faculty members in discussing their experiences in publishing, including Art faculty member Paula Imirzian and English faculty members Brynne Barnes and Kiel Phegley.
Speaking to students in the Kehrl Auditorium inside the Vistatech Center during a panel hosted by Errin Stegich, the director of The Center for Experiential Learning, all four authors made it clear how different the publishing world can be from one author to the next.
Phegley, whose work includes several licensed titles for properties such as Sonic the Hedgehog, said it can take quite a while before an author’s work gets noticed. He spoke about some of his first attempts at getting published, which included flying to the East Coast for a meeting that just didn’t pan out.
“I flew to New Jersey to try to sell this book I had been writing in grad school and when I got there, I realized it was not you meeting with many people: they matched you with one person,” he said. “I sat across from the one person and I said, ‘Here’s the book I wrote, here’s my query letter,’ and she said, “Yeah, this isn’t really my thing.’ “I thought, ‘God in heaven, what am I doing here?’”
It wasn’t until Kegley returned to Michigan that he found a match for someone to publish with. A lunch with a local representative got him rolling and eventually led to a deal.
In addition to participating in a panel discussion, Rutherford also hosted a workshop in Imirzian’s illustration course.
Her book, Spooky Lakes, came out in 2024. It highlights the mysterious bodies of water throughout the world and the wonders that lie beneath the waves. The book stems from her viral online series “Spooky Lake Month,” a short-form video series highlighting a mysterious lake in under three minutes.
Rutherford plans on writing two additional books in her series that will come out in the coming years. She understands trends come and go and is just excited at the ride she’s on when it comes to publishing her series.
“I just see everything as an opportunity and I’ve been just I’m open for to just taking moments and opportunities where they come,” Rutherford said.