Five self-published children's authors share their personal reflections and sound off on the self-publishing debate.
Early on in my practice as a children's literature blogger, I received an email from Trinbagonian children's author Joanne Gail Johnson that still remains salient in my mind. Johnson, someone who has successfully navigated the traditional publishing path and published several well-received children's books with a major Caribbean publisher, wrote to offer me her opinion on self-publishing.
I had been blogging about Caribbean children's books for a while and would occasionally highlight a self-published book that I thought was valuable for whatever reason. Johnson was not flat-out against self-publishing, but shared her reservations that self-publishing could undermine the development of a serious children's publishing institution. She wrote:
"I resist promoting the idea of self publishing... for now I see that we are circumventing the development of our talent pool by not taking authors to task on the work of professional development― the art of query letters, the joy of rejection and perseverance and the victory of making it to the top of the list over hundreds, even thousands of others in an international peer group. This is the vision that will really grow our talent."
Since then, I have been quietly mulling over the self-publishing dilemma. Self-publishing is still a relatively new frontier and many are grappling with the complexities of this paradigm of making books, including the shifting dynamics of authorship and power ushered in by the self-publishing movement. Does self-publishing contribute to a culture of amateur professionalism in Caribbean children's publishing? And given the less than stellar track record of traditional publishing systems, both here in the Caribbean and worldwide, to foster the children's literature of developing countries such as our own, is amateur professionalism necessarily a bad thing at this point?
We really do not have the answers. We can, however, cite one analysis showing that 63% of the English-language Caribbean children's and YA books released in 2013 were self-published books (compared to 56% in 2011 and 58% in 2012). The fact is, self-publishing of Caribbean children's books is steadily on the rise. With that in mind, we are taking the stance that it behooves us to inquire into the self-publishing trend, or movement if you will. This is what our Self-Publishing Journeys feature is all about.
Here at Anansesem, we made it our policy early on to only review traditionally published books. We have sometimes done interviews with self-published authors, and when we have done so we have always been careful to select authors whose works and work ethic demonstrate a certain critical level of engagement with the possibilities and responsibilities of writing for children. Our Self-Publishing Journey's segment is no different. We asked five children's authors who have enjoyed both objective and subjective success, and who have shown commitment to the external path of children's authorship and to the internal path of developing their craft, to write reflections on their experiences with self-publishing. Here's what they had to say.
Stacey Alfonso-Mills
Books: The Boys of Sinclair Hill-Fun in the Backyard (2009), The Boys of Sinclair Hill-The Princess, The Treasure and The Blue Dragon (2011), and Manatee has a Question (2014)
Country: Trinidad and Tobago
>> Click to read
Bish Denham
Books: Anansi and Company: Retold Jamaican Tales (2013)
Country: U.S. Virgin Islands/USA
>>Click to read
Kellie Magnus
Books: Little Lion Goes to School (2003), Little Lion at Bat (2007), Little Lion Goes for Gold (2008), Shaggy Parrot and the Reggae Band (2009, co-author)
Country: Jamaica
>>Click to read
Jo-Anne Mason
Books: Paddy, the Goat That Saved Rainbow Island (2003, republished as Paddy the Goat That Saved Anguilla), Trixy the Monkey That Ate Nevis (2012), The Perfect Shell (2012)
Country: Anguilla
>>Click to read
Geoffrey Philp
Books: Marcus and the Amazons (2011), Grandpa Sydney's Anancy Stories (2012), The Christmas Dutch Pot Baby (2012)
Country: Jamaica/USA
>>Click to read
About Anansesem
0 comments:
Post a Comment