I invite you to come learn about CariCon – the Caribbean Literary Conference 2021 – a virtual event: Friday, June 4- Sunday June 6 11am- 4:30 pm (PDT)
For the last few years, I’ve been “digging around” in the literary world, searching, grasping, gradually understanding what I need to swim, or at least, float, in the vast ocean of literary artistry. It’s been eye-opening.
I self-published my first book – one I didn’t write myself, but edited and published on behalf of my late brother. I sensed, maybe assumed, from my initial forays into the publishing world, that no one would publish my guy’s collection of poetry. Then I found some bookstore owners that assured me that “Poetry doesn’t sell well.” When I found a company that would help me self-publish, I was overjoyed – I wanted that book published, even if I had to take money out of my own pocket to get it done!
As I worked on that first book, I began to see that authors could actually be incredibly successful publishing their own work. Self-publishing has become a more mainstream practice, with writers developing their own companies to publish and promote not only their own work but that of like-minded authors. This realization made it truly worthwhile to go ahead and just write and not worry about no one ever seeing my ideas but me. I never minded the idea that my writing would not earn me money – but I did want to feel that I was writing something that would make a difference to someone – I’m a teacher and I wanted to share my knowledge, my understanding – not just write my heart out and hide it away in a drawer!
One of the most important things I’ve learned about writing is that it can be a collaborative practice – as an educator I always cherished collaboration. I realized that I had an image in my mind of a writer being a solitary figure, hunkered down in a lonely burrow, in order to be able to think and write. But what I’ve learned is that “it just ain’t so”. How happy I was to know that one of the most important practices of successful authors is having a “team” – sharing their efforts with other writers, readers even family and friends – and even when a new project is just an idea floating in the mind
I’m proud to call CariCon my literary community – to help and support other writers and accept help and support for my own projects!
Viva CariCon!!!