On November 15, 2020, I completed a long journey by publishing my collection of children's poetry, Wise Words of Ralph. In 2005, at the tail-end of my volunteering in AmeriCorps tutoring elementary students, I began writing this collection of poems. I was inspired by the work I was doing with my students, my love of poetry, and the way this form of writing brought images to life through an easy-to-read format. I was also inspired by the multitude of books I read in school and at my favorite desk-by-the-window in my upstairs bedroom. One of the first books I remember my parents gifting me was Shel Silverstein's Light in the Attic. I remember reading Shel's catchy poems with their simple black and white line drawings and being transported to another place and time. Shel's books always stayed with me as a reminder of the power of poetry in the ability to express pure, vivid imagination. I wrote these poems in the semi-autobiographical voice of a young boy named Ralph. When I was a child, one of my father's favorite nicknames for me was Ralph or Ralphie. I have no idea why or where that particular name came from, but my dad would always use it as a term of endearment. "It's time for B-E-Double D, Ralph" my dad would often say as I lie resting my eyes after a long day.
As years went by, and I added and edited my growing collection of poems, I began to think about publishing. I started searching for publishing houses and agents that would accept submissions for books of children's poetry. I hit a lot of walls finding that, while many agents or publishers were looking for children's fiction, there was the inevitable asterisk "except poetry". It seems there has often been a reluctance towards publishing poetry in general with a added zest of distaste for juvenile poetry. I pressed on, and, in my finest moment, I found Shel's agent was still working. I messaged her and, to my delightful surprise, she was the only agent/publisher out of the tens of submissions I made to personally write me back stating she was no longer accepting new clients. For a rejection letter, that is probably the best you can get!
A year ago, I started to research the pros and cons of self-publishing. Such was my desire to get this vision out into the world. I also had seen good things from a friend, Kim Dinan, who self-published her first book via Amazon: Life On Fire: A Step-By-Step Guide To Living Your Dreams. As 2020 rolled into the longest year on record, and with plenty of extra time on my hands, I decided this was the time to make my dream a reality. One of my biggest hurdles was that this collection of poems required something extra to reach a broad audience. Like Shel's books of poetry, I needed some great illustrations to pair with the poems. I took a stab at illustrating myself, going as far as ordering a digital writing tablet. Within five minutes of unwrapping and plugging in the tablet, I knew this was a misguided attempt at best. I promptly returned the tablet and went back to the proverbial drawing board.
Earlier, in 2019, when it was still safe to see friends and strangers in closed spaces, I attended a book release and signing for Suki Anderson who had just published a book, Dreams on Early Works Press. I had first heard of Suki's work while having coffee with a friend who mentioned her Instagram page where she posted daily drawings of her dreams. Being an avid dreamer myself, I was smitten with her work. Her style was a simple but powerful black and white line drawing evoking a whimsical imagination. This style was just what I was imagining when having my poems words brought to illustrated life! I reached out Suki and we began collaborating in August. With much excitement, I received the final product in early November. Suki also added her skillful design to the book's layout so that it was ready to upload for publishing.
I decided to self-publish on Amazon because I wanted a wide reach to the largest audience possibly with the least amount of overhead. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) allows me to publish my book in several countries as well as on eReader platforms with Print on Demand services, which means I don't have to keep stock of my book and ship out to customers. I also decided to purchase my own ISBN which would identify me as the publisher, rather than having Amazon create the ISBN for me and be named the publisher. While there was an upfront fee of $125 for one ISBN, the ability to retain publishing rights was beyond priceless. Speaking of rights, I also went ahead and copyrighted my book with the U.S. Copyright office. Again, there was an upfront cost for this of $65, but this verifies my ownership of the book and gives me more readily available legal protection if I ever need it. After watching the documentary Feels Good Man, I felt it was the right thing to do. This documentary follows the story of the creation (and the creator) behind Pepe the Frog, and, essentially how important copyrighting creative work is to secure your art. Safety First! is one of the core values of this blog, after all.
With all the collaboration, paperwork, editing, double-checking and uploading done, I was ready to click Submit. And just like that, fifteen years' worth of work was finally released to the world. You can see, buy, and review it here:
So, what's next (besides having you buy a copy or two, read it, color it! and review it)? I've been working with Teespring to create some swag for purchase. You can check it out here: https://teespring.com/someday
This campaign has my favorite (in terms of being most meaningful autobiographically) poem's words and illustration available in a wide range of t-shirts, sweatshirts, totes and even onesies. The story behind Someday is that I would pester my mother as a child asking when we were going to Disneyworld. She would always reply tactfully, "someday". While I have yet to visit the land of Mickey Mouse, I've reclaimed this somewhat sad reply, turning into an anthem, apropos of 2020's pandemic quarantine, understanding that there is a lot to do, places to go, people to see, and that we should never take anything for granted. I'll be wearing my Someday shirt as a reminder. Life is impermanence. Let's make each moment count.
P.S. I encourage you to color the book! If you do, please share your creation in an Amazon Review image and on my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/thehigginsplan
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