As a writer, I always thought I was the only one that feels anxious about my work—you know, like whether it makes sense, how would it be received and sometimes I even feel anxious, or guilty, that I’m not writing enough. But recently I received an email from an author I subscribe to that helped me feel a little better about myself. She also felt anxious—not about the quality of her writing—but about hearing her writing read back to her. She had just completed her first audiobook, so I guess it was natural for her to feel a bit anxious.
Out of curiosity, I decided to google what makes writers anxious or what kinds of tigers are lurking near the keyboard. I found a lot— from writing quality, genre, sales and even algorithms. While it helped to know that other writers have their tigers, it didn’t get rid of mine.
Oh, I haven’t yet told you yet what I worry about. Can you guess? My book’s cover. As an indie author, I’m pretty much on my own. I come up with the story ideas, flesh them out, publish them and market them. While doing all of that does bring some tigers, coming up with the cover brings the biggest one of all. Bigger than a tiger; more like an elephant.
Every time I’ve written a book, I tremble when the time comes to choose a cover. And now the fifth time is no different. In fact, the elephant loomed even larger this time. I had to get it right. Perfect. Flawless. Grabworthy (another way of saying Irresistible). So I researched book designers and book covers ad infinitum, signed up with some Facebook groups and finally found a designer who designed books in my genre and who suited my budget.
I think part of the difficulty in finding the right cover is that most of the novels that are coming out are in every genre but women’s fiction, the genre I write in. Anyway, once I’d settled on a designer, I drew her into my habitat. Fortunately, she is a very patient soul and she stuck with me through the five revisions I requested.
Of course, my writer’s group deserves a great deal of the praise for the way my cover turned out. The first mock-up did not meet my expectations. I didn’t even share it with my group. Again I felt anxious. I immediately felt my description had failed to convey what I wanted. I tried again and again, until I finally got something I thought I could live with. Once my group had approved it, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Now that I’ve decided on my cover and I’ve read those posts about writers’ anxiety, I’ve come away with one truth—my cover will never be perfect. There will always be covers more appealing more than mine. I will suffer some angst when I come across a cover I think should be mine, but that’s life. I can only give myself and my readers the best I’m capable of.
So, drop me a line and tell me what you think of the cover of my latest book Love, Lies, and Grace shown above. Is it grabworthy? Will you buy the book because of its cover? I (anxiously) await your comment.
Amanda Gorman Attribution: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Washington D.C, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
To me, one of the most crippling experiences of African American slavery was the fact that slaves were denied the privilege of learning to read and write.
Of course, if you were a slave, being worked almost to death, beaten for no good reason, and deprived of what we would consider basic necessities, learning to read and write would be the furthest thing on your mind.
But such was the law at that time. If you were a slave in the United States, literacy was beyond your reach. In Slavery and The Making of America: The Slave Experience, the article description states, “Fearing that black literacy would prove a threat to the slave system — which relied on slaves’ dependence on masters — whites in many colonies instituted laws forbidding slaves to learn to read or write and making it a crime for others to teach them.”
This doesn’t mean that slaves were never taught to read. Some slave owners allowed or taught their slaves to learn to read for the purpose of religious instruction. However, learning to write was considered off limits. It would “threaten the social order,” according to another article.
Slavery and The Making of America: The Slave Experience cites an excerpt from the South Carolina Act of 1740, which states in part, “Whereas, the having slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences; Be it enacted, that all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe, in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current money. “
If only the framers of those laws could have seen into the future, they would have scrapped them before the ink dried on the page. Because today, descendants of slaves are among the most prolific and sought-after writers in libraries and bookstores across America.
One slave who did receive reading and writing instruction from her masters was Phillis Wheatley, who, it was revealed, published her first poem “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” at the age of 13. By the time she was 18, she had gathered a collection of 28 poems, for which she, with the help of her mistress Mrs. Wheatley, sought subscriptions in Boston newspapers.
However, this effort proved futile, and on May 8, 1771, Wheatley and Nathaniel, the Wheatley’s son, sailed for London, where Phillis was welcomed by several dignitaries, including Benjamin Franklin. Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), became the first volume of poetry by an African American published in modern times.
Today, other names have followed the trail blazed by Phillis Wheatley: Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, and many others.
This post will not be complete without mentioning the latest poet to join the ranks of illustrious African American poets. Many of us had not heard of Amanda Gorman until she recited her captivating poem, The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s inauguration, making her the youngest inaugural poet in US history. She will no doubt go on to cross many rivers and climb many hills, forever keeping her name etched in the annals of African American literature.
Reading poetry can be inspiring, stimulating, and soothing at the same time. It can speak to your heart in ways that prose may not always do. For Black History month, will you take the time to delve into some of these treasures that can enrich your life? If you look at the related posts below, you would find a couple that, I hope, will whet your appetite for more. When you do, please drop me a line and tell me what you read and what you think about them.
Did you enjoy this post? Then please sign up for my newsletter in the form below. Thank you!
