Can Cordelia find fame and fortune again - as an e-book?

 

The story of Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune:

There are people who will swear that Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune is the best book I’ve ever written. One person says to me after each of my books comes out, 'I like it, but it’s not Cordelia’. Cordelia, is admittedly, without being too modest, a really good book. It was first published by Heinemann Caribbean in 1990, along with other children’s books. It won the Book Industry Association of Jamaica's best children’s book award. In 1994 it was chosen by Harcourt Brace in the USA to be part of a collection for school libraries in the USA, called Passports, and appeared in a gorgeous hardcover edition. This was a publisher to publisher agreement, so no, I did not get rich. That version was translated into serious Standard English. The original was in English anyway, with just a hint of Creole structures (except for the folksong, which after all, is a folksong). In their version it was interesting to see that the folk song, ‘Cordelia Brown whe mek yu head so red?’, became ‘Cordelia why is your hair so red?’ Oh, my goodness! Nonetheless, it was pretty cool to have an American edition,( which it seems can now be found on Amazon without its cover?)

Possible symbolism/meaning in Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune

 Many of my children’s books contain a bit of a folksong or reference to a folksong. This is because I want our children to recapture the magic of the folksongs I loved as a child; to preserve our culture. ‘Cordelia Brown whe mek yu head so red?’ is one of my favourite folksongs. 

 Even when we do not plan it, there is meaning. Stories come out the author’s reality and often may be related to the time in which they are written. Cordelia is being teased, gets the idea of leaving home for fame and fortune from Puss in Boots, (although that story is not called by name), in the hope that once she has achieved success, no one will tease her anymore.

 Cordelia reflects the time when people were leaving or had left, and I wanted to reclaim the idea that fame and fortune need not be found only abroad, or in ‘foreign’, as we say. This is not in any way to diminish the reasons for that migration, nor negate the fact that Jamaicans have always migrated, and can be found  all over the world. But perhaps at that time I may have realized that that migration might have lasting effects for our country. Family and friends left and were missed. Cordelia, then becomes the magical link for us all, even when we cannot change the way things are.

 The old lady she meets has been all over the world looking for fame and fortune. She lists the countries, Cayman, Panama, etc. This  reflects the Jamaican higglers (traders), mainly women, who were then going all over the region/world and bringing back goods to sell. These were/are intrepid travelers, many of whom, to their credit, made enough money to create a new life for their families and themselves.

One day at a workshop someone said to me, ‘This story is about your younger daughter, isn’t it?’ I felt as if  I’d been punched in the stomach. That’s when you know a nerve has been touched. I was in shock! I had always said to prospective writers in workshops, ‘Know yourself, know your passions, etc.  because it will come out in your writing’. And yet, I had had no idea. No idea at all. My younger daughter, with light brown hair, lighter hair than her sister or any of our immediate family, was being teased.  In an ex-colonial territory, swept up in that moment of ‘let’s be against anything that remotely reminded us of the past’, that was enough.  She would weep over being teased at school. And we could do nothing about that. You just have to learn to deal with that sort of thing.  And she did, eventually, just as Cordelia finds she can. I had no idea that it hurt me so much! So Cordelia is the flag bearer for all children who have been teased for whatever reason.

 

I was invited to the Miami Book Fair  to be part of its Student’s Encounter Programme and read Cordelia in a number of schools, where she was well received, and we sang ‘Cordleia Brown whe mek yu head so red?’ exactly as it is. ( I can’t sing, but it seldom matters in situations like this). Cordelia went on to have many reprints here in Jamaica, even when the publisher went out of business and the copyright reverted to me. However, the thing about printing is that you have to be pretty sure that you can sell most of your print run if you are to make back the money you put out. Bookstores usually ask for 6 or 12 copies maximum, at a time, which  cannot a print run make. If you go through a distributor, which solves all your distribution challenges, it’s 50% right away (overseas, I think it may be even more). So we are caught in a spiral or vicious circle of economies of scale - small print runs, therefore high print costs and selling prices higher than overseas books, small disposable income amongst the buying public. Gone are the days when the libraries would take enough copies for all their outlets – they have no money. And now with a falling dollar, everything is tight, tight!  But how could I just let Cordelia wither away into nothingness.

Some of us had put books on Amazon. I had put on a collection of adult short stories, just to see what happened. Nothing much has, except for some lovely reviews, for which I’m very pleased.  In spite of that, I was playing around with the idea of putting a new children’s book on Amazon since one of the effects of Amazon, as we all know, has been the challenge to bookstores and publishers. But I was stuck in my mind, stuck in this massive change that has overtaken books and publishing, like a deer caught in the headlights, as they say; or perhaps in the Caribbean, like a crab crossing the road with car lights bearing down on it. Will it reach the other side? Then one day, my friend, Hazel Campbell said, ‘Why don’t you give me Cordelia and let me try to put it on Amazon?’ I was astounded! I had not thought of that. ‘You think you can do that?’ I said. ‘I’m going to try,’ was her reply. And so she did! And that’s how Cordelia is on Amazon.  I had the flash drive with Cordelia for about a week before I uploaded it. Fraid like what! Afraid of what? Oh please, it’s technology! And I view technology like I did Math at school. What you know, do; do not venture into the unknown.

And now Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune has a new life. I have received many good wishes and one great review. (Thank you, thank you!) I have not fooled myself into believing that I’m going to make money from this book on Amazon. But I think you will agree with me after reading Cordelia's story, that she must be located somewhere, where those who want her, the 'one-one' copies, can find her. Of course, I’ll be using her as a test case for others to follow (books and other writers also).  I think I’ve decided to put as many of my books as I can, where they can be found. And who knows, if we all have enough books on Amazon from the Caribbean, they might see us in this enormous ocean of books.

Marketing is,  of  course, the challenge! I put the info on Facebook,  and I sent it also to all the people in my address book, and felt somewhat embarrassed, because you really should not promote yourself  to your friends and acquaintances in our Caribbean world. So 'boldface'! (One step from being out of order). So I have not solved the marketing aspect of the whole Amazon business. Therefore,  maybe it will really just be a place for my books  to be. We’ll see.

 

 

E-books on the near horizon: E is also for emotions

I was astonished to see that more than a month had passed since I wrote my last blog and I wondered what on earth could I have been doing. Wasting time?  Surely not! Frittering away my energy and emotions?  I have come to  realize that my energies may not be taken up by work alone – they can also  be taken up by just the thought of work; or by any other emotional circumstance, even if it seems to be a good circumstance. Therefore, I am relieved to report that, upon investigation, I find that my energy/emotions have actually been taken up by worthy endeavours.

So, emotion # 1): My friend Hazel Campbell has managed to reformat Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune, including the illustrations  for uploading to Amazon. That in itself is enough to take up a lot of  my emotional energy, as I realise that my plan to put most of my books (where the copyright has reverted to me) onto Amazon, might be about to materialize. One hopes that the presence of a number of my books on Amazon might generate more interest. Yeah, right! Anyway, publication date might be next week!

Emotion # 2):  I reviewed and sent off another potential e-book, Ebony and the Auntie of the Starlight to the artist. Publication date? Hopefully some time in July/Aug as it has an Independence theme.

Emotion # 3): I located and reviewed another story, Daughter of the Time to Come (once slated for publication, but the publisher stopped doing children’s books and eventually went out of business) located the artist who did the sample artwork and he is still willing to work on it. That publication date is slated for later in the year, probably about Heroes’ Day. So far, that’s all a lot of emotion, as you can see. A lot for me! I like my emotion in small does.

Emotion # 4): Things I Like was interrupted  - still have one illustration left to paint, then try for sponsorship, because I really think that it will be good for  early childhood. Emotions floating around in the air with nowhere to settle.

Of course, we have to have a new story for Christmas - blog, or e-book. Can’t keep redoing the old one, Once Upon a Starlight. (Is it the same character as the one interacting with Ebony above? Yes, it is.) This, however, happily  is not yet a fully formed emotion.

Emotion # 5): hot on the heals of all these potential e-books, I’m seriously thinking also of transforming The Ring and the Roaring Water ( the second of the Time Travel books) into an e-book. We’ve found  what could be the last pre-press copy, so have to check it.

Then I was asked to do a writing workshop for children at Franklin Town Primary. The children responded very well indeed; lots of interaction.  The best story was written by a boy! Wonderful! Well plotted, exciting! (We ignore the potential of our boys to our peril! But we know that, don’t we).  Anyway, this has fired me up about not only doing readings, (which is what we writers usually do), but also writing workshops in schools.  Emotion # 6.

Emotion # 7): I got a wonderful review from a writer whose work I respect, on my book of adult short stories on Amazon, The Land in the Purple Evening, as follows.

Review from Amazon

A delicious collection of short, short stories that makes reading feel like an unhurried afternoon sitting and talking with a good friend over tea. The gently told stories are all rooted in interpersonal family and community relationships looking at respect, love, duty and emerging awareness of life through the eyes of a child or an ingenue. I am not an education professional but would suggest that the material is suitable for age 13 and up.

Lovely, eh! Love the ‘delicious’. It makes me feel like I could just dance all around the room, in the air.  So delighted by it, I’ve decided to  seriously compile another collection and have started reviewing my other adult stories. That’s sort of lovely as well as daunting. I found one which was published by Bim & Kyk-Over-Al years ago (which I hadn’t even realized, and just the other day, so to speak, out of the blue, someone asked if I was the same Diane Browne who . . .she photocopied it for me) and  I just had it retyped – before it faded completely. So the thought of compiling that collection extends the emotion.

It really would seem that I’ve been very busy indeed, and even if it hasn’t all been actual pen to paper, brain engaging computer work, it has been hectic emotionally, especially when we all know that the e-book plan might not work at all. ( Amazon is not the real solution!)

 Come to think of it, it’s a wonder I have enough emotion or energy left to write this blog.

And then this last weekend was Calabash. But that’s another blog, another emotion.

On being shortlisted for a major award and other revelations

 

How does it feel to be shortlisted for the inaugural Burt Award for Young Adult (YA) Literature for Island Princess in Brooklyn? It feels sort of wonderful! Even though we know that  Island Princess in Brooklyn will go no further than the shortlist, (because those to read at Bocas have appeared on their programme posted on their website), I still feel sort of wonderful. It is an honour to be shortlisted and the others with me are talented writers.  For those who do not know, the Burt Award for the Caribbean has been established by CODE, a Canadian charitable organization involved in advancing literacy and learning for 55 years, in collaboration with William Burt and the Literary Prizes Foundation. The idea is to address  the need for young adult material in the Caribbean, and consequently, to encourage the writing of it. The prize is being administered by the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago, and the prizes (these are 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd) will be announced at the Bocas Lit Fest in April.

There are 3 Jamaicans on the shortlist, which of itself is sort of wonderful for YA material. We, including myself, will have to stop saying that Jamaicans  don’t read, because it is clear that we do write, so it follows . . . The thing is, it holds great promise for the future.

The other Jamaicans  are A-dZiko Gegele for All Over Again (Blouse and Skirt Books – a new, young publisher, Tanya Batson-Savage, so congrats to them both). I love A-dZiko’s lyrical style; and Inner City Girl by Colleen Smith-Dennis (LMH Publishing), and I have always liked this book, as you know (see post of Dec, 12, 2010 - you can click on the image to the right of this post ). Others shortlisted are: Barrel Girl by Glynis Guevara, Trinidad and Tobago (manuscript), Musical Youth by Joanne Hillhouse, Antigua and Barbuda (manuscript) and Abraham’s  Treasure by Joanne Skerrett, Dominica (Papillotte Press). I’m so delighted for us in the Caribbean that this award now exists and thankful to those who have brought it into being.

To foster interest in YA material, CODE had decided to do workshops on the writing of it,  and these were held this month. Richard Scrimger, a Canadian award winning writer, and I were the facilitators for Jamaica, and Richard and Paloma Mohammed for the Guyana leg. We hope that these will result in even more entries for the next judging period. Exciting prospect! When I was  facilitating that workshop I had no idea that I’d be shortlisted. So it was more so of a revelation. I had forgotten that workshops may also stimulate the facilitators to write. So that's a lovely bonus. In addition, things come to the fore to do with your writing which you may not have recognized, or allowed yourself to realize. Therefore I'll have to write a future blog on what I learned from doing that workshop.

When I wrote my children’s picture book, Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune, my message, one might say, was fame and fortune can be found at home. There is no need to migrate. The old lady in that story tells Cordelia that she has been all over the world but has not found it. They discover together that it is right here in Jamaica. That book was inspired by my younger daughter, who like Cordelia, stands out as being different. I did not know that until someone brought it to my attention. So that was a revelation!

Island Princess in Brooklyn was inspired by my older daughter’s experience in her short sojourn with her family in the USA. So by then I must have understood  the intertwining of emotion and family with my writing. As I said in my blog for Brown Bookshelf, “This circle of family, of story, fills me with wonder.” ( http://thebrownbookshelf.com/2014/02/19/day-19-diane-brown/ ). However another  revelation,   it seems is that, yes, I can now face up to the fact that it’s not only all right to migrate, it may be essential for some. Elementary, you say; after all,  all island people migrate. Yes, indeed,  but it is not necessarily emotionally accepted deep in one’s heart.

Urban legend  has it that as many Jamaicans live outside Jamaica as live here.

 When Princess meets the old man on the subway with the 'Jamerican'  accent, she begins to think she might be okay.  He is one of us. All the migrations of my extended family before I was born, and my immediate and extended family in the seventies,  did not truly  meld those away with those here. But Princess McQueen did it. She said, ‘We are the same. Our stories are your stories and they deserve also to be told’. Perhaps, just as Princess, who resists the idea that she should need to leave her beloved Jamaica, comes to accept that  both countries can be in her heart, so too, I have accepted this concept, and that only occurred to me recently. The stories of Jamaicans abroad are part of the stories of home. What a revelation!