Creativity, Courage, and Community - A Writer’s Journey
By J.P. Mitchell
My First Book & My Author Journey
My first book is called Sweet Fire, and I published it independently. What a journey! It started as a nickname I called my daughter to acknowledge the duality of her sweet disposition and the fiery side that showed up every once in a while. I began to realize that I needed to call forth the other “Sweet Fires” of the world through a picture book. So I began creating…but I never imagined the process taking six years!
But here’s the thing: Nobody is out here teaching educators how to publish. But some of us have spent so much time around quality professionally published literature, that we go into indie publishing wanting to create something similar. I became determined to figure out how to get that high-quality book out in the world. I was doing this in the margins of a busy life, though–with family and a demanding job taking center stage. So, I plodded along and kept doing a piece at a time.
Two of the biggest pieces of advice I would give an indie author would be to invest in the craft of your writing–don’t just write a draft and then fall in love with it, declaring it’s ready for the world. Workshop that thing! Take it through a writer’s class. Join a writing critique group. Get a writing mentor. Get some other eyes on your manuscript and let them help you refine and make it better! That is, if high quality is your goal.
Another piece of advice would be to find a designer who’s familiar with the book layout you’re after. Unless you have time to develop the skills, don’t do it all yourself. A professional can make your product look professional. Connecting to experienced minds in the areas you’re not expert in, takes your work to the next level. True collaboration to get you to your goal, is the goal.
Re. the path to publishing: I also knew that my path wasn’t just to send my files to Amazon to print the books on demand. I wanted a communal, “we” experience to bring this book to life…I decided to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to print my first 500 books. The campaign failed to fund! We only raised 48% of my original goal. However, people believed in the process and still wanted to support it. Sooo, we did a direct crowdfunding model, and folks gave me money that I sent to the printer to get those books!
The books came in May of 2023. The journey since then has been inspiring and humbling. We continue to grow and evolve, and the next phase goal is creating experiences that cultivate “great conversations across generations for 10,000 women and girls.” This is the true purpose of Sweet Fire–and I’m excited about what comes next! Read more about the Sweet Fire message here.
Who I Am
I'm an educator and mother who always loved books. I was a child who read voraciously and wrote just as feverishly. I created little books, writing and illustrating the stapled papers with cardboard backs to share with family and friends. In the second grade, I became “published” when my teacher, Ms. Yamauchi, typed my story, ”Corky and Porky and the Lookapola Genie Creature” and read it to the class.
This was power! The opportunity to have my voice made official and shared with my peers stuck with me. Something about the printed words, with the typeset “a” and “g” that only a typewriter could produce, made my work official and important, in my 7-year-old eyes.
Now that I'm an adult and have been an educator for several years, I also have extensive training in literacy under my belt, and I understand that publishing books is no small feat. A sense of urgency to release the message of my book Sweet Fire led me to independently publish in May of 2023. This process took me six years to finish. What a journey! The learning curve helped to shape my vision of creating a number of books that invite children into conversations with themselves and those they love about the world they live in–and the world they hope to create. Empowerment is a huge theme and underpinning of my work. I want students to feel that they have a voice and that their voice should be heard.
One of the most important things I want children to understand about their voice, in specific, is that the internal audience of the self is just as significant as the external audience of the “other”. It is not more valuable to place one's thoughts on social media, for example, than it is to place them in a journal. It is important to me that today's young people know that their inner lives can be powerful and sacred and even private–and yet they are still valuable in the world. This was something I learned as a child and I believe that this understanding has been lost. So my vision as the creator of FreedomSong Press is to ensure that stories and ideas are lifted up through my work that encourage students to think…to reflect…and to speak and listen. It is from this place that healthy relationships and collaborative problem-solving emerge.
My Connection to Brooklyn Book Bodega
I can't remember where I first learned of the Brooklyn Book Bodega, but any place where literacy is being lifted as liberation, I am all in. I definitely consider myself a liberatory educator and author. My work is not just to make reading materials available, but to empower readers to exercise their agency over what they read and what they extract from that reading. I believe that the Brooklyn Book Bodega’s work is mission critical because identity is at stake. As stated on the website, a vicious cycle (or precious cycle) is activated by access.
If a student has books it is likely that they will see themselves as a reader… but it is particularly important that these books are ones they get to choose. Sometimes when the books are chosen for students they don't recognize the gift in what they have. I have witnessed book giveaway campaigns that were well-meaning and featured great books. However, with no student choice involved, books ended up in trash cans or otherwise discarded...a tragic waste to the literature lover!
The intentionality with which Brooklyn Book Bodega gets books into the hands of children makes all the difference. I look forward to continuing to follow the journey of your work and to getting multiple copies of my book (and books to come) into the hands of your students, as well. Keep letting your fire light up the world!
J.P. Mitchell is an educator, writer, 2x TEDx speaker and creator who loves to help others link vision to opportunity through the power of words. Her picture book, Sweet Fire, is an empowerment anthem on a mission to “spark great conversations across generations about girls and women.” Two of J.P.’s favorite things are good music and good conversation. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband and two children.
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