Why Not? How One Silly Idea Became a Book
By Zarin Anika
Zarin Anika paid us a visit to share her book, personally dropping off copies at the Book Hub. During her visit, she took the time to discuss her inspiration and the journey behind her writing. Read on for insight into her creative process and the development of her first book ABChickens.
They say that all great ideas are found in the most unexpected moments. Our great idea for ABChickens came to us during our daily morning commute to school on the NYC subway. Every morning, my kids and I would spend 45 minutes on the R train from Forest Hills to Midtown Manhattan. My youngest, Atlas, was just two years old at the time, and he was obsessed with chickens and the alphabet. To pass the time while we rode the train, Adil and I would tell him silly stories about silly chickens doing silly things.
After some time, I started to save the stories into the “Notes” app of my iPhone, eventually making a compilation of them. We did not realize it at the time, but we were on the way to becoming authors. All it took was one question, “Why not?” I still remember the excitement in his eyes when Adil suggested, “We can make a book out of this Mama, why not?”
One of my biggest sources of motivation is my kids. I want to show them that any dream can be achieved, and when I see a spark of passion in them, I want to give them every bit of support to take it as far as they can. What started as a small passion project to understand how to write, illustrate, format, and eventually publish a book, became an actual attainable product of love and hard work.
The process we followed was probably not the most traditional route to publishing. Once we felt the writing was complete, we shared our story amongst friends and family to ask for edits and feedback. Soon we were ready to start our search for an illustrator. This became one of the longest parts of the process. We searched for months to find an artist who was just the right fit, in terms of illustrative style, as well as budget.
The months turned into a year before we knew it.
Our dreams would be at serious risk of fizzling out, if it weren’t for Adil’s persistence. He did not want to give up! Life got in the way many times, but Adil would hold me accountable to deadlines.
After reviewing the works of many different illustrators, we finally found our match with Zoha Bokhari, a Muslim illustrator based in Canada. She was so great to work with. We were able to collaborate on ideas together, and she delivered exactly the style we wanted.
The entire illustration process took three months and finally we were ready to format and publish the book. Learning to format our book to make it ready to print was a bit of a learning curve for us. It was a bit technical, and we were overwhelmed. We couldn’t risk making a costly mistake so close to the end of the process. We relied on our personal network and asked a friend who worked in the publishing industry to help us get the files “Print Ready.” It took her a couple of hours to do what we had been struggling with for days.
Finally, we were ready to publish!
They say, “it takes a village,” and they were not wrong. ABChickens was made from the labors of love and dedication from our family, our friends, and so many people who provided us with feedback, guidance, art, technical support, and just belief in us. My husband, Khan, has been our number one support from the beginning. He was always asking us, “How can I help?” and “How can we get this to the finish line?” Khan is an engineer, but he was able to ask his colleagues in China for contacts at a reliable publishing house with good-quality prints and great pricing.
Before we knew it, our book was published and, in our hands, ready to share with the world. The self-publishing journey is a tough one, because you are investing in yourself. The journey to publishing our book was just the beginning. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to share our beloved product with the world.
One of the reasons we’ve partnered with Brooklyn Book Bodega is because we wholeheartedly support the mission of this amazing organization. We believe that reading is transformative for all, and it can open a world of opportunity, especially for kids. We loved having the opportunity to donate our books so that kids from all backgrounds could access our story. We are so proud of the achievements of Brooklyn Book Bodega and to be able to give back to the community in a meaningful way.
After graduating from NYU with a B.S. in Biomolecular Science, Zarin followed a traditional career path into the corporate world. She completed a Masters in System Science and is currently working on her PhD. Zarin is a creative at heart. Her outlet is to write stories inspired by her kids’ interests and the world around her. She also loves to design.
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