Staff Writer – Latoya Wakefield
How I self-published my first book (from Conception to CreateSpace) Chapter 1
IRIE THE CATERPILLAR….How it all began –THE BEGINNING
Business news. It all started with a dream of a caterpillar crawling on the floor looking wistfully at the butterflies flapping happily above…
Butterflies and lizards are two creatures I’ve always been fond of. Butterflies are just so beautiful and free. I would get loads of butterfly clips even now as an adult. When I was a girl, I thought butterflies came just as they were. Then I learned about the metamorphosis that caterpillars go through to become butterflies and I was fascinated.
I had the dream about a year ago, just after my release of my first poetry book (which I also self-published). My over active imagination was finally back and so my mind concocted all kinds of delicious stories. The dream of the caterpillar came along. I woke up and mused about it. That gave birth to a poem I called ‘The Caterpillar That Was Afraid of The Cocoon”
A few days later, I couldn’t sleep. I was tormented. The caterpillar was on my mind. I have already written a poem so what could this caterpillar want?
That morning, I wrote like a woman possessed; forgetting that I had to go to work Oh_Oh. I did some research about caterpillars. With ease, the storyline came together. And voila! my first children’s book!
IRIE IS ABOUT…
I thought the character of the caterpillar should be a happy one and something that represents Jamaica hence ‘Irie’ (which means everything’s alright in Jamaica). That word would jump off my tongue like a sweet note. I just had to use it!
Initially the story took the name of the poem “The Caterpillar that Was Afraid of The Cocoon” (it was renamed “Irie the Caterpillar” before it was released via CreateSpace). It is about a caterpillar that is afraid of being in the cocoon. Though he’s never been in one before, he figures it to be dark. He doesn’t like the dark especially being in the dark by himself. It’s a path he has to take. It is his destiny. Though Irie grows older, he hasn’t overcome the fear. His family sees that he’s struggling and pitches in to support him. That support was what he needed to be brave.
Surprisingly, the people who reviewed “Irie the Caterpillar” so far missed one important detail. Irie represented the kind of family home many Caribbean children experience. No one noticed that there was no father in the story. I just thought I should point that out.
WHY DID I WRITE?
Why did I write this story? I wanted to encourage children to seek help when they can’t help themselves no matter how old they are. Sometimes, we try to tackle an issue on our own and that issue wins. It’s okay to seek advice, to lean on someone especially if that person is a family or friend. In addition, I wanted to encourage unity in communities big or small. As the saying goes “united we conquer, divided we fall”.
TO PUBLISH OR NOT TO PUBLISH? THAT IS THE QUESTION
I sent the story to Paula Shaw; a wonderful lady that assisted me in publishing my poetry book. She loved the story of Irie. I sent it to Eveth Colley; one of my avid supporters. She loved it too. I thought of getting it published. Eveth and Paula encouraged this idea. I found a publisher in Jamaica and sent them the manuscript. About the same time, Paula sent me a link to Anansesem; an online children’s magazine. I also submitted Irie to them.
Anansesem got back to me first. They were going to publish my story. However, I wouldn’t get paid monetarily. That was fine. I was just happy to get it out there. A few weeks later, the publishers contacted me. The story was already available online. Because of that, they couldn’t publish it even if they wanted to.
I gave up on ever getting Irie traditionally published. A month later I saw a link of Facebook asking for poems for an anthology. I was intrigued; this was another way to get my name out there. I emailed the contact and from there, I shared my work with her continuously. Her name’s Paula Obe and she reignited getting Irie out there as a book. http://www.anansesem.com/
She did the book’s layout and renamed the story “Irie the Caterpillar J”. She advised me to once again self-publish and I ran with it. Thank God for createspace! Thanks to these three ladies, Irie the Caterpillar is now available on CreateSpace, Amazon and Bookophilia Bookstore in Kingston, Jamaica.
Check out https://www.facebook.com/iriethecaterpillar/ orhttps://www.facebook.com/pages/Latoya-Wakefield-Author for more info. on the works of Latoya Wakefield or email her at[email protected] or [email protected].
