A BACKGROUND OF MYSELF
I will admit that even from my early elementary days, I was always a year behind in school because I had a learning disability, that said; starting approximately Grade 5, I began to do very well in English. Since then, I have enjoyed writing stories, but most of the writing I did in my earlier years was through English class assignments, both in elementary school as well as high school (not at home on my own for fun). I can remember during Library Time in elementary school (before Grade 5), I always chose to read the Beatrix Potter books, only I couldn’t read them; instead I made up stories by looking at the pictures.
So, as I mentioned around Grade 5, I vastly improved in English, but not before lots of tutoring, both at school and at home. My learning disability was still evident though in most of the other subjects, like Science and especially Math. To this day, I still have a lot of trouble with Math.
As for grasping reading and spelling, it happened almost as if a light switch was flicked on; I was able to read as well as spell and do it rather well. Honestly, it happened just like that. I was spelling out words I hadn’t learned yet that were considered beyond my comprehension for the grade I was in. It certainly baffled many teachers that I was suddenly progressing further in English than the rest of my classmates. Since then, English has been my favourite subject.
When I was in Grade 7, the principal called me into his office and offered for me to completely skip over Grade 8 and go right into Grade 9 (high school) when the new school year started. With a smile on his face, he told me that I would then be with students who were born in the same year I was. I remember replying to him something like,
“If I’m having problems in school now, imagine the difficulties I’ll have with my studies if I skip over Grade 8 into high school”.
The expression on his face was most definitely that of,
‘I don’t care’.
He gave me a letter to sign that had two check boxes for agree or disagree to jump into high school instead of starting Grade 8 in the next school year and he actually wanted me to take the letter home and think it over. I did take the paper home with me and showed my parents who were in as much disbelief as I was. Well, I took the letter back into the principal’s office the next day before classes started and handed it to him; he looked at it and then looked back at me with great disappointment because I checked off ‘disagree’. I headed out to the yard with the rest of the students before the bell rang. When the morning bell finally rang, I made my way into my classroom where I met eyes with my teacher who said nothing to me, but gave me the very same look of disappointment that the principal had bestowed upon me earlier. It was then at that moment I realized teachers weren’t interested in looking out for my best interests; that part was up to me.
A learning disability doesn’t mean one is stupid or dumb, even though teachers may certainly make one feel like a lost cause at times; it just means that one is slow to learn; a slow bloomer, if you will.
It didn’t seem to matter when I was in high school that I scored high 90’s in my English classes. I remember standing next to a teacher’s desk and I saw the class list. I saw the letters, LD next to my name. I asked the teacher what LD meant as I pointed to my name on the list. The teacher sighed slightly, paused and then answered,
“Learning disability”.
THE ENCOURAGING WORDS FOR ONE TEACHER
I did have one teacher in particular, in high school who was very supportive of my writing skills and always encouraged me to stick with it and to never let go of my gift. Once I graduated from high school though, I never wrote any more stories or pursued anything in English, but the encouraging words from that one English teacher stayed with me for years.
THE WORDS I CHOSE NOT TO LISTEN TO
During my very last year of high school, there was a computer program in the library that answered what area of career one should go into after answering a few questions. I actually completed the program 3 times; not because I was having trouble, but because I felt the answer I kept getting was rather ambiguous. All 3 times, I received the same answer,
‘You should work with people’.
Pretty vague, right?
I left it alone and the next day, the guidance counsellors made an announcement over the PA that if the graduating students wanted further help with deciding a career to go into, they (the counsellors) would be more than happy to assist. I thought that was wonderful and it was just the ticket I needed. During my lunch break, I went to their office and both of the counsellors looked at me with shock. You know the kind of shock that says,
‘What on earth are you doing here?’
I told them I was there because of the announcement they had made earlier about career help and I also told them about the computer program being very indistinct with the comment,
‘You should work with people’.
Both of the counsellors looked at each other and then looked around their office as if they had each lost something. They actually told me that they’d have to get back to me later and that they would call me at home.
That was fine with me; I was happy that I was going to receive guidance regarding what career I should go into and who better to help than career counsellors, right? After all, counselling is what they specialize in.
They did actually call me at home, but unfortunately I don’t remember the entire conversation. I do, however remember one comment one of the counsellors said to me over the phone, something along the lines of,
“There really isn’t anything career wise that you’d be good at”.
Can you believe that? A teacher/counsellor actually said that to me.
I chose not to listen to those words; I chose to prove those words wrong. Just because someone is a slow bloomer, doesn’t mean they’re stupid and I understood that even back in Grade 5 when I all of a sudden began grasping spelling and reading, thanks to the encouragement from my parents as a child (my parents have always supported me in everything I’ve done; successful or not). My English marks from Grade 5 and on were in the high 90’s and I knew that had to be worth something, even if most of the teachers chose not to acknowledge it. I’ll admit that I did take general English classes every year in high school, except for one year when I tried advanced, but I found it to be too difficult.
Some people learn things easily and some people take a little longer to learn things; there’s nothing wrong with that. Since high school, I’ve tried out different types of careers (all working with people, as the computer program suggested), until I came across something that fit right into what I have enjoyed doing all along; I saw a flyer in the paper advertising a home study program to learn how to write children’s books. It was right down my alley and so I sent away for it. I thoroughly enjoyed the program and I did very well. I graduated in a matter of months and learned everything I needed to know, minus some real life experience. The story I wrote for the home study program was the same story from which I sought publishing for and co-incidentally, the title is the same; Amber and the Fallen Bridge. It’s a fun, adventurous story about self confidence and since publishing it, I’ve done readings to children from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and I’m pleased to say they all loved it.
HOW I GOT MY FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED
This brings me to exactly how I got my book, my very first book published. Once I graduated from my home study program, I began looking online for a publisher. Some sites I found wanted me to mail my manuscript to them, while others wanted me to submit an online form. I received a lot of rejections. During my search I was noticing that a lot of the publishers were working through literary agencies. A literary agent edits manuscripts to the specifications of most publishers and then sends the manuscript around until a publishing firm shows interest in publishing the script. Well, I sent a few manuscripts out to literary agencies both online and via ‘snail mail’ and was rejected a lot there as well (this is common). Eventually, after a year I found a literary agent who showed interest and was willing to work with me. After working with the literary agency for approximately one year, they found a publisher interested in publishing my story.
FURTHER EDITING, DISCUSSIONS AND APPROVALS
The processes of getting my manuscript turned into a book were very lengthy; there was more editing, discussions about small changes and because my children’s book required pictures, there were a lot of discussions with the illustrators about each picture with regards to my vision and their interpretations, there were lots of approvals taking place on both sides and when it was all finally said and done, that whole adventure took approximately one year.
All together, everything from the moment I began my search to the publishing of my book took about three years (give or take). I have come across other published authors whose ventures took much less time, but for me on my first experience, it was a little longer. I don’t know if that’s average for a person’s first time.
WAHOO, MY BOOK WAS OFFICIALLY PUBLISHED!
As of September 2009, my first book, a children’s book was officially published and I was super excited, as I’m sure you can imagine.
I am Canadian and my publisher is American and they are a very small outfit. They don’t have a distributor, nor can I afford to pay for one myself. Including my publisher’s website to purchase my book, http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/AmberAndTheFallenBridge.html, my publisher has also released my book to online book stores; Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Chapters-Indigo. (I would like to make a clarification regarding Chapters-Indigo; a few people I have come across have gone to the Coles book stores to purchase my book and found out that it was not readily available on their shelves. As I understand from my publisher, not all books sold at the Chapters-Indigo online website are sold in the Coles book stores and vice versa - I’m not exactly sure why it’s done this way, but there you have it). N.B. You can however, ask the Coles book stores to order in my book for you).
I have a strict deadline to encourage people to buy my book online or I will owe them (my publisher) a very, very large sum of money.
MY BOOK IS FOR
In my experience up to now as a new published author, stores tend to prefer to sell a new author’s book on consignment before deciding to add it to their inventory. I completely understand this because as much as I believe in my book and think it’s the bees knees, the book stores need to make sure they’re going to profit from the book before deciding to commit or not. I buy copies of my book from my publisher and then I take predetermined copies to the stores that have agreed to sell them on consignment in my community.
My hope, no, my goal is to see my children’s book and future books sold in stores nationwide, even worldwide as a part of the store’s own inventories. Many very well known authors before me have gone through what I’m experiencing with my first book now, and that is to shop my book around to stores and talk to anyone who is willing to listen until the masses catch on to it.
I TWITTER TO PROMOTE MY BOOK
I don’t have much money, so I’m doing things I can do to further promote my book such as going to my local community stores and book stores, I’m on Twitter @KelliCurtis1 and of course I have my own blog @ kelli-curtis.blogspot.com
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