Naima B. Robert – Muslim Women Writers Talk Publishing and Beyond Muslimah Author Summit 2022
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What channel is this on YouTube?
Ladies.
Take it away. It's all yours.
Today we are going to be talking to
some of our wonderful authors about their publishing
journeys.
So I'm not gonna spend too much time.
I'm gonna ask everybody to just, to just
Let's jump right in. So, if you ladies,
let's just go one at a time. If
you would just please introduce yourselves
and tell us the name of your book,
and whether or not you decided whether you
decided to do,
self publishing or traditional publishing.
So,
Husna, why don't you begin for us? Thank
you.
Tasnawha, assalamu alaikum everyone.
My name's Husna Rahman and I am author
of I Lost Something
Very Special,
and I decided to go down the self
publishing route.
That's me.
Thank you. Thank you for that, Hosnah.
Mutia, what about you?
Hi. Assalamu alikum, everyone. I'm Mutia Badruddin.
I am the author of Ricky and Z,
as well as some other books, but this
is the only one that is available right
now.
For WikiCurrency, I went through, a hybrid publisher,
which is, like, halfway between,
independent publishing and, self publishing.
But for my last book, I went fully
self published.
Could you tell us
just quickly why you decided to do 1
and then you switched?
So I did hybrid
earlier because,
I didn't want to deal with,
I didn't want to deal with the
time that it takes to get traditionally published.
And also, I fee I think that my
books might not be well accepted in traditional
publishing settings
but at the same time, I wanted a
publisher to do most of the back work
because I am very busy and it's a
lot to do self publishing.
So I wanted them to take care of
that side
but I didn't want to wait.
And then when I came up with Ricky
Anzhi which was from the law well received
but the publishers didn't do much for me
in terms of the public publicity
and stuff which is what I was hoping
for so I just thought if they're not
going to really help me with that, then
I might as well try it by myself.
So I did the self publishing for my
last book, Svolta.
Now I think I need to try traditional
publishing just because it's so much work with
Allahu Alam.
Thank you so much for that. Thank you
so much for that. And ma'bruk, ma'bruk, masha'Allah,
masha'Allah.
Harsna, I'm gonna go back to you for
one second. If you could tell us why
you decided to do self publishing. From them.
And being new to the publishing, you know,
from them.
And being new to the publishing, you know,
writing author
industry for like the journey, yeah, I didn't
realise that sometimes they just don't get back
to you. And then I had a coaching
call with Naima and we sort of just
weighed out the options and she was the
one that gave me that clarity on going
down the self publishing route because I I
just really wanted to get my story
out there.
And and it was really daunting to think
about self publishing but I just felt a
lot calmer after having that conversation with her.
And I thought actually, yeah, this sounds quite
good and I get a lot more control
over the process as well, which,
which I'm happy that I had.
Definitely. Thank you so much. Thank you for
that, Hosanna. Okay.
Khosar, what about you?
Tell us,
introduce yourself and give us the name of
your book and what it's about and whether
you decided to do traditional or self publishing.
Okay. Assalamu alaikum, everyone. My name is Corso
Abdulaziz,
and my book is Tales of Mini Mariam.
And I went traditional publishing route. I did
actually do a little bit of a taste
of it self publishing, but
6, 7 years ago, life just was so
busy that, you know, I looked took one
look at self publishing. I googled it. I
had a look, but you know what? Not
for me. So I went back to the
publishing room. So, yeah, I went to traditional
publishing. Awesome. Awesome.
Very good. Very good. And what's your book
about? Did you tell us? Yeah. Tell Us
Mini Mariam is a short Islamic stories
about based on my inspired by my daughter,
Mariam. So what she got up to and
then and then the duwas that followed. So,
for example, having something to eat. What do
you say after you eat? There's a it's
it's a little story and then after that,
the boudoir after it.
That's wonderful. That's wonderful.
Thank you for that.
Shazia, you're next.
Please introduce yourself. Tell us, your book and
a little bit about your book and then
whether or not you decide whether you decided
to do, self publishing or traditional publishing.
Assalamu alaikum. I'm
Shazia Absan. Alhamdulillah. A teacher by profession and,
alhamdulillah, I've got 2 books published.
1
almost releasing in, 2 weeks.
One is the sleepy farmer. It's an Islamic
book for Islamic children. It's toddler book. And,
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, got the toddler, the books that
I'm award as well.
It's published by
a traditional publisher traditional Muslim publisher.
And the Midnight Sun Mosque is being published
by a,
mainstream
publisher or a publisher in British Columbia in
Canada.
I did not want to go through self
publishing because I wanted my master's to be,
you know,
scrutinized real well,
edited real well. And only once things have
gone through lots of additions and revisions that
comes out to shine.
But also
before I pull up my and as entrepreneur,
doing my own business, my own daycare,
I didn't have that time to
self publish.
Besides,
I had no clue about publishing.
I still don't, I only know how to
write and get a check.
So I chose traditional. I
got to win the traditional publishing.
Could you tell us a little bit about
how much time it took you to find
your publisher?
It can take anywhere between
I guess if if the management is good
and it's gonna be expect accepted,
you'll find out within within a month.
Within a month.
But if no,
then you won't hear back, period, or just
a rejection.
So the the midnight, because it's a real
story, it's based on a Canadian experience, right,
where Moscow's actually transport more Canadian, you know,
related to Canada. It's a real community
thing. So I got sort of 3 interests,
but one picked up right away. Is that
okay? You know what? I'm going with them.
Similar to the sleepy farmer 1, I only
heard back from him right away. So but
if if if it will be accepted,
it's gonna happen right away within a month.
Otherwise And then
sorry. And then and then how long did
it take from when they said, yes. We
want this book to when it was actually
published?
The Islamic book, that took just a year.
So I I got a full of both
the contracts together in, 2020.
But, 2021,
before Ramadan,
my sleepy farmer book was out.
But the midnight sun mask is gonna be
launched on 15th of this month of March,
Insha'Allah. So 2 years, 2 whole years for
the traditional publishing.
Yes. Masha'Allah.
Masha'Allah.
Thank you. Thank you for sharing all of
that with us, Shazia. Thank you.
Tumkeen,
Assalamu Alaikum and welcome.
Please introduce yourself,
tell us a little bit about
your yourself and your book, the title of
your book and a little bit about it,
and then,
tell us whether you went traditional or self
publishing
and why.
Okay. So, Sono'ikwa, everyone.
My name is Sam Keen. I am an
author,
poet, writer,
and occasionally speaker.
My book is called Breathe,
Reflections and Poetry from the 2020 Lockdown.
And,
it's also last year's day Daybreak Press,
award winner for best poetry.
So a little bit about the book is
that it's just,
it's a book I wrote in a month
that captures
my reflections and poetry when the lockdown happened,
when when we all went into quarantine and
the world shut down. And so I I
kinda wrote every single day and captured it
and put it into a book,
and that is 3.
And I went with self publishing. It was
actually a little bit of a journey to
decide that.
I worked with him. And
so what we did what I did was
I read it, and then I we worked
on my manuscript, and then I wanted to
go traditional route.
I looked at a few publishers, but then
I looked at the process of it and
how much I would be able to be
involved in the vision of it of it
coming out, the cover, the title, the way
the book would be laid out.
And once I kinda looked into it and
realized that I'm gonna have to have someone
else to say in it too,
I realized that was not the way I
wanna Breathe to come out.
I had a vision of Breathe. I knew
what the what I wanted the cover to
look like. I knew how the layout I
wanted to be. I wanted to kinda
where the floor tree would sit between the
between the reflections.
So with that in mind, I thought that
if I want my,
you know, more control over it,
and my vision to come to life, then
I would have to go, that I would
choose to go to self publishing. And I'm
glad that I did because I think it
looks perfectly as what I had envisioned it
to look like.
Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.
And something that I will go back and
ask the rest of the ladies who self
published, how long did it take you from
when you finished your,
let's say, your your final draft to when
it was actually published?
I gave myself
not too long because,
one thing me and I had discussed was
that
this was like, something like a current event
book, and it wasn't something I wanted to
sit on for a long time because, you
know, when we with the different surges that
were happening, actually, by the end of 2020,
people were kinda like, in these states was
kinda going back to normal and was like
like, oh, okay. Florentine's overall normal now, quote,
unquote.
But,
then
so the book was feeling like it's gonna
become irrelevant if it had come out at
that time. When we had the second surge
and I felt those emotions rise up again,
people like, oh, no. We're going through this
again.
I felt like that was the time to
do it. So my I think I gave
myself
not more than a month or 2. I
think it was 2 months, I would say,
when I when I when I decided what
the release date would be. And then I
worked really hard,
to get it done as much as possible,
you know, all the little pieces, all the
stuff publishing people know. And it was hard
because I did not have this book in
my hand.
I didn't hold this book until I think
a day before the release or something. So
I didn't even know what it would look
like if somebody was out there. So I'm
like, okay. We're going with this.
Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.
Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you
for sharing all of that with us.
Farah, assalamu alaikum and welcome,
And,
introduce yourself, please, and tell us the title
of your book, a little bit about it,
whether you decided to go self publishing or
traditional, and a little bit about why.
This is my first book ever.
And I the book is called Taking Control,
a Muslim woman's guide to surviving infertility.
And
the book is essentially,
a combination
of,
Islamic reminders in terms
of finding this as finding Islam in your
faith as a tool to survive such a
trial,
but also really practical tools
on how to survive it every day even
when your faith is wavering.
And
it's a combination of
what to do if you're going down the
treatment routes and what's haram, what's haram, what
what's the procedure, how much does it cost,
how does it, differ in different countries,
as well as,
other parts such as what do you do
socially, what's what happens in your marriage,
you know, what happens to your self esteem
and your self identity?
All of that. And then it has another
section. So there there are 3 clear sections.
And the third section
is,
so parallel, you know, getting married, having a
child is something that we expect. Many of
us, we grew up expecting that to be
the norm, and we know that it's,
to not be able to have a child
biologically
is the reality for many men and women
around the world.
And, therefore, one section deals with what now?
If that is not your path,
what now? You know, what do with your
future? What other options happens in parenting as
a to become a parent? What other options
happens in your marriage? So that's what the
book is about and it's really for every
Muslim sister probably in the west or any
English speaking country, I would say.
And I think that us can use it
together, but, really, this is a very,
specific book to my sisters who have gone
through this and who feel really alone in
that environment. So that's what it's about.
In terms of publishing, I've gone with,
I've ended up with,
traditional Muslim publishers.
I think when I started writing the book,
I had zero expectations. I said in one
of the panels I was on yesterday.
I didn't know I was gonna write the
book. Lockdown happened. It was an idea always.
I took a plunge. I wrote it quite
quickly. I had hamdulillah.
I spoke to you, and you helped me
with the initial editing.
And then you I think you, actually. It
was you that said,
why don't you try to send me off
to a few publishers? I know you were
thinking of going down your self
publishing route, but why don't you just see?
So I sent it off to 6. Initially,
I sent off to 1 non
Islamic one and probably 4 or 5 Islamic
one just because the emphasis there is a
lot of Islamic emphasis, so that's why I
was going with the Islamic ones.
Out of those 6, I've hammed the last
3, wanted to pick up the book.
1 or 2 2 rejected it, I think,
I believe,
and one never got back to me. Yeah.
So that was the journey. Yeah. Masha'Allah.
And, the book is coming out in the
summer, Correct? Yes. June 2022.
It's just, was just registered on Amazon and
all those other outlets just now,
and then it'll be available for preorder in
the next couple of weeks. Masha'Allah. Masha'Allah. And
how long from when you
finished
it Yeah. When it was, like, complete to
when inshallah in June? So what's what's that
time frame?
Yes. So yeah. Exactly. The writing period is
quite quick. And then from the time
I was sending it off just teasing the
the the publishing industry,
from that time to signing a contract, first
and foremost, I would say it was maybe
5 months.
And that's because I actually went with
second or the third offer, not the first
one. I think had I done that, it
would have been done in, like,
6 weeks probably.
But all in all, it took about 5,
6 months. And then from signing the contract
to now when it would be released was
exactly 1 year. 1 year.
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that with
us, Farah. Yeah. I'm just gonna go back
to some of our sisters who decided to
self publish and ask them that same question.
So you guys can jump in. How long
from when you
finished
to when it was actually published,
what was that time frame? I really want
our
our watchers to understand,
that that time difference because,
we always say that when you go traditional,
it really does tend to take a lot
longer. But I want our our viewers to
hear it for themselves from you, the authors.
So whoever wants to jump in.
Yeah. For me, personally, it took,
it took me over a year from the
time of having the manuscript and yourself, Hind,
and I'm like, you were the initial story
editor. So, you know, it was just perfectly,
completed there. And then I submitted it to
a couple of publishers. I waited about 8
to 12 weeks to hear back from one
of them. And that was 1 out of
3 or 4, the other I didn't hear
back from. And then I think,
I I was my biggest barrier
because I could have got it out quicker,
but I think I just had a little
bit of hesitation, had a bit of doubt
and I put it to the side for
a bit. But then in January 2021 that's
when I started to look for an illustrator,
found an illustrator and that took about 2,
3 months for the illustrations
to be done.
And then just looking at the formatting and
getting it,
edited,
for grammatical,
no, grammatical editing.
So, yeah, it took about over a year,
but it could have taken a shorter amount
of time if I hadn't sort of sat
with it for a bit, and I think
just that hit from the rejections,
of the the publishers. You know, like I
said, I was all very new to this.
I just oh my gosh, is it
not worthy, is it not good?' But then
your self hints and the 9 role kept
saying to me, you need to get this
out there because it's so timely, it's about
grief and loss and there's so many people
of course experiencing that, they haven't been able
to say goodbye to their loved ones, it's
going to
inshallah, help a lot of people. And that
was my driving force, and literally that pushed
me so much, knowing that you believed in
me and that, you know, knowing
that you've got these amazing women
supporting you and who know what they're talking
about. So, okay, yeah, of course, they know
what they're talking about. So,
publishers. But yeah, it took me, it personally
took me a year because
of my own doubts and imposter syndrome and
all of that that could have possibly come
in the way. But I think I probably
could have it probably could have been done
within about
maximum, maybe about 6 months' time with the
the illustrations
as well. And yeah, and alhamdulillah, got published
September,
just 2021.
Masha'Allah,
ma brook. Could you tell us if you
could share
the one thing that helped you get over
your hesitation and get over your doubts and
your fears? If there was one specific thing,
what would you say it was?
I think, Hind, what it was for me
was mine, and I said this in one
of the panels, it was my purpose
for doing the story, for writing the book,
is based on a personal bereavement
of mine. I lost my father in 2018
and I, and the character, the little girl's,
character is based on my,
daughter who was 5 at the time. And,
and I, I basically didn't know how to
to speak to her about what had happened
to her granddad. And and I looked for
children's books with South Asian, Muslim characters, specifically
around the topic of grief, couldn't find any.
And one of my friends sort of, you
know, pushed me to get in contact with
Naomi and I did, I joined the academy
and,
watched the, joined the master classes, got in
touch with yourself as well. But that was
what kept me going, knowing
that, well, A, it was the purpose, my
why, for doing this and Naima always said
that from the outset, she was like have
your why secured.
And then also having the amazing support from
yourself and other sisters as well, Tymke, I
remember we used to attend coaching,
fortnightly or weekly coaching
calls,
and Tim Keane and other sisters,
they gave such invaluable advice, which I took
on board. So yeah, I think they were
my two
things that just kept me going because it
was challenging but Alhamdulillah
know, I'm just so glad that I did
because
I've got some great feedback from it.
Definitely. Definitely. I'm so excited to have it
out in the world. It really is an
important story. Thank
you. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you.
What about you? How long from when you
finished your book or books each, whichever one
you wanna, discuss,
and,
having it actually be published in the world?
Okay. So
I wrote Rick and Z over 5 years.
And it was kind of
so I've been writing for over 20 years.
I had 2 books traditionally published while I
was still in Nigeria.
Right? Traditional Muslim publishers.
But Rekiya and Zee, I started writing at
a point in my life where everything just
seemed like I was
really low
and it was like an outlet for me.
So it was just something I was doing
for myself.
And then the lockdown happened.
And
I don't know. With the introspection of the
lockdown,
being able to, like
I was trapped in a different country from
my family
because of the global travel ban.
And so I sat with the book for
a long time and I
walked and completed
it. And so when I sent it to
some of my friends, they were like, oh,
no. You need to get this book out.
And I didn't want to do the whole
traditional publishing
thing. So that was when I got the
hybrid publisher.
The hybrid publisher, the moment after signing the
contract and all that, I think it took,
about
4 months
but the high bid publisher for the book
to be out.
Okay.
But when I when I
did Folta, which is my last book, actually
an edition of the very first novella I
that had been
traditionally published in Nigeria.
But it it was no longer in print
and I had people, you know, once I
came back on social media because of Ricky
and Z, people started reaching out to me
like oh, I remember this ebook from 2010.
Can can, you know, can can can I
get get a copy? So I thought, okay,
I would just,
revise it and put it out, you know,
self publish, thinking it was going to be
easy. It wasn't
because
because the time after the time I, you
know, I went to
edit it, which I was trying to keep
to the the story and not change anything,
just, you know, do, like, a surface level
edition, but not actually change the bone of
the story.
Oh, I didn't mention I do write fiction,
or like most of you, I write adult
fiction mostly.
Anyways, so after the editing process and I
thought, okay, yes, this is the final draft
I wanted,
all I really needed was, you know, get
a professional editor to work with it and,
the book cover done and the typesetting and
the layouts and stuff like that. And it
took me maybe about 6 weeks, 2 months
to get that done.
Mostly because I couldn't find a cover
save my life. Like, we went through
over 50 covers. It was so ridiculous.
And, you know, we kept I'm like no
no
nah or maybe I would like okay this
one is good and somebody else on the
team will be like no that's horrible and
so we just went over and over. And
eventually the final cover that we used, it
was just a case of me saying, you
know what?
I am going to go with this cover.
I like it. And some people are like,
it's too simple, and they're like, no. We're
going with this cover. And that was just,
like, a week or 2 before
the book was supposed to go live, which
was crazy.
We'd set up the preorder and everything,
but we hadn't come up with the cover.
So, yeah, it took about 6 weeks. And
I I wasn't in the best of health
at that time.
So I don't know if I had, you
know, something to
do with it. Maybe I could have done
it earlier, but, really,
it was so much at that time. I
consumed the date once. And I remember Naima
in one
of
the You're breaking up a bit, Matia. I'm
not actually sure if you're still with us.
But thank you for
Okay. Are you there?
Yeah.
Yeah,
you're coming sort of in and out. So
thank you, thank you. I think we got
just a bit, though. We got the bulk
of it. So thank you for sharing all
of that.
Khosar, would you like to talk about your,
just your general publishing journey?
You, I think you had mentioned that you
were thinking about doing self publishing, but then
you decided you didn't want to do that,
and you went with
publisher. To begin with and then why you
decided to to go the the traditional route
and also, like, time frame and the challenges
that came up. Just talk to us a
little bit about the the whole journey your
whole journey.
Okay. So the whole journey was pretty long.
So from start to finish, it was 8
years.
So,
yeah. So, I mean, from the start from
the time I wrote the story
and then deciding, okay. Fine. I'm going to
get this published. So I started off with
seeking traditional publishers.
I found, my second so I you know,
you know, the the whole thing. You start
googling. You don't know who to ask, so
you Google how do you become an author?
What do you have to do? How do
you write the manuscript?
You contact you go to libraries, and you
look at, you know, look at books and
see who the publishers are, and you write
down all publisher names and you go back
home and Google again. So lots of Googling
Googling and,
excuse me.
Lots of Googling and then,
found 1 publisher. The second publisher, then you
have to write the manuscript according to their
requirements. And so all of this, as you
can already tell, takes time.
Found my second publisher,
and then the voice goes. So found my
second publisher, and,
and, I mentioned last time that I so
I sent it to her and she agreed.
She loved it and she said yes. Yes.
Yes. And I was like, great. Great. Great.
And that's it. You know? As I was
saying last time as well, we will have
busy lives. I thought it's fine. That's sorted.
Now let's just get on my life. And
so I've got all of my life. I
didn't hear from her until 1 year later.
And, you know, I wouldn't recommend that you
leave it for a year, but me, I
was so busy with my own kind of,
you know, homeschooling life, looking after my kids
and organizing community events, etcetera, and working.
So I just left it. So a year
later, I thought, you know what? I haven't
heard from that publisher. Let me just get
hold and see if, you know, what's going
on. And so I emailed her, and she
came back to me and said to me,
I'm sorry, sis. I forgot to let you
know that we're actually closing down, you know,
things didn't work out, but good luck with
your book. And I was like, gee. Yeah.
Thank you. I wish you would have told
me before, but, no, I was like, I
find you, but the journey continued.
So the journey continued, and so I think
it was the 5th publisher there that I
finally, you know,
said yes. They really liked it. But even
that then took about I was just checking
just now. It actually took 2 2 years.
I signed the contract in 2018, and then,
you know, things take time because you have
to kind of then find the you have
to agree on the contract.
It goes to the editing process, and then
you find the illustrator. And then I remember
sitting in the room with the illustrator and,
talking to him about my story, trying to
get him to imagine what I've because it's
all in my head. It was all in
my head. It was written down, but still
to describe that this is what I'm looking
for. This is the character, give them a
few pictures. So I mean, yeah, pictures, you
know, because it was all based on my
family. So my daughter and my children, my,
you know, my my my the rest of
my family. And, alhamdulillah, he did a really,
really, really good, emotional, excellent job in illustrating
at the end of it. But, again, it
took time. And then
once the book was published, you know, it
took I I remember the time I I
couldn't believe that I was Martha. I was
like,
it was really,
until I did not have that book in
my hand. I remember I was in my
bedroom, I was sitting on the prayer mat,
and I remember I looked at my book
and I thought,
I'm I'm an author. I just it was
it was incredible. That that feeling, you know,
you don't even believe until so I held
the book, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm
an author. And then it's
like, but now what? You know, you know,
now I have a so many books, 1,000
a 1,000 books. What do I do with
them?
So then is that process
because what I hadn't realized was that after
I signed the contract that I was actually
agreeing to also help
publish that book and get that book out
there, you know, that is that next process
and I I was clueless again back to
Google, you know, how do you get, you
know, one of the tricks, one of the
the trade. And what what what helped me
was
I I was saying that as well on
the other panel that, I,
sent a message through Twitter to Naima just
to tell her that, hey,
I've just published a book. I she had
no idea who I was, but I knew
her only from, you know, yeah. And I
was just saying that, you know, when you
thinking, you know, you know someone through their
books, you actually, you don't know them, but
still I wanted to tell someone who was
up then. So I just just tweeted messaged
her. I said, I've just published my book
and I'm so happy. And then when she
tweeted me back, I was like, oh my
god. I have a message from them. Oh
my god. So that was my journey. That
was my beginning with Naima.
And so, yeah. And from there, she tweeted
me back and then, you know, then I
thought to myself, maybe she can help me
out because I really do need some advice.
So she offered me a coaching call and
then that was the beginning of how to
get myself out there. I decided my publishers,
you know,
they actually helped me with them paying for
the, obviously, amplify
the amplify course that I went on, and,
it was amazing. That was the best thing
that ever happened to me because I've been
looking at the check
my checklist. I've brought that out
literally every single tick tick tick tick tick,
you know, I'm so proud of that. It
really is, you know, it's like update your
update your social media, Facebook.
Some of these things, I had no idea
what they meant. Like, you know, Mailchimp,
I don't know. And, what was it called?
A lead magnet. What's a lead magnet?
So I was completely clueless, but but the,
amplify the course that I I went on
is a self study course, but it is
absolutely amazing.
And if you even if you get stuck,
Naima is always there for you. And if
not Naima, YouTube, Zindabad, as we say in
my language, YouTube's the best. You know. YouTube
is the best. It's so simple. YouTube actually
helped me understand what Mailchimp was all about.
I hadn't focused what was going on, but
YouTube was the best thing. So, yeah. So,
nothing really.
There's more, there's more, but
Humble. Thank you. Thank you for sharing all
of that. And,
we're just so glad,
to be a part of that because the
Amplify program,
the goal of it is really to help,
authors like yourself. So authors who have written
the book and maybe the book is already
out there, and it's about
getting it more widely
recognized in in the community and just,
allowing it for a wider readership, really. So,
so I'm so glad that, hamdulillah, that you
found that beneficial. Hamdulillah.
So ladies, I'm gonna ask you another question.
So a 2 part question.
What was your biggest challenge
along your along your publishing journey? Not the
writing. So, like, the writing is done.
Not your writing journey, but your publishing journey.
What was your biggest challenge,
and what's your biggest tip for
authors who,
or writers who maybe
want to
write a book, people who maybe haven't yet
written a book,
or authors who have written a book and
now they're thinking to themselves, well, what now?
So what was your biggest challenge along the
way and your number one tip for them?
So,
Farah, why don't we start with you?
Are you here?
You're muted. You're muted.
Hi, Yvonne. I'm sorry. I keep taking the
camera off because my nose and my allergies
will cooperate.
So I'm having to blow my nose a
lot off camera.
But, anyway,
I believe I'm in the thick of that.
So,
for me, even when I started
the 1st day of writing,
for me, getting to this bit, the marketing
side of it, and getting the book
actually known and then getting it into the
hands of enough people, that was always my
fear, to be honest, rather than anything else.
So I am at my fear store right
now.
But what I'm trying to do is,
literally next week, I'm gonna sit down, and
I'm gonna work out my own marketing strategy,
in terms of with the help of, you
know, yourself or Nieman or other people,
and also
look at the publisher's strategy and see what
they're doing and try and hold them accountable
as well-to-do as much as possible.
One of the things that we're currently doing
is getting endorsements
for the book before, you know, folk can
physically get out there. So that's something.
But I'm I'm really
clueless myself with this bit. On on top
of that, not only being clueless, like, the
sister said, so obviously you're gonna have to
do a lot of Google and a lot
of asking questions and all of that.
But like I said, when it's combined with
your with your own biggest fear as well
or or you think it's a weakness of
yours,
it's really challenging. I'm physically, as we speak,
doing the work to kind of get my
mindset right for that bit.
But I know that one thing I don't
wanna do,
for me anyway,
whilst this book is aimed at Muslim women
and the topic
is heavily influenced by the teachings of Islam
and the reminders of Islam, I really wanna
try and promote it in all mainstream audience
because I think it is such a crucial
point and sorry, topic. And it's a topic
that's decided to be discussed enough like many
other topics.
But like many other topics, the Muslim voice
is not part of
the part of the experience, and there are
many Muslims in the west at least who,
yes, we consume Islamic focused articles, books, YouTube,
all those things. We also consume a lot
of mainstream
services as well. So my goal is to
try and
get over the fear,
figure things out, and really make sure that
I do
I just do the sisters that I know
need to see this book and read this
book as much justice as I can and
give them as much opportunity because it really
hurts my heart that I've written this book
for them and to support them and for
it to be their own sporting guide through
it, but yet they never get to see
it or hear about it or even know
it's out there. And they continue feeling alone
when what that's why to relieve that is
why I wrote the book.
So, yeah, it's it's a it's a it's
a it's a process.
I'm not there yet.
So, yeah, that's that's my journey on that
bit. That's wonderful.
I think just just to sort of say,
you know, you said it's a process and
you're not there yet. I think that,
along our author journeys
it it will always be a process. As
long as you have a book in the
works, it is a continuous process.
And so it's important for people to understand
that because sometimes I think, you know, new
writers, especially, they go in and they think,
I'm gonna do this, this, this, and then
I will have a I I will have
reached it. I will have reached the summit,
you know? And it and it's not exactly
like that. It really is a continuous process.
And you change and you grow along the
way. So it's a wonderful process.
But there is lots of ups and downs
along the way, like you were saying, lots
of things that we learn as we move
along. So,
thank you for sharing all of that so
that our viewers can understand that as well.
Thunqin,
share with us
your biggest challenge along the way and your
most important tip,
specifically for, like, the publishing side of the
of the journey?
So my biggest
challenge was myself,
and,
undoubtedly,
it was that, like, by far,
because as much as
things were difficult or it's it's it's hard
and, you know, self publishing people say, how
did you do it? A lot of time
people reached out to me. There was like,
how do you do it? It looked so
hard.
And I realized that at the center of
it was myself, my own fears of it,
my own
worry about rejection, the imposter syndrome that, that
Hassan was talking about. Like, I totally relate
to that because the whole time, I was
like, what if?
And that what if got bigger and bigger
and bigger until it weighed me down and
and,
like,
it just my manuscript was ready in a
month. Right? So I wrote it in a
month, and I had sent it, to him
within within a month or 2 of of
writing it
because I wasn't even sure I was gonna
publish it at first.
And when
I remember you sending me sending it back
to me in the time frame that we
had discussed,
and I didn't even open it.
I didn't open your notes. I didn't open
what you wrote about it. I didn't wanna
read it because I was so afraid
that you were going to tell me,
maybe not, you know, type of thing. So
I I just kept it closed. And I
remember
several months later, my husband's like, hey. Didn't
you send that to an editor? Like, what
happened?
And I said, I didn't even open it.
I didn't even open the email. And he
said,
well, that's not great.
Because he's like,
didn't we, like, you know, say we're gonna
invest in this and, like, aren't I, like,
an investor in this this book that you're
making and instead of my decision to know
whether or not you're gonna take a pass?
And I said, I'm not just so afraid.
No one's gonna like it. It's not gonna
be good enough. You know? I I feel
like it'll it'll break me down when I
hear that editing notes.
To my surprise, when I opened the email,
I was, you know, you didn't think, oh,
you know, you weren't throwing up on it.
You were saying that it was Alhamdulillah. It
had some, you know, had some edits to
be done, but it would it could, you
know, be potentially published.
I realized it was my fear, but then
once I read that, again, again, it took
me another few months again to not do
anything on it. And I said, okay. It's
good, but self publishing is so hard. So
I just put it away again.
And I thought that it was supposed to
be, like, the thing that people do. And
I'll be honest here. I thought that's what
you go to when people are when the
book is not good enough,
and and
traditional publishers are rejecting it. So this is,
like, a second,
like a second option, not like a first
option for someone.
But then I was hearing about from, when
I used to join the classes, and the
coaching from Naima, I was hearing about people
who
who actually prefer to self publish. And I
kept on hearing about how they had their
own voice, and it was their own opinion
and all that stuff, and they had some
control over it. It it was empowering to
learn that.
So I think myself, I would say, is
the biggest one. Because when I worked on
my mindset about it,
things fell into place. As long as my
mindset kept me at the back saying, no,
you're you're not good enough,
for lack of a better word, but just
like you're not good enough. Your work is
not good enough. You're not good enough.
Then I was like, no. It's it's not
me. And Could you tell us just how
you how you got over that? Like, what
was the first
step that you took to help you get
over that limiting mindset?
Having support,
having people around you to remind you again
why you want to do it in the
first place.
And that includes you, coach. And I remember
you're like, what happened to the book? And
I'm like, it's coming. But you didn't give
up. It's not like you said, well, she
got that answer, and so I'm just gonna,
like, it's it's her thing. I mean, you
you as my editor, you were done, so
you edited already. But, but you you reminded
me again again, hey. I hate them. What's
going on with that book? And I was
like, yeah. What is going on with that
book? And then Naima did the same thing
as well.
Again, with the you need a good kick
in the pants type of, you know, she
she she will be she'll hold your hand
when she needs to, and then she'll be
like, okay. It's time to jump now and
kinda, like, give you the the words that
you need to hear.
And my family, my children, and my husband
were
always reminding me, like, you know,
it's so I being surrounded by support is
great. Is is a really big thing to
have, and alhamdulillah, I'm glad that I had
those people who just didn't give up on
me even though I had given up on
myself.
Wonderful. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
Thank you so much. And my one tip,
if I can add, sorry,
is that yes, it's difficult but it's doable.
Of course, definitely, definitely and I think so
many new writers don't get that you know
they say they see the finished product and
they think how do I go from you
know these letters on my notebook to to
that, you know? And and and I so
appreciate you saying that because so many people
need to hear that and sometimes we need
to hear that all along the way. So
I really appreciate that. Thank you, Tumkeen. Thank
you. You're welcome. Thank you.
Shazia,
you're up, my friend. Your biggest challenge along
the way and your number one tip. And
your biggest challenge, also how you got over
the challenge.
So I as I said, I, I
decided to go the traditional route. I did
not want to go self publishing.
So for traditional, I think the biggest challenge
is
to be
strong enough to take all the rejections
and still keep going.
K? That's so
nice. So what I was
just while I was thinking about this, you
know, when you you have that punching bag
where people practice on it, you punch it,
it goes back,
it comes back to this place again.
So you're being punched with a no every
time.
You you take it, move back, and you
come back again, and do it again, and
do it again, and do it again. That's
the biggest challenge, I think.
But also, I as I mentioned yesterday thing
is that if you want to do it,
then you have to keep going at it,
and you have to work on multiple projects.
Again, I come from a different perspective because
if it's an it's it's if it's an
a a nonfiction book for adults,
I've heard from Michelle published
successful authors that
the picture book market in itself is a
tough one.
And it's harder to write them, it's harder
to edit them, and hard to get them
out.
They'll look easy with a few words.
It's takes longer for them to publish as
well because of the illustrations.
So it's a longer journey because if it's
just a narrative of adult book, it's easier
to write. It gets edited, gets published faster.
So
for me,
I think when I look at the whole
thing, like, if you just look at this
this
book, the idea
I got in 2010.
And I walked into a class when my
teacher was teaching the. I said, what's that?
Oh, it's a mosque. Really? It's traveling? Good.
I got the article and put it with
me.
And then I started taking writing courses. I
think my biggest tip
would be to keep
in contact
and support, but I will be specific.
Join a writing class.
Get a coach.
That's what keeps you going.
You have friends who give you comments, who
give you suggestions, and you actually every every
editing that that gets done, every comment, every
suggestion, every
remark, it makes you better at your craft.
If I'm by myself writing something, it looks
wonderful to me.
When somebody else looks as like, oh, I
don't even think of that. Like, what do
you mean kind of thing. Right?
But when that thing is that manuscript
is looked by multiple
eyes, multiple different people, different,
backgrounds, different comments. It just opens your mind
up.
So biggest tip for sure, join if if
if you want to be in the writing
field, the business, the profession,
join a writing class.
I think I don't know when I started
the EMA first, but but I've been at
it.
And the funny thing is that,
when I am in right I'm taking writing
this over here, a very good editor who
does the writing course. I've taken a lot
with them with with them as well.
Every time in a writing class, I'm motivated.
I'm I'm held accountable for. I do it.
And one one good thing is you need
other people's work as
well. You need an idea. Oh, that's, oh,
that's neat. Maybe I can help her in
that way. So you're surrounded by people like
you, and you keep going at it. And
the moment the class finishes, everything goes back
on the shelf. So
I know that, okay, once I've joined the
class, I'm going to write.
But if I stop the class,
life comes in the way. And I just
normal life job. Kids, work, family, everything comes
up, and writing was at the back burner.
So that's my biggest tip. It takes time,
but
everything takes
time. Nothing's fast. Anything good takes time.
It's the quick things that, you know, don't
have value. Like, for me, it's been taken
more than 12 years for this from the
idea
to to the full thing.
And I think sometimes
for because I'm kind of like, I've got
it put that done by a traditional publisher.
There's not much work for me after the
contract.
After the contract, it's just waiting.
But for me, the main work is before
the contract. Keep polishing the manuscript. Like, this
management I wrote once and got it checked
by once, and then I send it to
just for a secret. Okay. I got rejection
that you send it to somebody else. I
got it send it to Alhamdan Naima as
well and Hank as well and Susan Hughes
as well. And I sent it to somebody
else. Just the the two ideas they give,
but sometimes they come from a different perspective.
Oh, okay. Let me try that. And so
how but now I I like, you know,
I I like how
said.
I see her point and I understand very
well that when you're self publishing,
it's yours. It's your decision.
Or if the other somebody else takes over
then you have to go with them. I
am happy. I love the book.
The luscious inshallah is gonna come out now
in 2 weeks.
But it has changed a lot
from my original thing.
And I miss and I miss that original
thing. It actually reminds me of my last
I'm gonna finish off soon. When I did
one of my courses the first time I
did the courses, I was told to read,
the, Stephen King's, Stephen King's memoir on writing.
It's called
on writing memoir of the craft.
And I remember those words he said, kill
your darlings.
So when you come to editing and stuff,
there's best part you love, but you have
to kill it in order for the book
to go ahead.
That's a thing. I had a really cute,
catchy phrase that I love in my story.
Guess what? It's not in the book.
It's not in the book. But Alhamdulillah, it's
it's a process and bit by bit as
long as the message
goes out.
This message is about community of helping everyone
affect school inclusion
of working together,
it's okay.
So,
So, yeah,
get a writing class.
Thank you for that. And you said you
made a lot of great points, and I
just wanna highlight a couple. You said that,
you have to get used to the rejection
and something that I I, you know, I
always
I always try to make sure that our
new authors understand
that
along the way there will always be some
kind of rejection
and I think that that might put people
off from the beginning but I like to
warn them. I like for it to not
come out of the blue because
there will always be rejection. There will always
be, if it's not from
an editor or a publisher, it will be
a negative review that just sort of, you
know, stabs you in the heart. There will
always be somebody who doesn't get it, you
know, and that's just part of the process,
that's just something that you have to accept,
And like you said, you have to
persevere. You just have to keep going. And
something else that I love that you said
is that you need to get other people's
eyes on it. You need to get other
people's opinions,
and it's you're not looking at your friends
and your family. You really need people who
are in the know to to give you
that feedback. And I always say it's the
negative feedback that helps you the most.
It's not the, this is wonderful. This is
great. That is really good for our ego,
but that doesn't help us grow. It doesn't
help us,
improve our writing or improve our books. So
thank you so much for all of that,
Shazee. I really appreciate it, and and I
am sure that our our audience will as
well.
Who have I not gone to with tips
and challenges, ladies? Forgive me.
I can go, Hind. So, yeah. Exactly.
Yeah, I think everything that was Sisa said,
I can definitely resonate with it. I think
my biggest challenge was just maneuvering
through the self publishing process, knowing
where to begin
and joining the writing community
really helped.
And also finding the right, I guess this
is a tip as well, but finding the
right illustrator
for my book,
someone who just portrayed, to depict the image
that I had,
of where I wanted to take the story.
And it did take a little bit of
time and initially I went in with a
different illustrator
and almost signed the contract with them, but
my gut was telling me that something just
wasn't right. And, you know, you always say,
Zennet, go with your gut, I'm like trying
to tell you something.
And I felt bad. I felt bad
to kind of reject them because I was
like, oh my gosh, you would hurt their
feelings and also, especially she was just so
lovely, bless her. And then I just carried
on looking, on Instagram for another illustrator and
as soon as I saw her work I
was like, oh my gosh, you know, just
like my heart sang
sang,
she is the one, she's the one, and
everything happens for a reason, isn't it? Whatever
is meant for you literally will not miss
you, because with her,
she illustrated the story, Anita Bagdas, she illustrated
it, she was a formatter,
the cover design,
and she just threw out the whole publishing
process, she just held my hand through it
and I think I was just so fortunate
because otherwise, because she had illustrated other books,
she had
the know how and otherwise I think I
would be so lost. That was my biggest
challenge,
just kind of getting through the self publishing
process, you know, uploading
the book onto IngramSpark,
had to find out more about them and
how to do that and then distributing and
all of that. So I think that just
and for someone who had not a single
clue about any of this whatsoever,
you know, it was just really, really challenging.
But having that support,
really helped. And I think, as Shazia said,
one of my tips would be to definitely
join the writing community because yes, you have
your friends and family members and they're always
going to be supporting you and, you know,
they're quite biased aren't they? But,
with my story, after it got published
in September, we still were making changes to
it. So we've now tweaked some things, and,
there's like a second edition, so to speak,
because I did get feedback- what you were
saying Hind, you know, you get feedback from
people, and initially
I took that, you know, I was just
so disheartened by it and they were like,
oh, maybe just make a few grammatical
changes here' and then I was like, this
is my book baby, you know, I've already
got it out there, and it's that hesitation
of, I don't want to change it because
it's out there now, it's published and people
have it in their hands.' And then I
think it just took me a little while
to mull that over
and think that, actually,
she's right, you know, she's right, she's given
me this invaluable feedback, which is only going
to support my book and it's only going
to, inshallah, make it better.
And then we did make the changes, and
then Nita and I sat down, we made
those changes, and actually I'm like, yeah, it
does seem a lot
better. And, you know, I had some,
coaching calls and and and just, kind of,
getting more feedback even after it was published.
So, you're absolutely right in what you're saying
earlier about the, it is a continuous journey.
There's no real
destination, is there? You know, you're always looking
to improve it and that's exactly what, and
I'm always thinking about other ideas for the,
for the 3rd edition of it. So yeah,
there's always going to be edits and things
like that. And I think another tip would
be,
for Sisters, for anyone who's thinking of writing
publishing
a book, invest in a really good editor,
join the community, writing community, invest in a
good illustrator, you know, don't just go with
the first
person that you come across just because
they're telling you they know,
what to do or they could help you.
Like, really take your time and find the
right fit. I'm a psychotherapist
by profession, so I know how important it
is to find the right fit when the
client is looking for a therapist.
And it's similar with this as well, find
the right fit because a relationship
that you have with your editor, your illustrator
is key, is key and it really does
come across
in the in the book when you get
it out there and if you have that
strong relationship then you can literally just get
through it all,
together. So yeah, alhamdulillah it worked out well
but but yeah, it is a continuous journey
and I feel like it always will be.
Yeah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
Thank you for that Hosanna.
Before we sign off, I'm gonna ask everybody
and I'm gonna start with you, Hosnah.
If you could sort of give shout shout
outs to the people who helped you along
the way. So your illustrators that you would
recommend, editors that you would recommend,
who, if you're traditionally published or semically published,
who your publishers are,
formatters.
Anybody who,
like an somebody who's written a book might
be looking for these resources. If you guys
I'm just gonna take you one at a
time as we
go across. And if you could share their
names with us because,
for it would really help the the greater
writing community, everybody who's watching, everybody who's looking
for those resources. So, Hosna, why don't you
go ahead? Tell us the name of your
illustrator
and, you I think you said she does
the formatting as well. Well, you take it
away. Take it away. Yeah. Absolutely. You're, you're
right, Hint. So my illustrator is Anita Bagdy.
She's amazing. She's on Instagram and that's how
I found her. She also does formatting, book
design.
She even did my website. Don't forgot to
include that but she literally is a jack
of all trades. So that's Anita Bagdy
and then the editor of course yourself Hind
and Naima, you helped me so so so
much and I'm forever grateful for that, alhamdulillah.
And also other sisters that helped me after
publishing process had Mariam Hakim, who's
the founder of Wow Stories,
Hajira Memman, who's also an author and founder
of Shade 7 Publishing Services. They helped me
so much to kind of think about next
steps as well. So, yeah, Alhamdulillah,
I'm so so so appreciative and grateful for
all of the support I've had. Alhamdulillah, thank
you so much Hosna. Farah what about you?
Farah what about you? Your,
your all the people that you want to
shout out and please include your publisher so
that people who are looking for publishers. Go
ahead.
You're muted.
Well,
it's been 2 years. We should I should
know better.
Yes. So in terms of publishers, they're called,
Tughara
Books, so that's t u g h r
a, Tughara Books.
They are based in, New Jersey, I think,
in the UK in the US.
So that's the publisher.
In terms of the people who were so,
so, so helpful and instrumental in terms of
getting the book where it is today,
I would say, initially,
it was the coaching program that is run
by yourself and Naima.
I think one of the sisters said it.
I think couple of the sisters said it.
I think Shashi,
Shashi even stressed it,
to be part of a group. So I
think joining that I think it was a
12 week program. I was part of the
release program. So that weekly
accountability
and having something to work towards and having
that support and seeing other people's wins and
knowing that your wins are providing support to
others was incredible. So I think that community
is incredible, especially if it's your first book
you don't know.
I think yourself,
I've told you this personally. I think,
out of everyone, I would say you've been
by far the biggest
resource to myself
because I think, genuinely, you've gone way above
and beyond
what what you were supposed to do, what
you were supposed to do,
the the the
what to expect,
the contracts,
the huge realization that some people I don't
wanna put people off, but people need to
be aware. In terms of when it comes
to finance,
in terms of, like, if you go with
a publisher, what they get or what you
get is
very eye opening,
and you realize that's very normal. I think
it's normal, like, the music industry and stuff
like that as well. But for those of
us who are not in that world, it's
shocking
at first.
So that's something we'd be really mindful of,
and I think you made all that process
make sense.
I would say one of my dearest friends
who was a a better better reader is
how you pronounce it,
but she went above and beyond again. She
she really played the editor role, to the
maximum,
and and it really, really, really helped. So
she really told me certain parts that she
did not like. She did not hold back.
She went in on me. So and I
needed that because it really improved the message,
and it made sure that there was no
contradictions throughout the the message.
And then the the publishers themselves have been
incredible.
I don't know what hybrid publisher is. I
would love for somebody to explain what that
is. But for me,
one of the things that did scare me,
looking at the,
the was it the traditional versus self publishing?
I think one of the sisters said sometimes
we think it's a second option. I actually
think it's an incredible option because
of so many things.
But,
one of the things I was worried about
is using,
like, my voice and my vision and all
of that. But I think mainly because it's
a male led publisher
and it's a very female focused message.
They've really allowed me to have a lot
of opinions
throughout.
Even the cover, their first their first edition
is so funny. It's so funny. It's so
far from anything
that is positive or that would relate or
do this book any justice. And so when
I said that to them, they're like, okay.
So what do we do? So that was
incredible. Like, they're the experts.
But because they realized we're mostly all men,
they knew they needed the female voice,
and they've allowed me to continue having that.
So they were incredible too.
Thank you so much.
Khosar, please share with us your shout outs.
Okay. Shout out to my publishers, definitely, IHRC
It's ihrc.org.
Definitely,
my editor,
Arasu and her team, and Naima and her
team, And my illustrator
is Naha Abdullah. Beautiful illustrations.
But, yeah. And that's it. And my family.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Matia.
I think I'm going to join Muslim's sisters.
Oh, why do I keep breaking up? Can
you hear me?
Yes.
Great. So I'm going to join Muslim citizens
by, giving my first shout out to Kane
here. You've been really helpful.
And I remember when I was, launching my
well, preparing to launch my last book, and
I was going through so much.
You kept in touch with me weekly. How
are you doing? And your encouragement, it's been
really good. I found a lot.
My publishers
my
publishers were helpful in that when I did
Wiki and Z, they took all of the
headache off of my head. But because they
were hybrid publishers, like Farah won't get to
know what the difference is, So they
they
give you,
the a hybrid publisher gives you the advantages
of a mainstream publisher in that they do
the final editing and layout and blah and
blah and blah. But they also let you
retain,
your voice, so to speak, the control over
your work in terms of, you decide the
cover, you decide the pricing, you decide you
keep your rights.
Really. So it's like they publish the book
for you but they do all of the
function of a traditional publisher.
Some publishers will ask you to pay for
that service, but some of them would take,
would just take a part of your royalty.
So my, my my hybrid publishers was exlibris
in US, and it really took a lot
of off of me.
And I didn't I wasn't very appreciative of
that at first because I felt like when
the marketing came, they kind of just left
me to it.
Until when I tried to do self publishing
then I realized, oh my god, they did
take a lot out of me. So yeah,
I'm grateful for that.
When during my self publishing journey,
my editors
I mean, that, Candy, she was really helpful.
My,
what's it called?
The the guy that did my cover
my book cover designer. Sorry. I totally forgot.
My book cover designer, he also did my
layout and,
typesetting and everything. Those were really helpful to
me. But I I think that at this
point, I should probably just mention my family
because I
I'm I'm an
OBGYN, and I homeschool my kids. And my
life is just really crazy.
And so whenever I am working on a
book or whatever, my kids just
literally just don't see me.
They I just my life is just go
to work, come back, sleep, and then sit
at my computer. And
in the run up to the book promotion
and all of that, which personally is my
own, you know, biggest challenge, the how much
of yourself you have to give as a
writer, especially
when you self publish to promoting your book.
It's it's a lot on someone like me.
So my family it kind of became a
family effort. So my sisters, my brothers from
all the way
across the continent, my mother, and then my
my kids.
My you know, I have older kids. They
are teenagers. They are late teens. So, like,
everybody, you do this. You do that. So
it's a lot of, you know,
good effort, but they've been really helpful.
The last set of people, I'm definitely not,
like, not the least, are the sisters I
have met along this writing journey
because I wasn't even I'm I'm I'm kind
of really
introvert, so I wasn't even on social media
or all of that before my book was
gonna come out. My publisher was like, oh,
you have to get on social media,
which I did, and then I met, you
know, a lot of people.
So Kim is really one of the first
set of people I met, and she's.
She's always been there. And, you know, joining
this program, meeting more sisters,
and being in a cohort of, you know,
like minded Muslim women writers who are discovering
the journey,
you know,
alongside
itself. And having that support, we, you know,
reach out to each other. We
amplify each other's voices. It's been really wonderful.
So I have
to
say
that.
Your shout outs.
Likewise.
My shout outs,
Naima b Robert.
I
you know, there's just so much there, but
but her and everything and anyone who's worked
with her will know and and will attest
to is,
she's the first person
when my book, hit some Amazon lists.
She was I I forgot what time it
was in the UK, and I just messaged
her.
And I think I woke her up, but,
but she was right there,
and she has continued to be right there.
And,
you
know,
having her on my side felt like
reassured me every time I didn't,
think I had it in me to to
proceed.
So
her and her all the way, alhamdulillah, and
Hand as well, right there beside her. You
know? Batman Robin, like, really like
having them beside me has been just
phenomenal.
And with Hand,
I love the editing with her because
so many things I learned about my deen
just by having her edit and certain things
that she made me question. Just little words.
She's like, well, as a Muslim, don't we
already have this knowledge and things like that?
I was like, wow. So, they
it went beyond even the writing. We just
it went it was some a connection,
into my deenah, actually. She probably does. I've
never said it to her, but a lot
of the edits that she did in my
poetry and the things that I was trying
to say, and she was like she made
me really, I would say, as a Muslim,
look into certain things more so. And and
how this book is a responsibility beyond just
it being on a shelf somewhere.
That it actually coming from a Muslim writer,
like, we have this intention
and we have this focus for our life
that
goes beyond just this worldly thing. So, I'm
Alhamdulillah
glad for having
Muslim sisters who know what they're doing and
who remind us what what we're doing and
why we're doing it for.
I met a beautiful
soul, a really, really great woman by, by
the name of Susie Poole in Poole Publishing.
She's an American,
lady, non Muslim, but, like like, she was
my formatter and she was my book cover
designer.
But she was also a great person to
meet because she was so respectful of all
the things that I wanted.
The little edits, the pictures. Like, she would
spend weeks, and she would be like, okay.
This is what I came up with your
cover. And I'm like, it's not what I
want. And at the whole time, she was
like, tell me what you want. And she
was will ready and willing to work with
me. So it was amazing meeting her.
And I would have to do give a
shout out to every single person who who
wrote a review,
who replied back, who
who would, be willing to write a review
on Amazon.
You know, I have, like, Detroit moms, like,
the sisterhood at Detroit moms that I work
with, and all of them were just like,
okay. You're writing. Let's go. So every single
sister, every single person, every woman, I would
say,
who has,
who has kind of included me in in
that process and helped me learn and how
much they've been valuable to me is is
is priceless.
So I'm glad for everyone who's been there
and all the shares and stuff. I see
everything. So to zakkal
to all that.
Thank you so much for that, Shamkeen.
Shazia, your shout outs.
So for this one,
Naima,
and,
my publisher,
Compass.
Yes. It's Kathy Bullock.
Amazing person.
And Alhamdulillah, Inji Hamzah, my illustrator.
Like, Allah brought the best people
for the job. Alhamdulillah.
And for the midnight sun,
again, Naima Bint Robert.
My publishers are Orca Publishers.
And. And Susan
Hughes, she also gave me a much a
very detailed review on the story
and all the people who have reviews for
it
and helped me through it. And, one of
where my whole journey comes is the,
where I started my classes regularly was Brian
Henry's quick
blog. He does online classes as well.
Wonderful. Now it's, you know, bit by bit
by bit. We keep getting better. So thank
you to everyone.
Awesome. Wonderful.
Well, thank you to everybody for being here
today and sharing your publishing journeys with us.
I'm sure that our,
our viewers have really appreciated it appreciated it
and have learned so much from all of
you.
And like I always say, if,
you know, if Stephen King can do it,
so can we. You know?
I think that sometimes
writers who are just starting out
see these big names and books that they've
been reading since they were children and they
think like, well, I can never do that.
But you guys are proof
that you can do that. So I hope
that our,
I hope that you all always tap into
that energy, and I hope that everybody who's
watching
stays connected to that energy as well. Thank
you again for being here,
and,
we will see you on, in the rest
of the the summit.
Assalamu alaikum, maybe.