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The greatest of writers self-published

Jul 09, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The letter column should be an avenue of information, but as all things human, it sometimes expresses depressing opinions of disinformation.
On Monday March 2, 2015, Kaieteur News published a Ryhaan Shah letter of usual insinuations, some green-eyed arrows at Ruel Johnson with the caption ‘Should self-published books and manuscripts still be accepted for the Guyana prize?’ This letter was accompanied by another expression in the same vein on Tuesday June 2, 2015 in the Stabroek News by Krishna Nand Prasad captioned ‘Writers whose work is self–published should not be recognised’.
These were opinions that I assumed would be blown into the dust against the knowledge base obvious to anyone gifted and who merited being published. But not so, that was an arrogant assumption on my part, so now, I have on behalf of a young friend seeking answers, penned this letter.
The obvious fact is that all books evolve as manuscripts. Books are not coated stock with super-designed covers. Books are content; substance that holds a reader transfixed from page to page. The greatest books have never entered a competition.
In the absence of a local publishing house, most of our books are self-published by creative people with little money. Our best literature still remains in manuscript form, thus accepting manuscripts and self-published material suits our circumstances; ours is a democracy not a caste system.
Over two decades ago local short stories with local illustrations executed to accompany the story were published in the Sunday newspapers. These encouraged many to explore their talents and come forward.
Self-publishing constitutes the following; Creative talent, the passion and skill to tell the story in script, force your spouse to read it, negotiate a proofreader who’ll work with you cheap, type the story or get it typed. Whether Poetry, Play, short story or novel, once that is done, if you can convince an Artist to back up for a reasonable raise [or get aspects sponsored] with some illustrations, you are on your way.
I have self-published; Ras Michael, Paloma Mohamed, Stephanie Bowry, President Granger and many others have. Some of us have done so under business names, but it amounts to the same hands-in-your-own-pocket issue. Famous Murder Stories of Guyana by John Campbell was self-published with help from GNCB “without which this publication would not have been possible”. His acknowledgement.
‘A short story of St George’s, Georgetown, Guyana’ was written and published by Reverend Derek H. Goodrich, and I can go on. The recent opportunity in Guyana for a local publishing house was wasted with the mismanagement of the Caribbean Press. Young writers, let no one make you an idiot or undermine your passions by telling you that your talent is worthless because you are attempting to self-publish. Follow the formula and self-publish.
I’ll conclude by adding some known international names who were and have currently self-published; Deepak Chopra, William Blake, Alexandre Dumas, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe of yesterday and currently James Redfield ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ and E.L James’s ‘Fifty Shades of Grey, among many others in a rising self-publishing movement, all running away from the proven, less astute publishing agents who don’t seem to have the feel for the best books.
Barrington Braithwaite

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