Why Book Publishing?
A few years ago, I began to get the itch. It was time to move on from teaching. And so I began to think about what I would do next, what dreams would I chase... and this year, I decided to go after one of my very first dreams--reading books for a living. I turned in my resignation in March and my last day as a full-time teacher will be June 1st! One of the first steps I took to pursue finding a job in book publishing was to apply to some publishing courses. I had to write a person statement explaining my love for books, my interest in working in the publishing industry and what I hoped to do in my career. It could be no more than two pages. Double-spaced. Here's what I ended up with... In early elementary school, I was one of the few black children in my class. But even though we were the same race, my Nigerian-ness made me “other,” and I was often teased for “talking white” and called an Oreo. When I was seven, my family moved to Nigeria. While there were other...