Reflections from Women

The Women’s Collaborative and Empowerment Model for Writing and Publishing was developed specifically with the Reflections from Women project in mind.  As the Editor, I wanted our authors to feel a sense of ownership and pride in this collected work.  Therefore, it was imperative to offer a collaborative process for the writers to be a voice in the creation of their book—to the extent they wanted to participate.

We believe that women should be invited, empowered and encouraged to participate in the publication process from start to finish. Our authors are an active and integral part of the project. They are invited to contribute to the development of the book from offering suggestions and voting on the title, the book cover photo, the selection of the charity recipients and much more. 

Some of the authors participated in other ways as well, such as: contributing photos or design suggestions for the book cover, contributing to our Face book and blog sites, or writing on their own blogs and websites about their involvement with the book.  In addition, some of our authors from When One Door Closes reviewed essays for our writing contest selections for this book. 

The authors were also invited to participate in the promotion of the book.  Some of the ways that authors were involved with publicity and marketing included joining with the Editor and other authors for book events in their local communities. 

The authors are also kept apprised of the selection and publication process with regular e-mail updates from the Editor and contacts from our other staff.  The emails keep the authors informed every step of the way.  More importantly, the updates relay a consistent message to the authors that we value them and they are an important part of our book.

The collaborative process also allowed the authors to take this journey together and to share their doubts, anxieties, frustrations, excitement and joy in the writing and publishing process.  Writing can be a powerful journey or a ‘wild ride’ (to use a phrase from an author in book one).  It is a personal and often vulnerable experience from your first thought of what you want or need to write to the public presentation of your piece. Many of our authors communicated with each other prior to publication and participated in book events together after the book was published.  This allowed the authors to get to know each other (to the extent they wanted to do so) and to establish connections with each other in our writing community. 

Sugati Publications has also promoted the writing of our authors in other ways, such as recommending and entering our authors in independent writing contests with their consent.  For example, two of our authors (Alice Coggin Bagley and Noelle Sterne) have other works that were submitted by Sugati Publications to the Writer’s Digest Writing Competition.  In addition, when our authors are published elsewhere, we also promote their writing and their publications on our Face book page and the Reflections from Women blog.  Recognizing and encouraging our authors’ writing is important to them and it is important to us.  We want our authors to feel success and accomplishment from their writing.