What she wanted:
To publish her book of poems, have it reach many, and help as many people as possible
Rocking the boat...
When we first cracked open Erica’s manuscript, we were in love with her luscious and gritty poems about earthly and cosmic relationships. Her distinctive style and voice, one that straddles hip-hop and Rumi-like ecstatic praise, inspired our initial suggestion to arrange the poems into an emotional arc—from the darkness of difficult relationships to the light of affirmation, optimism, and self-actualization.
And we weren’t the only excited ones. “I am overjoyed to have heard another person’s perspective and to see that you understood mine. I am 100% satisfied with the new order. I didn’t even think of the [poems’] emotions. I love that idea.”
“I am overjoyed..."
One of Erica’s most important goals was to collaborate with a professional editor, take in their perspective, and put in the work needed to see her poems grow and evolve. So over a few rounds of line-by-line critique and proofreading, we helped Erica add details and images to her poems and shape them into new forms on the page, and we encouraged her to use more active language to make her work more vibrant.
Onward and upward...
After we finalized her poems, we helped Erica craft the perfect title that would bring an ages-old spiritual journey into the modern day. We crafted a series of art options for the cover and landed on a hand-drawn cover with a sun-print effect.
Erica’s debut book is out in the world now, but this initial road to publication isn’t the end of her story in poetry. She plans to write more poems, more books, and we can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.