Beginner’s mind: Embracing not knowing on the way to success
As a child, author and illustrator Jack Wong loved to draw and write. But he was also strong in sciences and math. The adults around him weighed in and the more practical path won out: he would combine drawing and math into a career as an architect.
However, a trip to Europe before he began his architect studies would change all that. “There I was, standing in front of this incredible architecture and I realized I had absolutely no interest in buildings,” he laughs. Instead, he found himself drawn inside to the galleries and museums, marvelling at the art on the walls.
This seed of awe and insight flowered in a move from B.C. to Nova Scotia to attend NSCAD University. While to some this might have seemed daunting — starting over in a new place with new dreams — Wong was entering a space he has learned to deeply love. One of being a beginner.
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And whether it’s acquiring a new language, or teaching himself bike repair, or learning to become an author and illustrator, Wong is a big proponent of embracing the beginner mind and finding your way forward in spite of the fear or hesitation that can accompany doing new things.
Upon graduation, he was called upon to put this philosophy into action. Having just studied art, he felt secure in his artistic abilities, but lacked confidence as a writer. “It would have been really easy to convince myself that I should stick to illustrating other people’s stories and not try and write my own.”
‘Being insecure was normal’
But he didn’t let that happen. Instead, he told himself that he just wasn’t good at writing yet. “I knew from my past experiences of being a beginner that the feeling of being insecure was normal.” He gave himself permission to experiment in early picture books that never saw the light of day, but did help him find his voice and gain confidence.
When he finally had a draft of a first book he was proud of, he was surprised that he kept getting the advice to sit on it. “I kept hearing that I shouldn’t be so quick to send it out, that I should wait for at least six months and then reassess.”
This advice didn’t feel right, so he ignored it and sent his book out into the world. That book, When You Can Swim, ended up winning the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award in Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books.
Interestingly, When You Can Swim and his latest book, All That Grows, contain characters who are learning new things. It’s a topic that fascinates him.
“It can be really hard to be in the ‘beginner’ phase, in the not-knowingness,” says Wong. “But after you’ve done it a few times, you realize that the space of not knowing is quite potent and fruitful. It’s not one you want to rush through to the end.”
Susanne Alexander is very familiar with this beginner phase. The publisher of Goose Lane Editions in Fredericton has been on many learning curves in her thirty years with Canada’s oldest independent publisher. And there’s one particular adventure that she’s been on twice!
The sound of books
Way back in 1995, Goose Lane entered into a collaboration with CBC Radio and produced over 100 audiobooks by Canadian authors in cassette and CD formats. “If you’re of a certain era, you might remember the CBC program Between the Covers,” says Alexander. The program featured books by some of the biggest names in Canadian literature — Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, Timothy Findlay, Anne Michaels, Thomas King, Alistair MacLeod — read by actors who were also household names. Over a 13-year period, the voices of Gordon Pinsent, R.H. Thomson, Shauna McKenna, Colin Feore, and Mary Walsh helped Goose Lane sell thousands of audiobooks under their BTC Audiobooks imprint.
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Despite the success, cassettes and CDs soon gave way to digital recordings, and Goose Lane lost its production partner in the CBC. Fast forward to 2021 and with the help of the Canada Book Fund, the publisher received financial assistance to start producing Canadian-authored audiobooks again.
But, as Alexander puts it, “everything had changed.” Turns out selling audiobooks is very unlike selling recordings on cassettes and CDs. They had to learn a whole new production process as well as finding a new production partner and distributor. They also had to audition voice actors and in the case of two books — Some Hellish by Nicholas Herring (set in P.E.I.) and Daughters of Silence by Rebecca Fisseha (set in Ethiopia) — ensure that the accent and pronunciation were correct. All of this led to a bit of a slow start, but in 2023, scoring a new distributor changed all that. Suddenly their audiobooks were available to consumers through online venues such as iTunes, Spotify, Kobo, and Amazon, leading to a massive increase in audiobook sales.
From their hundreds of titles, Alexander has her own personal favourites, some old and some new. The Piano Man’s Daughter by Timothy Findley, narrated by Colm Feore, is one of them. “In fact, Tim was the first writer to sign up for our first-ever season of audiobooks,” she says. “Based on his willingness to say yes, other writers felt comfortable licensing their books to us. Without him, the entire adventure may have never occurred.”
Acadian literature for adults
Adventures in publishing is a term that resonates with Marie Cadieux of the Moncton-based publisher Bouton d’or Acadie. While she has been literary and general director of the Acadian children’s book publisher for the last 11 years, she’s recently taken a step outside her comfort zone by creating an adult imprint called Mouton noir Acadie.
This isn’t the first time Cadieux has experimented with trying something new. When she stepped in to fill the shoes of Marguerite Maillet, known as “the founder of Acadian literary studies” back in 2012, she was tasked with turning a traditional publishing house into something more contemporary.
“Things had slowed down. We needed to turn our minds to marketing and making the company more visible,” says Cadieux, who did an excellent job of that, growing from one paid employee to five, expanding their catalogue, and selling rights overseas.
And then in 2020, she felt a similar urge to grow as she surveyed the landscape and saw a lack of options for Acadian authors. “I was seeing some fine writers who didn’t know where to go and some good manuscripts that didn’t have a place to be published.”
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And so Mouton noir Acadie, an adult imprint of Bouton d’or Acadie, was born. “We didn’t do huge feasibility studies and we didn’t do market research; we just went with what seemed like a good idea,” says Cadieux. “It may have been a little innocent or naive, but it’s worked out in a very organic way.”
Since 2020, when Mouton noir Acadie was launched, there have been a few new titles added to their catalogue every year. Cadieux loves having an adult imprint that gives her the ability to “scout” books and approach writers who have manuscripts of interest.
Terminus ventre-ville by Alain Raimbault, a book of poetry by an accomplished poet, and La colère de l’autre by Marjorie Pedneault, a brave book for young adults about domestic violence, are two recent additions to the Mouton noir Acadie catalogue.
“These are both examples of two voices that might not exist if not for Mouton noir,” says Cadieux. “We are so proud to offer a place for high quality books by talented Acadian writers to be published.”
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