Published in 2002, "Kumak's House" was the first for author Michael Bania, who has lived in Wrangell since 2009. The work started a series of children's books about the Inupiaq villager, including "Kumak's Fish" and "Kumak's River," as well as a coloring book depicting village life in Alaska's Arctic.
Have you ever had a story you were just aching to tell, but weren't sure how to best get started? Or is there a
manuscript in the bureau you'd like to have published, but don't know how to get it into print?
Local author Michael Bania sought to answer some of these queries in an open workshop last week for prospective writers and illustrators. Held at the Irene Ingle Public Library, about two dozen inquisitive residents brought their notepads, portfolios and laptops to the March 14 presentation.
Bania herself is a published author and illustrator, known best for her "Kumak" series of books. For two decades she was a rural educator for districts in Kotzebue, Buckland, and other communities in Alaska's northwest. After retiring from the position, she moved to Soldotna and Homer before settling into Wrangell eight years ago.
"A lot of people asked me about the process," she recounted, which had prompted her to hold the workshop. "I think I'm just a teacher at heart."
As Bania explained, her experiences in the village
heavily influenced her artistic works. She had first approached publisher Alaska Northwest Books with an idea for a coloring book on Inupiaq village life, but instead found interest for what became her first
children's book, Kumak's House: A Tale From the Far North.
The story follows an Inupiaq villager as he seeks advice on improving his accommodations.
From teaching kindergarten, Bania said the story's fable structure reflected the interests and tastes of her students, who never got enough of the old classics.
"They liked the regular old Jack and the Beanstalks," she explained, and Kumak reflected that fable-like manner of storytelling. It made its mark, being selected for a 2003 Children's Book Council award. The follow-up work, Kumak's Fish: A Tall Tale From the Far North, was selected as an honor book for the first Wanda Gág Read Aloud Book Award, and both were chosen for the Alaska Association of School Libraries "Battle of the Books" for first grade.
A lot of care went into putting her books together. "I wanted them to be read over and over again," Bania explained. Her first book was published in 2002, but as she explained to her audience at the workshop, the process of getting one's ideas into binding and onto shelves can be a multi-year process.
When pitching an idea
to a publisher, she said it first helps to do a bit of research. "Know your market," Bania explained.
Have a detective thriller in mind, where smugglers spirit away blood diamonds inside leaden shipments of downrigger weights? Run an online search first, to see if it's been done before. Become familiar with the genre you intend to work in, get to know the publishers that primarily deal with those, and focus on contacting them.
A query letter gets submitted before sending in a manuscript. This is never more than a page long, and summarizes a prospective book with a good hook.
"You've got to be able to condense your story into two paragraphs," said Bania. If a publisher is interested, they will ask to see more. From there, one may enter the editing process, which the author explained is where a finished book really begins coming together.
As far as getting started goes, Bania said the best thing is to write every day. "If you have an idea, just put it down. It's just paper. If you don't like it, you can put it in the trash."
Dummies and drafts are just layers through which one polishes out a manuscript, she explained. The important thing is to be open to changes and improvements as the process progresses.
Bania's other adage is to write what you know. "What you have to write is what you're passionate about."
In addition to relating her experience, during the workshop Bania fielded questions and reviewed ideas. The
audience also participated in some warm-up activities to try and get their imaginations flowing.
"I loved it," attendee
Nancy Gradwohl said afterward. A pastor by profession, besides writing sermons, she journals and does poetry in her off-time. "It was so well attended."
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