Marketing for Tobago and Caribbean Authors
As a West-Indian we can all recall at some point in our lives when we were told, directly or indirectly that being an author is not a sound career choice. It is something that West-Indian parents had traditionally, forcibly steered their children away from. Instead opting to focus their attention on traditional career paths such as the law, medicine and engineering. Things have changed and drastically so, so much so that the author in us is identifying with the great authors of the day as they continue to emerge from our midst.
We dream of being the next Sam Selvon — A Brighter Sun, Zee Edgill — Beka Lamb, George Lamming — In the Castle of my Skin, Merle Hodge — Crick Crack, Monkey, Michael Anthony — Green Days By The River, Derrick Walcott — Another Life, V.S Naipaul — A House for Mr Biswas, M. NourbeSe Philip — Harriette’s Daughter, CLR James — Beyond a Boundary just to name a notable few, and more recently Celeste Mohammed with Pleasantview.
In April for World Book and Copyright Day 2022, the Guild partnered with the Tobago Library Services to bring Conversations for Authors. With offerings from the Intellectual Property Office, participants were able to get information about copyrights and how to protect their intellectual property. The library presented FAQs on International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), while the Guild offered a presentation called FAQs on Publishing. They gave information about both the traditional and self-publishing process and how one can become a published author, this can be viewed on the guild’s YouTube channel.
This month the Guild is pleased to partner with its publishing house TWG Publishing House Ltd (TWGPHL), and Caribbean Social Media Head Quarters (CSMHQ) to collaboratively celebrate World Social Media Day 2022 which is observed worldwide on June 30, annually. Social Media Day was first designated by Mashable in 2010 as a way of recognising and celebrating the impact that social media has had on communication, the digital revolution and the expansive opportunities that the globe continues to experience because of it.
The Guild, TWGPHL & CSMHQ will jointly host a one-day workshop on Saturday 25, June 2022 at 6pm titled ‘Marketing For Caribbean Authors’. The event will be hybrid in nature and will signal the Guild’s intention to adopt an even more inclusive meeting style in the future than they had embraced during the height of the global pandemic. There is available the option for workshop attendees to participate in-person at the Anne Mitchell Auditorium of the Scarborough Library or to participate virtually from anywhere in the world via zoom.
The collaboration seeks to equip writers in general and already published authors specifically, with an essential mix of marketing tools that will help them maximize their book and book product sales as well as to increase their revenues, if put to good use. Contributions will come from CSMHQ, and current published authors of the Guild. CSMHQ, is a digital marketing agency that provides mainly consultancy services and tools to SME’s, entrepreneurs and NGO’S about digitizing their brick and mortar organizations, getting them ready to move to and operate in the digital space.
The global COVID-19 pandemic and more recently the Russian/Ukranian war have pressed the issue of resiliency to a heightened peak. It is one of the ways that Caribbean enterprises can remain in ‘fighting form’ to take advantage of lean operating functions to combat rising overheads, rapidly and ever-changing financial requirements aimed at combatting money laundering of the proceeds of drugs and the financing of terrorism which is leading to a cashless business model. This may well help sure up our regional vulnerabilities associated with small nation states as well as those that accompany seasonal natural disasters. The internet and by extension social media has allowed us to be able to seamlessly balance riding these unpredictable global waves, while simultaneously being resilient, agile and flexible.
Indie authors are being required to be more present in planning and executing a marketing strategy to secure their livelihoods and to be able to leave a legacy and inheritance for their future generations. The Marketing for Caribbean Authors workshop will help them step more confidently into this proactive role.
The Guild is home to 26 published authors, with new authors joining their esteemed ranks every year, and with more than 100 published works in circulation to date. It has more recently than before added to their membership T&T nationals who reside outside of the region, desirous of a truly supportive and encouraging environment for their literary creativity. In order to stay in tandem with and even a step ahead of the needs of a transregional and international membership, they have embarked on a campaign of digital transformation and digitization that regional NGO’s are usually unknown for. This NGO is intent on providing continuing and exemplary support to their published authors of every age and stage of their career.
To register for or to get more information about the workshop, or to become a member you can visit the Guild’s Facebook page or their website, Email at TobagoWritersGuild123@gmail.com or Call and WhatsApp at 1(868)620–5799
First published in the Tobago Digest of the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian on June 24, 2022 | Page 22
