We were lucky to catch up with Antonia Royal Whitmore recently and have shared our conversation below.

Antonia , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Black literature is often overlooked, avoided, and ignored. Publack Library Publishing is dedicated to increasing literacy rates within the African-American children through representative, relatable, and accurate storytelling.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve always been vocal. Between me boldly telling my older cousin she couldn’t tell me what to do because she wasn’t the boss of me, to explaining to my late great-grandmother that she begged too much and always ate up all the snacks in the cupboards, to creating an e-course analyzing, in detail, how mental and medical health are one in the same with white supremacy to people of color. Now, an advocate for Black literacy and founder of a publishing company exclusively supporting Black authors and only publishing diverse children’s books.

Hi, my name is Antonia Royal-Whitmore, and I have a lot to say!

Did you know only 5% of all published authors are African-American?

Did you know that there are more books about animals than there are about people of color?

Did you know that over 85% of African-American children cannot read at a functioning reading level?

Did you know that reading levels can help predict the trajectory of a child’s adult life?

Before we start blaming students, teachers, and parents, let’s take a stroll through history to connect some dots!

Many Africans, ancestors to African-Americans, were forced into a new land, new culture, and new language. It was difficult to adapt to the environmental differences, culture discrepancies, and of course language barriers, as the Africans couldn’t acquire the English language freely or without punishment. Reading and writing, in English, for the enslaved was greeted with amputated fingertips and toes, harsh beatings, and even death.

As these are some of the first experiences with reading and writing in English, one could only imagine the long-term generational psychological, mental, and emotional effects to come.

Despite such an adverse experience with reading, after slavery, many African-Americans had the desire to learn reading and writing, in English, as their native tongue had been lost through generations, while the English language was restricted and banned for their use.

The community turned to library’s and the few community members who did know how to read and write since individuals from other groups were unwilling to teach. However, libraries followed the trend of segregation, denying people of color library cards and preventing them access to books and resources from the heavily funded libraries. Many African- Americans were even imprisoned for entering the ‘whites only libraries’.

Honorable mention of the declared war on African-American bookstores by the FBI where they investigated and harassed Black bookstore owners and customers, causing many of those bookstores to close during the Civil Rights era.

Of course there are many African-Americans that can read, but that doesn’t negate the fact that there were, and still are, systems in place to prevent uniform education or intentional programs to help African-Americans catch up to their white counterparts in any aspect of life, especially reading and learning. In some cases, many Black families were unwillingly passing down the gene of illiteracy.

Now, over 78% of the literary industry; editors, authors, bookstores, and publishing companies, are white. As the literary industry has a specific look, the books they produce have a specific look. This look has conditioned the world to normalize the lack of inclusiveness across the literary board. Subconsciously or consciously it has been made normal to see, almost exclusively, european characters, european names, and european experiences on tv screens and in books.

At Publack Library Publishing, we believe that the compiled trauma and generational adversities Africans and African-Americans have experienced with reading and writing have contributed to the low reading levels within the Black community. We also believe the lack of representation in the literary space contributes to the declining literacy rates.

Most things that are not relatable, especially to children, are deemed undesirable, unenjoyable, and boring. We believe African-American children naturally want to learn but have a hard time connecting with many of the educational materials presented to them in school and in media, including books. To combat this issue, Publack Library Publishing assists Black authors through their publishing process while also publishing relatable, representative, and accurate stories to young readers of color. We hypothesize that if children of color see themselves in books, in a positive manner, then the representation and relatability can increase academic reading, leisure reading, overall literacy rates, and help develop self-esteem and self-image.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Marketing for any business or product can be challenging and I believe book marketing may be more difficult than typical products. While being a vendor at several community events & pop up shops, I’ve observed how people’s reactions to books vastly differ from their responses to other products like clothes, food, body butter, and makeup.

There seemed to be a jolt of energy, adrenaline if you will, when individuals came across a cute shirt, BBQ chicken, or even shea butter. When individuals come across educational booths or author tables, their body’s mannerism and tone of voice seemed to stay the same, if not dip in interest. Although I’ve received many words of affirmations and the good ole “keep doing what you’re doing” or “This is so dope”, I found myself having to over-persuade potential customers on why they should buy a book for their child. I also realized that books differ from other products because books stand the test of time.

Many of us eat multiple times a day or at least once a day which means a restaurant can have the same customer several times out the week. This also applies to clothing. How many t-shirts, socks, pants are in our drawers and closets? How often do we go shopping to buy more, rather it’s because of weight gain or loss, retail therapy, or the season change. Retail consistently has recurring customers throughout the year. Books on the other hand, can be different. One book is good enough for you, all your siblings, your children, and even grandchildren. From observation, books tend to be a one time purchase when selling to individuals, b2c. We typically don’t keep buying the same book over and over again.

After many events where I didn’t even make my vendor fee back, I understood what had to be done. My audience had to change, instead of trying to get one sale at a time I needed to get multiple sales or bulk orders. We pivoted our business from a b2c company to a b2b company where our customers are organizations that serve or work with African-American children. This includes school districts, churches, community centers, and daycares. Organizations like these order books in bulk, have the means and need to order them repeatedly, and most importantly allows us to build relationships with the companies in our community.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the many things I had to unlearn is that no one is obligated to support me, my journey, or my company. It took years to realize my expectation of people was just a projection of my inner thoughts and uncommunicated desires, mixed with ego and entitlement. In the beginning, it was easy to mix business with personal life. I had everything planned out. Who would all support my work, how many likes and shares I would get, and who would show up to my events. The more I placed expectations on people, the more disappointment I experienced.

With time and maturity, I discovered that although I had such high expectations for the people around me, I never communicated it to them. I never sat down and explained what support looks like to me. I just assumed that they knew how to support me and my business, without understanding that people show support in different ways. Some may share a post, others may actually purchase a book, and there are some who refer friends to our website. Since then, my communication skills have improved drastically and I tend to not take people’s behaviors personally and to focus more on the individuals that do show their support!

I am forever grateful for my family, you all are invaluable!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.publacklibrary.org
• Instagram: instagram.com/publacklibrarypublishing
• Other: How Race Disproportionately Affects Race e-course: https://mhwat.teachable.com/?preview=logged_out
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
LaMon Whitmore