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

Hi Antonia, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

I distinctly remember sitting on the colorful ABC carpet at school, legs criss-cross applesauce listening to If You Give a Mouse A Cookie. Every year at our Scholastic Book Fair, held in the school library, I saw new shining books with titles like There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Junie B. Jones, and Goosebumps.
In middle school, my friends and I would trade books from the Bluford High series.
As an adolescent, I was in my vampire era, reading those thick books like Night World, Twilight, and the House of Night series.
In every one of these literary experiences, there was a need not being met, a literary void. The author and main characters did not represent me and the storylines weren’t relatable.

I started to realize that minority readers are being deprived from the full experience of literary representation. According to Publack Library Publishing, literary representation is defined as books written by authors of color, for readers of color, featuring main characters of color.
Until very recently, most books, especially children’s publications did not feature main characters of color and were not written by authors of color. This isn’t because people of color don’t write or lack creativity, moreso because of limited resources and traditional publishing companies being uninterested in these particular stories.
Of course there were books that were both author and character inclusive but those books were not being picked up by traditional publishing companies, weren’t on display in bookstores, and weren’t being read during story time by teachers and librarians.

Luckily, there is an upward trend occurring in the literary industry for creators of color and I believe there will be numerous inclusive books being published in the years to come. I am excited to witness and partake in this beautiful movement and I believe I became an author at the perfect time. Although we are only a few years in, we at Publack Library Publishing have set forth to diversify the literary industry with complete literary representation.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am Antonia Royal Whitmore dog mom, creative, and entrepreneur! I use spell check more than I should and same goes with dictionaries and thesauruses. English was my least favorite subject and spelling is still a challenge, but my creativity was always my strong suit and seemed to make up for my literary fragilities. From choreographing praise dances for church, to creating cheer routines, to singing in the choir at church and school, to currently writing my first song, creativity was always present in my life. I even flirted with theater and entertained art as an elective in middle school, but those were just phases.
Writing was also always present, just in the background. That was until I had a dream of people waiting in line to sign a book that I wrote. The very next day I started being intentional about writing.
Four years later, with over a dozen publications, I continue to write and help other authors of color as a publishing company.
At Publack Library Publishing, we understand that literacy has a direct effect on an individual’s quality of life, as literacy is correlated to incarceration rates, salary pay, physical ailments, and self-esteem.
Individuals who live in low-income neighborhoods have some of the lowest literacy rates in America. These same groups of people tend to be minority, many being African American. Literacy can single handley shift the quality of life in urban communities, but first we must address the elephants in the room.
First, let’s end the stereotype that African Americans don’t like to read. It’s almost like society forgot that reading was illegal for Black people and penalized with amputated body parts and death. In addition, the enslaved could read, just not in English as English was not their native tongue. Also, Blacks weren’t actively taught English while simultaneously losing their native language.
Of course reading became legal and several African Americans learned how to read. There were many more left behind speaking broken English and deemed illiterate, passing on the illiteracy to other generations. In addition, urban communities did not receive quality resources for schools and libraries. Much of the available literature for African Americans was limited, damaged via missing pages and chapters, or unavailable due to the American government’s war on African American bookstores.
Second, books aren’t as accessible and affordable as we all think. Yes, local libraries exist but for individuals in low income communities, where libraries are not walking distance, transportation can be a barrier.
Publack Library wishes to build at home libraries where people own representative books instead of borrowing or simply going without literature in their homes. Affordable and accessible literature will manifest through our compnay as we partner with organizations and businesses that sponsor our books so we can gift books to our community.

Simply put, there is generational trauma with African Americans and literacy, the literature industry has ignored readers and writers of color, and books aren’t as accessible and affordable as they should be.
No one wants to be illiterate so our solution is to create and deliver representative and affordable literature and heal the literacy trauma by encouraging African Americans to read publications that are inclusive, relatable, and entertaining. I believe relatability in lifestyle, character similarities, and familiar language & cultural experience in books will allow reading to become enjoyable instead of a chore.

At Publack Library Publishing, we specialize in children’s literature. However, we publish all genres and currently offer bilingual children’s books, self-help, adult urban fiction, and even mental health publications.
For aspiring authors, our guided publishing model allows writers to learn, ask, and act. This self-paced publishing process teaches each writer the author “need to knows”, answers all publishing questions thoroughly, and maps out an action plan to become a published author in the desired time determined by the writer.

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

Recently, I’ve realized that there is no finish line. Between my frontal lobe not being fully developed and the dreams I was sold by media, I believed that success was a destination. Success is a lifestyle, a mindset, and energy. Success isn’t the accolades, cars, and houses. It’s the impact you have on the people you cross paths with through your life’s journey, and more importantly, it’s how you feel every day you wake up and every night your head hits the pillow. We’ve been conditioned to measure our value and self-worth through productivity and status symbols which reinforces capitalism, depriving us of what truly matters, intrapersonal and interpersonal connection. During this revelation, I’ve redefined success as doing the things I love with the people I love.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

The lack of inclusion in literature was never a secret or accident. One might even say it was intentional as we actively witness schools banning certain books from children. Many individuals in my community didn’t personally know an author until I became one, and the support was mind blowing. I also realized that so many people around me had their own stories they’ve been wanting to share for years, even decades, but had no true direction on how. Because I was in proximity to them, my community not only had a personal resource but also inspiration, which has allowed me to build my reputation as an author and publishing company. There is a strong sense of trust that has been built with my community and online tribe from sharing my experiences, tips, tricks, ideas, and suggestions.

I also think our genre range has struck interest in many people. As a creative, the ideas are endless and random, and to have the courage to pursue such contrasting, sometimes controversial, ideas and projects in the public eye is also reputable.
We truly enjoy educating, entertaining, and empowering our community!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.publacklibrary.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/publacklibrarypublishing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/publacklibrary?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonia-royal-whitmore-a92984116?trk=public_post_feed-actor-name