Nadia Salomon is a #PitMad Success Story and the author of the award-winning bedtime picture book, Goodnight Ganesha, the first ever picture book biography of Myrlie Evers-Williams, A Voice of Hope: The Myrlie Evers-Williams Story, and sibling rivalry story, A Rakhi for Rakesh. She writes on themes of South Asian and Caribbean culture, STEM, nonfiction, and humor. Nadia is also an award-winning journalist. She holds a journalism degree from Emerson College. When not participating in her own goodnight rituals or spinning silly yarns... you'll find her working closely with SCBWI, 12x12 Challenge, Kids Comics Unite, and Storyteller Academy. To learn more, visit her website: http://www.nadiasalomon.com
1. What are some of the best and hardest parts of creating books for kids?
The best part of creating books for kids is watching an illustrator take your words and creating absolute magic.Sometimes the art matches your vision and sometimes the art takes you beyond anything you ever imagined.
The hardest part is making sure the story hits all the right points like kid-relatability, emotional resonance, a 'wow' moment, and re-readability.
2. When you begin creating a book, do you always know where the story is going?
No. I don't always know. And when I don't know...those are usually my toughest stories to write, because I get stuck in the narrative or am unsure of the story arc or I have a tough time world building
or find it hard to write at all. I've even been swayed by characters down a path I hadn't even thought of when I originally started writing; that often leads me on a journey that veers from my vision or intent. Overall, I'm not afraid of experimenting, letting go of story lines, and giving into my character's needs.
3. How many revisions did A Voice of Hope go through before it became the story we can now read?
It's about 24 revisions. I sold version 16. During the editorial process, we added pagination, updated text, added a timeline, went back and forth on backmatter (bibliography), and the author's note.
By the time we did all that, we left the backmatter (bibliography) out and went with the timeline and author's note. The bibliography will be housed on my website. Version 16.8 became the story you are all reading.
4. Was this always the title for this project? What other titles did you consider and how did you land on this one?
No, this was not the original title for this project. The book started out as Myrlie and Me. By version 4 I renamed it to Myrlie's Photos. By 2018, version 5 - I secured my literary agent, and we renamed it Myrlie: Dreaming in Color. By the time we went out on sub in April of 2020, I renamed version 6 to Myrlie: A Voice of Hope, which sold in December 2020, and during the editorial process, we changed the name to A Voice of Hope: The Myrlie Evers-Williams Story to make sure readers recognized this book was about Myrlie Evers-Williams, because her first name alone wasn't as recognizable as her full name.
5. If you could tell readers one secret about this book, what would it be?
It's a secret...
6. What was the most challenging thing you faced while writing/researching this book?
This endeavor required a great deal of patience to get from 'idea seedling' to this physical book.That's about 19+ years of waiting, waiting, and waiting.