In Partnership

What was it like working with Faith in Change Publishing?

Ana Maria explains her experiences here:

To begin with, I was petrified, I’d been working through a lifetime of trauma, pain, all sorts of suffering, and I was caged by physiological responses and reactions. Any time I tried to print something or launch a product into the world, I became frozen, the creative counselling was incredibly helpful when it came to ‘dethawing’. I was suddenly no longer alone and had help to face each fear block as it arose from within me, we then went on to dissect what it was made of and planned how to overcome it.

Fear can become a very tedious thing once you see it as the thing in your own way, but suddenly seeing it does not make it disappear. Seeing it only enables the recognition of what stands between you and potential success. My creative counsellor, Hannah, would often ask me when the mind got carried away with itself, ‘What is the worst case scenario, if you do “X”, what is the utterly worst thing that could happen?’ Turns out, it was never anything really bad at all. This fantastic way of thinking helped me re-acknowledge the nonsense of the mind and the thoughts that it was thinking…

Hannah also supported me with recognising and harnessing the tools that helped me best navigate the seas of The Self… Sometimes, when I could not see ahead, we’d ground into the only thing available to work with, the now moment… at other times, we’d see through the haze of the unknown and into an imagined end result, then work backwards from there. You’d be surprised how many thoughts are hindering your creative journey rather than aiding it, and creative counselling was essential to me in the end, as was Samuel’s aid, The Artistic Director…

For whatever reason, I had got it into my head that I wanted to design the front covers of my books myself, despite having no professional experience or training in art and design. In the end, after many discussions, they let me do what I wanted. Any traditional publisher would choose FOR YOU, but these folks, although full of genius ideas of their own and creative prowess, well, they chose to EMPOWER ME WITH CHOICE. Despite not being the best at front cover design, they scaffolded my journey and let me create my own front covers, those inspired by my own visions I’d been having. They never once ‘took over’ or forced me along a path that felt intuitively wrong to me. In the end, I opted for Samuel’s cover design, but I’d never have sat contently with that outcome had I not walked my own way to that decision.

Renaming myself was also a neat trick learned, it lessened the fear magnificently. Years ago, when I started jamming with a group of musicians and was preparing to sing live on stage for the first time since I was 11 years old, one guy mentioned how he used to step into his stage presence by creating an alter ego, and get this, it works. So, I say do what you need to because on the other side of whatever choices you make you might just find yourself, like I did, all because I found Faith in Change Publishing had something to offer me (yes, I am a co-founder, but without the team, I’d be nowhere). Nothing I ever came to the table with was discarded, only ever utilised, enriched, and valued… there is nothing better than creative support that comes from love, trust me.

So, to be frank, if you want to self publish but lack certain skillsets, have been finding the maze of online creative tools frightening, step into love, support, and nurturing, and become yourself fully with a little help, time, patience and energetic wisdom from those who have designed these pathways FOR THE ARTISTS AND CREATORS, less so for themselves.