The first volume of TRAILBLAZERS is publishing on October 15, 2021.
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TRAILBLAZERS has had some starts and stops. What has started out as one book became a book series of two, and then four volumes, and now six volumes, with each volume about 500 pages each. My initial publication dates had been put off because of the incredible history of Black women and what we have contributed to American society, and the tremendous amount of writing that goes with that. The more research I did, the more I unearthed these amazing Black women, I struggled at times trying to figure out how to fit in as much as possible into a streamlined narrative. The goal was to ensure that the series is informative, appealing, easy to read and leaves enough breadcrumbs for readers to follow on their own. And being the perfectionist that I am, I kept delaying the book, working hard to make the book fit within these parameters.
Since there was no time to do my usually nitpicking, I had to rely on the editors to help move the project along. Editing is a thinking process. Some think editing is a necessary evil; I on the other hand rely on editing like the air I breathe. As a publisher, editing for me is always the key to success of a book. All of the 2Leaf Press authors know this and most expect and/or demand it. It really does not make sense, at least to me, to publish a book unless you have done your very best to service the readers by providing them with a readable narrative.
The purpose of a book is to convey stories and information so that people can be informed, educated, or simply entertained. As a storyteller, I wanted to convey all of these aspects into the narrative of this series, and it is my hope we have accomplished his. Of course, none of this would be possible without the editing genius of all of the editors I have worked with: Carolina Fung Feng, who managed the overall editing of the book, Phyllis Huang and Ben Lafferty (our only guy!), who helped create a boilerplate for the book, Kathryn Siddell, who really worked closely with me in the past two years with developmental and content editing, and then Nicole Catarino and Eileen Sholomicky who dug in with the line editing and copy editing. All of them are responsible for making this book happen.
And so now, as I (nervously) release this first volume of TRAILBLAZERS into the world, I hope that you, dear readers, will be elated with the end result. Cheers.