ECPA Pub U Recap: "A Seat at the Table" Guest Post by Luverta Reames
“Seeing faces that looked like mine articulating what I’ve felt in my heart felt like a huge sigh of relief. “
THIS PAST MONTH I was nominated and selected to participate in ECPA PubU’s Emerging Leaders Program. Honestly, I didn’t realize what a benevolent opportunity this was to be recognized and honored in this capacity.
There were four tracks: marketing, editorial, data delivery and workflow, and diversity and inclusion. I chose editing and marketing but ended up vacillating between each track.
Ironically the majority of my favorite sessions were not within marketing or editing. They were the four larger panels surrounding diversity and inclusion.
From the opening session with Dr. Theon Hill, it was like my heart swelled with joy. I knew that this month-long program would be different than anything I’d encountered.
Seeing faces that looked like mine articulating what I’ve felt in my heart felt like a huge sigh of relief. Each time I saw Dr. Hill, I felt he understood. He understood the importance of BIPOC in publishing spaces and the unconscious bias that comes with being in the industry. Jevon Bolden in the Historical Perspectives Panel mentioned weighing the differences being a person of color in a culturally white industry and noting what part of yourself is allowed in that role.
These panels brought life to my aching heart surrounding continual areas of inequality and social unrest. I am so grateful that it was a safe space to challenge the historic lack of diversity, inclusion, and equity. The unconscious bias plays a huge role in who is accepted or rejected. The fact that God made us diverse is essentially why we should all be treated as equals.
“It was a safe space to challenge the historic lack of diversity, inclusion, and equity.”
Switching gears, a bit, one of my favorite sessions were “Seven Editing Tips from the Coaching World.” The seven tips were:
Manage yourself.
Listen well.
Assume others are creative and resourceful.
Ask good questions.
Trust your intuition.
Honor the other’s agenda.
Take it deeper.
Listening well was less about the four levels of listening and more about inviting the Holy Spirit in the midst of the conversations between authors and editors. Listen and invite and tune in prayerfully for what the Holy Spirit will say. Leave room but also lean in.
My favorite question from that session was let’s say you were standing before 10,000 people and they were eagerly waiting to hear what you have to say. What would you say? What do you want your outcome to be? These tips and questions were extremely important considering our Pneuma Writers Community focus for the month was “Fine-tuning Your Idea.”
My mentor, Chris Martin was a phenomenal help. He gave pointers in how to engage the Pneuma Writers community. He offered tips on how to create more engagement through polls. Find out what are some of the biggest challenges our writers are facing? One suggestion he gave was creating a quick ten question survey and offer a $50 gift card incentive for that month.
ECPA PubU offered me a seat at the virtual table and Christian Publishing Professionals of Color offered me mentorship, community and collaboration. I am not leaving this program the same. I am grateful for being in a place to express my heart. There is an even greater resolve to use my voice and gifts God has given me to flourish.
Luverta Reames is an editor, proofreader, and scribe. She serves as community manager for Embolden Media Group’s online writing community, Pneuma Writers. With a bachelor’s degree in business administration and journalism from Olivet Nazarene University and has a masters in publishing from Pace University, Luverta also runs Bookmarked Media, an editing company devoted to helping writers and authors produce top-quality content.