ECPA Pub U Recap: "Are You Talking to Me?" Guest Post by Elodie Leroy
“I finally found a safe place where I could come and not have to explain my passion for the oxford comma…”
THIS PAST MONTH, I had the immense honor of attending the ECPA’s PubU for Emerging Leaders. And truly, it was an honor that was all mine. You see, where I come from, people like me do not pursue a career in publishing. Growing up in my Haitian culture, I was given only three options: lawyer, nurse, or teacher. Though these are impactful and respectable professions, I was never satisfied with the choices laid out for me. So, when the time came, I did the unthinkable and brave thing and dove right into Liberal Arts. I majored in Professional Writing in college and never regretted my choice. To this day, my dear father still doesn’t understand.
Imagine my delight when perusing the conference’s catalog and seeing some of these delicious webinar titles: “The Role of Publishing In a Time of Crisis,” “Editing for Inclusion,” and “How Little Hearts Can Be Shaped More by Christ Than by Crisis.” I finally found a safe place where I could come and not have to explain my passion for the oxford comma, a place where I could gush about a book’s cover without being seen as bizarre. But I quickly realized that a lot of the messaging wasn’t largely geared toward people who look like me. Let me explain.
“…I felt I was in a room filled with people talking about me and not directly to me.”
This year’s series of webinars and messages came from amazing men and women who are serious about changing the landscape of Christian publishing and adding more minority faces and voices. And given the homogenous nature of publishing, I understand and value the focus. Indeed, the change many of us are waiting for will not manifest without these conversations. But in quite a few sessions, I felt I was in a room filled with people talking about me and not directly to me. Almost at every turn, I heard many of the white session leaders telling a mostly white audience that there is a diversity problem in publishing. This was not something new or groundbreaking for me to know.
This redundancy was not the case in all the circumstances so I gleaned and gleaned where I could. One of the lasting things I will carry is Carl Laferton’s emphasis that children’s books are a great medium to display Christ. Many people tend to think of bright colors and funny content when they think about this genre. But Carl helped me see the grand and satisfying responsibility of teaching a child a truth about God through written content. This really challenged me as I work on the beginning ideas of a children’s book.
“I was able to learn so much about my craft in this program.”
The great folks at ECPA added a mentorship component to this year’s Emerging Leaders program and I am especially excited about having someone come alongside me to usher in my growth. My mentor, Dave Schroeder, is teaching me about the importance of a company that affirms as a leader and I honestly believe I have found that in Embolden Media Group. I hope to attend ECPA’s Emerging Leaders program annually. I was able to learn so much about my craft in this program, even when I was not the intended audience. I can only imagine how much more I will master my work when I am directly spoken to.
Elodie Leroy is the managing editor for The Witness: A Black Christian Collective and literary agent assistant for Embolden Media Group. A graduate from York University in Toronto, Elodie took her talents to the Miami area where she lives with her husband and a seven-year-old who is a handful and a heartful. Follow her on Twitter: @elodie_q