Day 9: Tonya Abari

Tonya Abari is a Nashville-based independent journalist, author, essayist, author collaborator, and reviewer for both children and adults. With a wide range of interests including parenting, Black maternal health, food, travel, lifestyle, environment, personal wellness, and culture, her words have been published in the Nashville Scene, Essence, AllRecipes, AARP, Ambrook, The Kitchn, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Parents, Chapter 16, Good Housekeeping, PBS Kids, and many more. Tonya has published and forthcoming children’s books with Mudpuppy, The Innovation Press, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, HarperCollins, Quarto UK, and Penguin Random House. When she’s not writing, Tonya is discovering new places, dancing to an early 2000s playlist, homeschooling her children, and enjoying food pop-ups with her family of four, all whose names also begin with “T.” You can also find her hanging out on social media @iamtabari.

The Journey: My Path to Publishing

I am proudly a writer reborn. Although my life has taken many interesting twists and turns, I am a former curriculum/assessment editor and classroom/traveling set teacher who, in 2015 when I had my first daughter, decided to pick up my pen. That year, I had an intense desire to jump back into journalism (life path #7 here! I love to investigate!). That was my first major in undergrad before switching to secondary education and it felt like a good starting point for writing outside of the education market. Instagram was just picking up steam so I put out a flyer to connect with other writers. Only one person answered, but we formed a powerful accountability partnership. We both wanted to write stories from our soul–and this meant independent journalism, essays, and books! Not to get all woo woo on y’all, but I also literally had a dream that I had published a picture book. In the dream, I saw my name at the bottom of the cover and a crowd lined up to get their books signed at a local bookstore. At the time, I had absolutely no idea how to publish a book–and I didn’t know if this was a message from the ancestors or just the subconscious speaking back to me after many hours spent reading picture books to my young daughter. Whatever it was, I knew it was time to get busy. I spent the first few years learning deeply about craft, reading others’ work, and educating myself about the business side of publishing. To have access to more books (and to amplify other Black authors), I sent out letters of introduction to many editors at publications like Publishers Weekly and Humanities Tennessee that were accepting freelance pitches for book reviews. I joined SCBWI, 12×12, and the Author’s Guild. While writing for digital and print publications, in two years time, I had 12 completed picture book drafts, the bones for a YA book proposal, and a storytelling fire in my soul that I could not extinguish if I wanted to. 

The Backstory: How I Got the Deals

I knew from the very beginning of my journey that my path to publication could possibly look different from what I had been hearing/seeing. Starting this journey, I promised myself that I would be open to all paths to publication, including getting deals in untraditional ways. This helped to temper my expectations when those rejections started rolling in, ha!

The first year I queried, I submitted to 70+ agents through their website or Query Manager. Want to know how many offers I received? ZERO. I was a bit hesitant at first, but I then prepared for and participated in DivPit on Twitter (RIP, X). Four years after I had begun the querying process, four different agents liked my pitches and I submitted to all four with more work. Only one of the requests ended with an offer of rep. After taking the call and interviewing others who were repped by this particular agent, I decided that it wasn’t a good fit. They were not particularly interested in my other work and didn’t align with my vision of wanting to write both children’s books and in adult. The picture book that I had been querying, I decided to send it out to indie presses and within a week of me doing so, I had an offer on LOCS. I requested an agent to help with the deal, but since none of them were checking for me at that point, the editor/publisher actually recommended an agent to represent me for that book. I signed with that agent (who I have since amicably parted ways with), but she went on to sell two more picture books as well as my forthcoming YA with Penguin.

One thing about me is that I’m going to find a way. I don’t just depend on the traditional methods of getting my work into the hands of editors. I’m big on word of mouth, networking with people (online and in person), being open to editors approaching me, and I’ve been super blessed to have people speak my name into rooms for incredible opportunities. Especially as a ghostwriter/author collaborator, this is also how I’ve gotten deals. I am a career writer/author (in addition to my own intellectual property, send me all the work for hire, IP, and ghostwriting please, haha), so I know that getting in my bag means getting the words out through various channels. And it’s worked well for me this way. 

The Process: How I Work

With all things in life, my work process is non-linear. Writing for children is also vastly different from my process for writing for adults. In children’s, I typically follow a five-step process for all projects (board books, picture books, and YA). This includes brainstorming/prewriting, research, drafting, radical revision, and editing. For the youngest readers, drafting entails writing the text in paginated form and including extensive art notes. As I write, I imagine what the illustrations will look like. I’m no artist by any means – stick figures are as far as I go, ha – but I usually have more than a few ideas of what I want the illustrations and scenes to look like. I leave plenty of room for the illustrator to do their thing, but drafting “in pictures,” helps me to better create lines that sing. The best part of the writing for me is radical self editing. Unpopular opinion: Other than beta readers, my children and their friends, I typically do not use critique partners (although Brittany Thurman has been a lifesaver for critiquing a few picture books). Every draft goes through several rounds of revising. I do this on a huge dry-erase wall, printed copy of the draft, and finally within a digital document. I should also mention that parenting is a huge part of my writing process. I stop and start and start again. Being a homeschooling parent means that writing happens mostly in the “corners of the day.” I don’t have a set schedule, but I have tons of pads and pens around when inspiration strikes. While I do believe that writing consistently helps to sharpen skills, I show myself grace for the chapter of life that I’m in. Some days it’s butt to chair; some days are revising a draft from my phone; and others days are simply for existing. Finally, the last part of my process is evaluating and planning how and where to send my work. Since I’m back in the querying trenches right now, I am very intentional about where I send my projects. I’ve taken some rejection feedback on current WIPs, most of the time taking what resonates and leaving the rest. At the end of each project, I say the following affirmation over my drafts and trust that they will end up in the right hands: I don’t chase, I manifest. Fully trusting the process is important. 

Under the Radar

I had a hard time choosing this last question because I seek to give gratitude to the creatives whose shoulders we stand on and who’ve opened (and continue to open doors) for all of us in this business. However, I’d like to give some flowers to authors and illustrators who are going places. I see them learning and growing; sharing and already giving back and it is a blessing to be in community with these wonderfully talented individuals. 

Authors to watch: Kirstie Myvett, Teresa Rodrigues, Joelle Retener, Ain Heath Drew, Trenise Ferreira-Sabin (I’m biased–my talented mentee from PB Rising Stars), G.M. Wallace, Margarett McBride (I hit the jackpot as a mentor!), B. Sharise Moore, Dorothy Price, Margeaux Weston, and Ravynn Stringfield. 

Illustrators to watch: Lance Evans (I’m biased because he’s brilliantly bringing my words to life in our forthcoming picture book, The Six Triple Eight), Andrea Pippins, DeAndra Hogde, Alleanna Harris, Raissa Figueroa, and David Wilkerson. 

Find out more about Tonya on her website: www.tonyaabari.com @iamtabari on IG/Threads, Bluesky, Spill, and Fanbase.  Tonya notes, “I encourage subscribing to my website and following on the latter three— as I am on a plan to divest from Meta and any other social media apps that do not align with my values.”