DJARABI KITABS PUBLISHING was founded in 1434 AH or May 2013. Djarabi means Love in Mandinga.

We are a small press with over 600 books printed in 2017 and over 500 eBooks downloads in the same year. In 2018 and 2019, we were nominated for the Muslimah Bloggers’s Top 10 Best Business Blog. In 2018, we sold over 1,000 books masha’Allah alhamdullilah. In 2019, our book Tight Rope won the Daybreak Press Best Islamic Fiction Award alhamdullilah.

DJARABI KITABS PUBLISHING’s goal and mission is to promote education, raising young believers & dreamers, love books and books which promote justice, freedom of speech, peace and understanding in the community. This has allowed us to sell over 600 books in 1441 (2019) and distribute 1,938 free eBooks to-date alhamdullilah.

DJARABI KITABS PUBLISHING is now a leader in publishing books written by Muslims for both a religious and mainstream audience. Join our yearly book festival, DKP Book Fest, and vote your favorite books at our also yearly Fofky’s Reader’s Choice Awards.

Assalamu’alaikkum and Good Day, everyone.

First ever interview here, we have Author/Publisher, Papatia Feauxzar. Her company Djarabi Kitabs Publishing is our featured publisher on the website, throughout the first trimester of Paragraphic Journal. You could find out more about them with a little scroll down, right on this page. She recently published a novel, The Certified Accountant, and this interview is where we find out more about it.

F: First and foremost, how are you? 😊
P: I’m good! Alhamdullilah for everything. Thanks for asking. How are you 😊?

F: Alhamdulillah. All is well. So, I’ve looked up the book and really excited with the expanding genres our Muslimah community of writers are going into. Why did you decide to write The Certified Accountant?
P: I wrote it to challenge my writing in a different genre; the thriller genre to be precise. I had already written the story as flash fiction in a collection released in 2016. I just extended that story to 80,000 plus words. I also wrote The Certified Accountant because in my first accounting job, my coworkers and I often mused on the idea of getting back to general managers who messed with the accounting books we oversaw. So, the book is a result of “plotting a revenge or plotting several revenge schemes.” Lol! And the thriller genre was the perfect category for the story since it deals with crime. There are not a lot of accounting thrillers out there. So, this also gave me more reasons to fill that gap.

F: It certainly will and most definitely help fill the gap of genres ventured by writers in the Muslim community. It still feels like we have to tackle a whole lot more, and some are still afraid to dabble with certain taboos and whatnot. Did you have to do some research on how to write a thriller?
P: Yes, I did. I read a lot of tips on how to write a thriller, and I made sure the book reflected all the must-have of a thriller. And when I finished writing the book, I read this post. So, I confirmed again that I covered all the thriller conventions or bases with the crime, the victims, the master antagonist, the clues and red herrings, the speech in praise of the villain, a Macguffin, the shapeshifter, the ticking clock, the lives at stake, and the false ending alhamdullilah.

F: On this, I bet that’s where the confidence of going into the genre really sums up. Research definitely helps put clarity on blurred lines. Please Tell us more about the book.
P: Sure. Issata Waree, the main character, once enjoyed the life of an ethical accountant. When her genius mentor Gahussou Ledger snaps and quits corporate accounting, she finds herself reassessing her own careful and lackluster life choices. Soon enough, she becomes a rogue certified public accountant and drowns blissfully in that thrilling and short-lived happiness. When the underworld crime boss business Issata is involved in lands on the the FBI’s radar, she is compelled to provide a client list in order to save her neck. The resulting shock wave is the rapid number of foes she amasses. So, Issata does what she knows best; going on a rampage to protect herself and seek revenge for the loved ones who lost their lives due to her actions. The Certified Accountant is a well-rounded thriller that combines the unseen world, different faiths, redemption, politics, fantasy, ethics and most of all testifies to the the fact that of all mankind sins. The Certified Accountant is also a spin-off tale of my previous bookish novel “The Library Clerk’s e-Shop.” The Characters of Femta, Qari and Abdul Malik make an appearance as they cross Issata’s path.

F: I love how you already have that little universe going on. Looking forward to more of what that universe will offer us after this one. This brings us to, your WIP list. Tell us briefly about them/it.
P: Personally, I’m in the process of finishing a children book, two YA novels, and an historical novel. The novels are still at the skeleton phase. I’m still hunting for the meat on the novel part. On the other hand, the children’s book is done. It just needs to be illustrated. May Allah facilitate, aameen.

F: We’re also featuring a Book Illustrator, if you haven’t already found one. Hints on there. Lol! I want to keep things minimal for now, but I’m looking into other ventures related to books, reading and writing. I know you have one, tell us a little about Fofkys, the bookclub.
P: Fofky’s supports the publishing house in terms of bookish mail but it also helps a lot with my cookbook sales alhamdullilah.
On the other hand, the book club is virtual especially since COVID. The turnout depends on how many people have read the book. We read many books and at different pace and post a summary of our thoughts on a blog post. I hope this helps.

F: That’s quite genius. I’m taking notes for myself. So, your company is our featured publisher… I’ve known about it, about around 3 years ago, if I’m not mistaken. I know… I’m looking into publishing with you but I’ve been through a lot personally and that sort of gave me a huge block and hiatus pantser mode temporarily.
P: Lol!

F: Anyway, all alibis aside… Do tell us more about what kind of submissions you like to take on this time?
P: Well, speaking of blocks and personal dilemmas… to be honest, many self-help and practical books do better than books for distraction. So, unique self-help and practical books have high priority right now in our publishing house.

F: Yes, it is… It’s definitely the self-love generation right now and very important in the new norm… Looking forward to those new publications. Thank you so much Papatia, for letting me have you here.

Feeling honored…

AMAZON

GOODREADS

Papatia Feauxzar is the Founder of Djarabi Kitabs Publishing. She is also an American author, barista, and publisher of West African descent living in Dallas, Texas with her son and husband. She is a former corporate America senior accountant and an Ivorian American author. She is the Online Editor at Hayati Magazine. Feauxzar has been featured in DFW Child and Voyage Dallas. Her recent books are titled “The Library Clerk’s e-Shop” and “The Certified Accountant.” She loves tea, coffee, and comfort food.

You can visit her blogs at papatia.wordpress.com or aducktrinormom.wordpress.com

1. Ask yourself first if the story you’re wanting to write has an edge and is saleable.
2. Then, proceed to write that unique story by using words that pack a punch.
3. Next, read it yourself three to five times to polish it and reduce the number of typos.
4. Research publishing resources in case you want to self-publish. Reedsy is a good place to look for traditional, hybrid or self-publishing tips.
5. Do your own marketing to prove to the publisher that you can pull your own weight.
6. Build your own platform. And make sure it’s a strong one, content wise.
7. Think of the cover. It must be a luring one and also be symbolic of every plot or subplot in the book.
8. Almost every iteration in the book also needs to tie back to the book title.
9. Do a balanced amount of showing and telling while writing your MS. Too much showing can lead to your novel to be misunderstood because it will become too cryptic.
10. Read a lot of books; especially in your genre. So, you will become familiar with what you like, what you don’t like and what’s missing in the author’s style. Finally, write about what’s missing in your book.
11. Don’t nurse the idea of becoming a bestseller overnight unless you can do the work and invest in such an outcome. You become a bestseller by working on pre-sales and pre-orders a year or more before the book is out and you need a lot of money to print these books.
12. Follow these tips.