From Survival to Purpose: Art, Healing, and Hope with Justine Martin

The side of the-

So did you publish that y- did you publish those two books yourself?

Yes.

Or did you get-

Well, no.

I published them under Morpheus Publishing, so.

Okay, yep.

I got, um, five contracts.

I submitted to 31 publishers, got five contracts back, and, uh, learned a lot about the publishing industry, uh, by doing that.

And when I read through the contracts, they weren't going to let me use the copyright of my images for anything else.

Mm.

So I wasn't allowed to make sculptures, which was cutting my nose off to spite myself, all of that, and I went, "Well, you know what? I'm gonna start my own publishing business, I'm gonna learn how to become a publisher." Now, for me, I have an acquired brain injury, so it takes a lot longer to learn, but that doesn't mean that I can't learn.

Mm.

It, it just takes me longer than what the average person does and, you know, I learnt all the way through that in order to build resilience and in order to bounce forward, you can't do it by yourself.

You've gotta ask for help.

Yeah.

And so I found mentors in the publishing industry that ha- have helped me and have been, you know...

Uh, I can't even think of the word.

We get, I get MS brain farts as well, and, um, and, and I've learned that's okay.

[laughs] Um-

That's okay.

That's, you're human.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's right.