Emily Van Etten
Front Page Editor
While many students get a part-time job to earn money, junior Avani Miriyala’s job is one not listed on every teenager’s resume. Miriyala, along with her father, spent the past year writing their own book. The book, “The Go-Getter: a MikiYaka Illustration,” is an illustrated self-help book.
Miriyala’s father was an avid reader of self-help books, and Peter B. Kyne’s “The Go-Getter” was one of his favorites. Since Kyne’s book’s copyright expired, it is now in public domain and free for anyone to use. Therefore, the Miriyalas were able to use the storyline in their illustrated book.
“[‘The Go-Getter’] had a lot of good principles that people should know that would help them with their lives,” Miriyala said.
Miriyala and her father began the book in February 2008. She originally started the project when she was in search of a job.
“It sounded kind of fun, more than a traditional job, so I started helping him do research,” Miriyala said.
Along with writing the book, the Miriyalas created their own company to publish the book, MikiYaka LLC. Miriyala is the company’s Chief Operations Officer.
“It was a completely different experience because unlike a usual job, I didn’t have set hours,” Miriyala said. “It’s more of an entrepreneurial type of mindset. There’s a lot more work involved than just an employee mindset. It’s not your usual, ‘Hey, I’m working for my dad.’”
While she worked with her father in a more untraditional way, Miriyala still saw the benefits of writing “The Go-Getter” with him.
“[Working with my dad] was easy because I just had to yell across the house to tell my dad something,” Miriyala said. “But also, it’s good for the company as a whole because we can have meetings whenever we want to.
“It’s more helpful and convenient to work with a family member because I don’t have to leave the house or clock in. My dad and I get along well,” Miriyala said.
As time went on, the structure and impact of her job became more fun for Miriyala.
“At the beginning, I thought it was really a job,” Miriyala said. “I had to force myself to do something every day to help to get the book done, but now I enjoy myself doing it.”
The book is now available for purchase online at www.mikiyaka.com. Now that the process is finally over, Miriyala can better appreciate what she and father accomplished.
“At first it didn’t hit me,” Miriyala said. “Then I saw the cover with my name and my dad’s name on it, and I was like, ‘Wow, I just wrote a book.’ It’s pretty awesome.”
“The Go-Getter” is an illustrated self-help book because the Miriyalas wanted to make reading a more enjoyable experience.
“MikiYaka’s goal is to help make reading for nonreaders easier, so we’re not only books, but we’re illustrated books,” Miriyala said. “I know a lot of people don’t like to read, so that was our initial goal.”
Miriyala expects a second book to be published in spring of 2009 and foresees more expansions for the company.
“We’re going to expand into motion comics and audio and audiovisual videos and movies,” Miriyala said. “It is literally reading for nonreaders. You can get the information that’s in a book in a more entertaining way and maybe enjoy it.”
Although the process of writing “The Go-Getter” was time-consuming, Miriyala had little trouble writing the book. Her brother also helped edit it.
“If you’re writing a paper, it’s the same procedure as writing a book,” Miriyala said. “You’ll have to do the first draft, and you’ll have to edit, and there’s still going to be mistakes…It’s not that hard if you have the right resources and if you have someone who’s guiding you and helping you out.”
Miriyala initially wanted to help her father write “The Go-Getter” to fulfill his ambitions.
“It originally was my dad’s dream, and I kind of put that into motion by saying, ‘OK, I’m going to take over this, I’m going to get it running,’” Miriyala said. “So, we did start going through the entire process, and I did learn a lot of stuff along the way. In a way, it kind of became my dream, too.”
