But once I got signed, the way that the big boys do it, is to bring people into the stores for book signings, which doesn't really work unless people already know who you are. Therefore, since the publishing industry is less than aggressive at marketing new authors, your entire promotion scheme depends on how much attention they can create from the media. Then you hope and pray that readers will come out to the book stores. Tyree explained that as the black author market began to increase, each new author drew less and less media attention. So you move out the old material, and move in the new, and few readers can even tell you what they liked about the books.
New reviews are even stale now.
We've heard it all already. So I want to separate myself from this whole celebrity author thing, and get back to what I love doing, sharing information and ideas with the people. And right now, outside of the Oprah Winfrey show, black books are no longer having that kind of community impact. That's what I'm trying so hard now to get back to with this tour for Single Mom. But I need the community to meet me halfway by buying the books and talking about the issues involved.