FROM MUSIC TO BOOKS: SAME SHIT DIFFERENT TOILET BOWL

In 2014, I awoke one morning in prison and decided I would write a book, and get it published. On the streets I was into the music thing, but with a fresh twenty year sentence that was no longer an option. I figured I already had a vast vocabulary. Why not?
For the next year I wrote diligently, got my first manuscript typed, and set off on a mission to get it published. I submitted to Wahida Clark, Vicky M. Stringer, and Carl Weber at Urban Books. A friend of mine would send me Street Literature novels to keep my mind occupied. If I liked the story, and the quality was decent, I would get the company address off the copyright page and write them. While awaiting their responses, I ordered books on writing, publishing and marketing. It was in one of these books that I discovered that silence was the new rejection.
A conversation between two people caught my attention one day. It was about Cash, author of the "Trust No Man" series. He signed with Wahida Clark, has his own publishing company, and did it all from prison. I sent him a manilla containing a letter and sample chapters, then had my people send him an e-message not once, but twice through JPay. No response.
I had my people look up different celebrity's addresses: Steve Harvey, Tyler Perry, T.I, and Waka Flocka to name a few. Nothing.
I remembered hearing something about literary agents, and decided this may be my best shot, only to discover the process of hiring one was very much the same as submitting to a traditional publishing company. It wasn't a service that was simply paid for. In fact, cold calls were frowned upon as was snail mail in some cases. They preferred e-mail query letters only, and if (on the rare chance) they requested a partial, liked it, and accepted the job, they were paid 15-20% of whatever you signed for. I began querying agents who specialized in securing Street Literature contracts. Still...nothing came from this either, and I got discouraged.
I'd been at it over two years, telling anyone who would listen how I would be the Best Selling Author of the following year. In 2014 I was claiming it for the year of 2015, in '15 I was claiming it for '16. Here it was 2016, and I was no closer to making it happen then I'd been in 2014. The only thing that had changed was the number of books I had written and ready. But that contract bonus I'd dreamed of receiving for so long was just that...a dream.
People who believed in me at first started to fade away. Others remained, but lost their enthusiasm, like they knew it was too good to be true. As quiet as it was kept, I began to feel the same. But if I didn't believe in myself, I lost the right to expect others to. I kept writing.
The less than handful that were still "ten toes down", would send me testimonials of incarcerated authors who successfully published from prison, and had gone on to live productive crime free lives. I ordered random Self-Published books off Amazon, perusing Bio's, Author's Notes, and Acknowledgements, intrigued to find that free authors went through the same stage that I was going through now, but disappointed that they failed to elaborate on how they succeeded in the end.
I came across a section titled "Author Platform Building" in a Marketing blog posted by Christopher Zoukis. I didn't know what exactly an "Author Platform" was, but according to the blog, it played a detrimental part in Book Marketing from Prison. I ordered a book on it and discovered Platform Building was essential for all author's. In fact, an effective one directly increases sales and publishing oppurtunities. It's the element that gets book deals secured.
At the time, I was into the "Bottom Bitch" series by Racquel Williams. The first was priced at $6, while the second was $8 both Self-Published by Black Destiny Publishing. The third book of the series wasn't. On the cover was the brand of Triple Crown Publishing Best Selling author of Thirsty, Leo Sullivan Presents, and it was priced at $11. I was excited for her, and myself. It was clear.
The publishing industry was much the same as the music industry. The same way a rapper wasn't gonna get signed by sending recording studios a demo he recorded God-knows-where, I wasn't gonna gonna get signed by sending query letters and sample chapters. I understood.
Like aspiring rappers, I had to start from the bottom, take whatever resources I had, and make the best of them. Up-and-coming rappers had songs, I had stories.
It happens, but the average rapper isn't signing major deals off their first project. No, they have to build a following, and show labels they're worth the investment. They have to start somewhere, and what better way is there than to put something out there. Thus, they take the independent route, and drop a mixtape, the equivalent of Self-Publishing a book.

Just as an aspiring rapper first needs to locate a quality studio befitting his needs, I had to find a good Self-Publishing company. A great song with a poor Audio Engineer, is just as futile as a great book with a shitty publisher. In the end, you'll wind up with a bad product. Pick, don't choose. Be meticulous. That's what I did. As I searched for a company to release my first novel, I would order books by authors that they published, and read them, taking note of the quality. I scrutinized everything: graphic design, interior design, spelling, grammatical errors, the whole nine. I had to do this right for the people who believed in me. The last thing I wanted to do was embarrass them. Not just that, but I'd read books with so many typos it's a wonder that wasn't the title. I remembered getting madder and madder with each error I came across. I mean, a typo or two, maybe here or there I could live with, but every page for consecutive pages? I wasn't trying to frustrate my readers.
After finding an independent studio to record their first mix tape, up-and-coming rappers get ready for it's release. They find cover designers, promotion teams, take the instrumentals to some of the songs from the mix tape to amateur competitions, acquire features, submit singles to radio stations, etc. When authors find a Self-Publishing company to release their first project they do the same in a different but similar way. They submit short stories in literary contest, they advertise it's release on Social Media, they send out excerpts, they request reviews, etc. Rappers call it promoting, authors call it building an "Author Platform".
Upon the release of the mix tape, up-and-coming rappers push it's success by doing everything in their power to get it heard as much as possible by as many, as well as the right people as possible by utilizing some of the same tactics they used during promotion, authors are no different.
Eventually the up-and-coming rapper establishes a fan base, gets a buzz, and before long the big wigs come calling. And it's likewise for an author.
That said, I'm just enjoying the process. Along the way, my writing is improving, I'm developing my own voice as a writer, and I've discovered a passion for weaving life lessons within a story. I now write for my readers, and the ones who have always been in my corner despite my countless mistakes. And that's not politics, that's facts. Music is my first love. I talked about what was going on around me, and how I was feeling. It was how I got a lot of stuff off my chest. That was for me.
Writing...this is for yall.