You Have To Ask For What You Want by Francis Ray I am a Southern girl.  My parents always taught me to be respectful, to be polite and never, ever ask for anything.  If it is not offered, too bad.  I adhered to their teaching for twelve long years in the publishing industry, until I learned the [...]

 Crabs in the Barrel By Tracy Price-Thompson I have been in this publishing game for a few minutes now, and while the industry is certainly dynamic, some things just never change. Sure, there has been a major revolution in the way publishers do business with African-American writers and I, myself, have benefited from the emergence [...]

  Sex, Love and All of the Above: Some Thoughts on Erotica and Romance by Gwyneth Bolton It is a simple as the difference between love and sex and also as complex. It is the difference between senses and feelings and at the same time the way they are connected to one another. Sometimes they [...]

 On My Terms By Gloria Mallette             The minute I typed the words, On My Terms, I started singing ‘On My Own, Once Again’ by Patti LaBelle and Michael Bolton.  How true this is for me.  After years of rejection, in 2000, I self-published Shades of Jade because major publishers said there was no market [...]

   OKAY, WE’RE PUBLISHED NOW WHAT?? By LaConnie Taylor-Jones Imagine the struggles of those early pioneers in African American literature.  Whether they penned fiction or non-fiction, the manuscripts they had poured their heart and soul into was ready for the world to read.  The only way this would happen was through publication. Led by courage [...]