Tag: Sunday thoughts

Angels in Black Skin

Listen, yesterday started out annoying and frustrating for me.

Watching all these Black people walk past my table and frown at the title of my book (Black History Facts You Didn’t Learn in School) was disheartening and sad.

It wasn’t about the money. It never is. It was about the sheer audacity of people to be offended.

I wanted to run to the bathroom and burst into tears at the arrogance of a people with no interest in their own history. There was even an interracial couple who walked by, him Black, her white.

Chile, do you know this man looked at his white friend/wife/woman and asked if she wanted the book while laughing as they walked on?

Trifling does not even begin to describe the moment.

But then…

There was an older Black man. He walked by my table and dropped a crinkled 20, whispering, “Keep doing what you are doing.”

You have to understand how he did it.

In African American families, elders (grandma’s, grandpa’s, aunts, uncles, etc.) will hug you and whisper in your ear, “How you?” While slipping cash into the palm of your hand.

There is no conversation about it and they are not interested in your explanations. It is simply an act of love wrapped tight in spiritual discernment. You need this even if you don’t think you do.

You could be struggling with bills.

You could be frustrated.

You could be facing any unforeseen tragedy, and this person who has lived long enough to know what love looks like in the flesh slips you with just enough money to cover whatever was bothering you.

Now, I was not in a financial catastrophe but a spiritual one. An emotional one. One that almost made me pack up my things and walk out the door.

There is something about not being appreciated that sends me boiling.

My tolerance is zero.

But then, here comes an angel, dressed casually, with a brimmed hat and gray beard wrapped in golden black skin.

He drops a 20 on my table like it was the sweaty palm of my hand and whispered words of confidence into my spirit without losing stride. He spoke while walking, always keeping sight of his mission.

This man’s simple act gave me everything I needed to keep going.

People took notice, stopping at my table suddenly, almost like they had been commanded to.

There is no moral to this story that you have not already read.

No. This is not the angel man, lol.

The Kindle Version of Black History Facts is 99c for a Limited Time! Click Here to Get Yours.

Want a signed paperback? Click here!

The Journey

Photo by Josh Hild

When I decided to write the history book, I was intentional about taking people on that journey with me.

When I visited museums, I shared video clips, took pictures of historical landmarks, and shared screenshots of my writing progress.

I wrote about where I was in my writing, such as when the book was going in for editing, and continued to educate on topics I would cover in the book. I vividly recall how excited I was to finish the first draft and celebrate with my team.

I’d built up so much awareness and excitement about this book that people were searching for it on Amazon before it came out. This was part of the reason I put it on preorder so early. It was in demand. It is what the people wanted.

As a result of taking people on the journey with me, I’ve had more fun writing this book than I’ve had writing any other book. I’ve also sold more preorders for this book since The Stella Trilogy through my website. The level of trust that people who didn’t know me from Adam put in ordering directly from me was humbling.

But it didn’t come cheap.

People trusted me because I put in the work. The work is not done. Far from it, but it has started. With this foundation, I look forward to continuing to build with the people who believe in me and the mission of continuing the work necessary to restore the forgotten heritage to the forgotten people.

What I hope new authors will take from this is the power of taking people on the journey with you and having fun with the process of writing the book.

Purchase Your Copy of Black History Facts Here. It’s Only 99cents As An ebook for the Month of March!

ps. If you’ve read this book already, please be sure to leave a review on Amazon!

Why Self-Published Authors Should Own Their ISBN

The basic answer is that owning the ISBN to your book makes you the publisher, which is the purpose of self-publishing for most authors who pursue the route.

Let’s look deeper into the ISBN and why I strongly suggest self-published authors own theirs. I’ve written on this before, but this time I am including advice from Sue Collier, the coauthor of The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 5th Edition. She has been working with authors and small presses for nearly two decades, providing writing, editing, production, and promotions work for hundreds of book projects. 

This how serious I want you paying attention to this right now, lol. | Photo by cottonbro studio.

The ISBN is the set of numbers at the back of your book on the bar code that captures information regarding the book’s publisher, title, language, edition, and version. It is necessary for anyone publishing a book they want to sell.

The number is issued to the publisher, so in traditional publishing, the author does not worry about this, as their publisher will be the book’s publisher of record.

In self-publishing, you can choose a free ISBN assigned by your print-on-demand company, such as Amazon, Lulu, or Ingram Spark. In this case, the company will appear as the publisher of record. For instance, a free Amazon ISBN means Amazon is the publisher, and so on.

Buying an ISBN or getting the freebie is totally up to the author. In fact, a freebie might be ideal for beginning authors on budgets who just want to see their books in print.

Still, the ISBN holds much more weight than these print-on-demand services have let on.

“The POD publisher services companies will try to tell you that it doesn’t matter whether you use their assigned ISBN or obtain your own. But it does because using their ISBN will ensure they are listed as the publisher of record in BIP (Books in Print) as well as with any distributor. Consequently, all orders and inquiries will go to them.”

– Sue Collier

A free ISBN is fine if you only want to publish a book and maybe sell a few copies here and there. However, if you see yourself one day selling your book in bulk to corporations, bookstores, and libraries as the publisher of record, you want to purchase an ISBN so that it belongs to you. Collier explains why:

“Let’s take a few hypothetical situations: Suppose a corporation is interested in purchasing one thousand copies of your book, contacts the Internet publisher (whoever you published through), but you never hear about it. What if a distributor wants to take it on but finds the economics aren’t feasible? Tough luck.”

Sue Collier
Owners of Upscale Foot Spa in Atlanta

Corporations do business with businesses, not individuals. Owning your ISBN with your own imprint positions you as a serious business. If Lulu is your publisher, Lulu is who corporations will contact for the kind of transaction in Collier’s example.

Why?

Because any organization with specific orders or inquiries regarding your book will approach the publisher of record. If you own your ISBN, that would be you/your company. If you do not own your ISBN, that would be whoever you published with.

“In addition, if a POD publishing services company is listed on your book as the publisher, your book may immediately be disregarded by bookstores and potential reviewers as a poorly done vanity press project.”

Sue Collier

Amazon does not vet the manuscripts uploaded to its publishing platform. Consequently, it is flooded with mediocrely written books with poorly designed covers, poor editing, and even worse formatting. When corporations see a book published by Amazon, they automatically throw it into this slush pile.

“Does it really matter? Yes, it does. Here’s the bottom line: If you don’t purchase your own ISBN under your own publishing company name, then you are not the publisher. If you use a publishing services company and let them assign your book an ISBN, they are the publisher, not you.”

Sue Collier

Grabbing the free ISBN from Amazon or whoever you publish with is not a sin. It’s okay. You will still be able to sell your books and do well.

It is, however, very limiting for self-published authors who want to sell their books beyond Amazon’s virtual shelves, have their own imprints, or be the publisher of record for their work so they can sell in bulk and process large orders through businesses and corporations.

Check out more Indie Author Basics articles here.

Our Deepest Fear

…is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

-Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

This is just an excerpt of the entire quote and its so deep to me. It’s not our failures or inabilities that stop us from going that extra mile. For many of us, its what we can do, our strengths, our gifts, and that light deep down inside of us that frighten us most.