Black Girl Dreaming

Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed Is Here

Yerrr it’s Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed week and I can’t contain myself. Today is the day I officially become a published author because I have a book out in the world, and let me tell you, I’m so hyped about it!

Welcome Back to Black Girl Dreaming.

A newsletter where I share notes on life, lessons learned, my big ol’ Black girl dreams, and my quest to conquer all of the things. I am excited to have you all here with me on this journey. If there’s anything you’d like me to discuss, feel free to drop me a line, or hit me up in the comments section. And as always, thanks for reading!

WHAT THEY DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT THE PUBLISHING JOURNEY

I’ve worked in publishing for practically a decade and being on the flipside as a published author is wild. Strangely enough, I had no idea what to think going in to this publishing journey. Yes, I know about all of the various departments that make up the book team that works on producing an promoting a book, but I still felt like there were things that I just didn’t know about the publishing journey that I wish someone would’ve told me or that was made more clear to me. This is in no particular order, just random things that I experienced along the way, that will hopefully help the next writer, or maybe encourage publishers to create even more resources for newbie writers like myself who are just embarking on the publishing scene.

The first question is taxes! Oh let me tell you, if I didn’t have a freelance writing and entrepreneur background and a personal account, I wouldn’t know what or how to handle payments from my publisher. Financial literacy is always tough to understand, once you add in being a published author, things get wild. There are still things that I’m learning, but I’ll say this, before you sign any contracts, decide how you want to be paid (i.e. as an individual using your real name, as an LLC, as a s-corp etc) because at the end of the day, writing is a business and you still need to protect yourself and your assets. This is important stuff, that a publisher or even your agent can’t decide for you. So sure, have informational interviews with other writers, but also go pay a professional to help you figure these things out.

The editorial and production side of the publishing process made total sense to me. The deadlines and instructions were clear, I knew what I had to do in order to get the manuscript whipped into shape and sent off to my publisher for the bookmaking process. What I didn’t know and maybe still don’t quite understand, is how best to optimize and utilize certain accounts or resources. As an official author, you get access to all of these cool platforms that are supposed to make your life easier, but instead, it provides more stress and anxiety because you don’t know how best to use it, and also, it’s more “work” that you likely weren’t expecting and ultimately have no idea how to handle. I’m still figuring out how to use Amazon Central and even Goodreads as an author!

Then there’s all the press and promotion for the book. There’s way more social media platforms that exist now and of course they all reach a different demographic and require a different set of standards for how you use and engage with your community on them. For me, trying to create content while having other responsibilities like a full-time job, being a parent, and running a small business becomes taxing. If you are a content creator, you know just how much time it takes to post the right photo, record the video with the right phrase/slogan, . Those things can take so much timeeeeeee and for me, it’s time I’m usually strapped for. I definitely took the advice that I usually provide to debut authors, sign up for every platform (so nobody impersonates you), then decide which platforms you can actually devote time to consistently updating on a schedule that works for you. Also keep in mind that your publisher will ask you to post and boost digital assets that they’ve created, that also takes time to execute so be sure to give yourself enough time to post these things. I usually prep the post by saving it in my drafts so it’s easier to post on the requested date.

Support, support, support! I have no idea how I could’ve survived this publishing journey without the support of family, friends, my agent, publisher, and so many countless others. But what I learned really quickly, was that folks who I thought would automatically support and champion me, actually didn’t. I found myself surprised by the folks who weren’t in my circle or hadn’t met me (except for maybe following each other on social media) shouting about me and the collection. It made me think about all the folks I’ve supported, and how I show up for people. I can always be better about supporting the folks I love and admire, but for it’s always a gut check and wake up call when you think X person will support me or be there for me, and then in reality it’s crickets. Writing and publishing a book is a lonely experience, so writers really do look forward to friends, family, and their community (whether IRL or on social media) to help boost and hype them up. I’ve learned not to take it personal, I know how busy we all are. But just know I see you fam and I know what’s what LOL.

WILD TONGUES CAN’T BE TAMED UPDATES

The books is finally here!!! I’m going on a virtual tour for Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed! Come hang out with me from the comfort of your homes on any of the below dates. I’ll be chatting with some of the amazing contributors and I can’t wait to answer all of your burning questions!

Also, here’s a cheesy picture of me with my finished copies, click the image to check out my unboxing video for more unboxing goodness!

WHAT I’M UP TO THESE DAYS

Listening

Deadline City hosted by some of my favorites, Dhonielle Clayton and Zoraida Córdova! I recently had the pleasure of joining them for the Publicity Parlor episode to discuss publicity and Wild Tongues! I hope this episode makes publicity more informative for writers :)

Binging

I just finished binging See and omgakfdafhafh this season totally wrecked me and now I can’t wait for season three!

As always, thank you so much for reading my newsletter! Hope to be in your inboxes real soon with more updates :)