Count The Ways

Publishers are exploring a range of strategies to reach African-American readers, blending traditional and innovative marketing techniques to concoct campaigns as varied as the books themselves. And they admit it's still more about experimentation than surefire tactics.

Skinny Cooks Can't Be Trusted (Nov.)
by Mo'Nique Imes Jackson

Amistad, 75,000 first printing.

Strategy: Bus tour and network/online co-promotions. Amistad teamed up with marketing firm EMG to coordinate a 10-day, eight-city tour from New York to Texas in a bus covered with images of the book's jacket. "A traveling billboard," publicity director Gilda Squire called it. The tour kicked off with a stop in Harlem at the Hue-Man bookstore and with media appearances on Good Morning America, Martha Stewartand Entertainment Tonight. The bus rolled into Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; and Charlotte, N.C., visiting Wal-Marts and Barnes & Nobles, as well as African-American stores like the Howard University bookstore in D.C. Two military bases, Ft. Bragg and Ft. Hood, highlighted the itinerary and reported sales of 500—600 books each. The Oxygen Network, the home of Mo'Nique's pageant show, F.A.T Chance, is cross-promoting the book through its Web site.

Get Down (Oct.)
by Asali Solomon

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 20,000 first printing.

Strategy: Book tour, readings and reviews. FSG publicity manager Kathy Daneman describes Solomon, an Iowa Writer's Workshop graduate and Rona Jaffe Foundation writer's award winner, as a "fresh new voice." Marketing for her story collection began with strong blurbs from such notable authors as Edward P. Jones and Lorene Cary. Following review coverage in Essence and Vibe Vixen, Daneman says she is focusing on holiday roundups as well as alternative weeklies likely to be more open to nontraditional books. Solomon did a regional tour that included stops at Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia; Olsson's Books in Washington, D.C.; and KGB Bar Lit in New York City. FSG is publishing Solomon's first novel in 2008.

January Girl (Jan.)
by Goldie Taylor

Black Expressions Book Club (first printing N/A).

Strategy: Marketing to club members. The club's first original title, by formerly self-published Goldie Taylor, is women's fiction, a preferred genre of the club's membership. The title will be available exclusively to Black Expressions members and will be a main selection in January. January Girl will be promoted to the club's 450,000 members through both its direct-mail catalogue and its Web site, which will feature a video interview with the author. BE editor-in-chief Carol Mackey says that Black Expressions will test the success of the exclusive program before branching out into the trade market, and notes that more original club titles are in the works.

Death Around the Corner(Dec.)
by C-Murder

Vibe Books (Kensington, dist.), 50,000 first printing.

Strategy:Magazine, online and music co-promotion. This is the first title from Vibe Street Lit, a new Vibe Books imprint, and Vibe Books editorial director Rob Kenner says the book will reap the benefits of the Vibe Media Group, its multimedia parent company. In December, Vibe will begin running a full-page ad for the book. In January, Vibe's 13 million readers will see an excerpt from the book coupled with an interview with the rapper—turned—book author that will also be available online at Vibe.com. The first 100,000 copies of the book will offer a free one-year subscription to Vibe or Vibe Vixen magazines, and readers can tune in to Comcast's Vibe video on-demand channel to catch another interview segment. A dedicated Web site (deatharoundthecorner.com) launched in September (to build early buzz) and features a 30-second movie trailer for the book and a note from the author about writing the book while in prison for second-degree murder (the conviction was overturned earlier this year). Vibe Books will also coordinate its promotions with Priority Records, the label that will release the rapper's next album in early 2007.

No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn:A PowerHouse Hip-HopRetrospective
by various artists (Nov.)

It's All Good
by Boogie (Nov.)

PowerHouse Books, first printings 5,000 each

Strategy: Exhibition, magazine and community event co-promotions. PowerHouse provided the Brooklyn hub for a week of events celebrating VH1's Hip-Hop Honors Week. The art and photography publisher used the opportunity to simultaneously launch No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn, an inaugural exhibition of hip-hop art and photography, at its new 10,000-sq.-ft. gallery and retail arena space in the DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn. The exhibition/book/ VH1 promotion featured a week of events celebrating hip-hop culture and history. During the exhibit, the publisher promoted two new releases, It's All Good, gritty urban photographs by Boogie, the exhibit's top-selling title, and the first issue of PowerHouse magazine, with the same title as the exhibit, a paperback journal that's also the catalogue for No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn, which the publisher sells like a book. PHP publicity director Sara Rosen says the catalogue is a "a promotional tool for our exhibits, books, artists and affiliates" and a "stand-alone cultural artifact."

Hood Rat (Nov.)
by K'wan

St. Martin's, 50,000 first printing.

Strategy: Events and music co-promotion. St. Martin's held two "Literati Lounges" at a popular Harlem barber shop and a beauty salon in Brooklyn. Far from traditional book signings, the lounges offered food, music giveaways and a performance by Malik Yusef, a spoken-word artist featured on Def Poetry Jam. Instead of an author reading, an editor from AOL Black Voices conducted an interview with K'wan. BET filmed segments of the events, which have aired on its show Black Carpet. The two lounges rode the publicity coattails of an October Time magazine article about street fiction that featured K'wan and Relentless Aaron, another St. Martin's street fiction author.