Transcripts For CSPAN2 Panel Discussion On Black Writers In The Digital Age 20160701

Identify for us today but thank you so much again for being part of this panel. I know some of this participants so k . Good afternoon. I know there are educators here what someone says good afternoon you give a stronger turn, good afternoon. I love it. Thank you. Iwant to apologize , the state is being held up in this case, they train the rail, not history so he had to drive here from dc. He should be coming soon. It will be here as well about 215, that show kicked me off and im going to be sitting out here with you guys but im excited about this. I am an artist but my title has always been about digital art and Digital Technology and coming down here when i start doing this i was taking about two different periods read on, before. Com in the early 90s and Early Box Office and how those two things help change the direction of a lot of black artists. Those were two of the first times i thought, online before it came black planet were one of the fewplaces you can see black artists using technology. Ive heard it before and allow for it and artists now find new audiences and great audiences so thats part of what conversation is about today is how technology can be a crutch and also, whats my final word . I want to talk again so we have on the panel today the publisher of Akashic Books and also one of the founders and producers of the book festival. Welcome a side. He is multi talented. He also has a movie on bet, theres another movie in production on tv on , also a writer and the beautiful farai chideya, tvpersonality, multiculturalist and one of my favorite people on the planet. And were going to talk amongst ourselves, i have a few questions for them but im going to cut off and goto bridges in the conversation and of course include you guys. So one of the first things that came to mind when looking at this and we were planning it was how technology can help. Because we always think of technology, the first thing is technology is supposed to push a Society Forward but you put something forward as my father say, you change the work more than you sacrifice so putting the new technology as black writers, how does it help and what do you see as some of the, the strength created by black publishers. First of all i want to thank you and thank the conference for having me, its a great conference and im honored toparticipate in it. A number of times over the years. The work that the center for black literature does is very important and its worth it, no one else is doing though doctor brenda greene, maximum respect for everything youve done. Everyone here at medgar evers college, i run Akashic Books, based in brooklyn, we published 35 books a year and i need, ithink that , i guess the first thing that occurs to me is about the technology is of course everyone being able to communicate with each other more effectively and more directly so that i think that connecting people not just locally but internationally, all over the world with technology, obviously as this incredible power to shrink the world down which has drawbacks to it but the upside is its you in terms of people being able to get their ideas out there and i think, i think that my favorite aspect about what technology has brought is that as a book publisher, publishing historically before, starting about 15 or 20 years ago was really the domain of the wealthy and to run a Book Publishing company or to run a newspaper or magazine or anything like that just required either rich donors or a corporation behind you and in this day and age, anybody can be a book publisher. And it just allows for so many more voices to get out there and i think thats very important. I still think that the Book Publishing business is really held back by, by incredible homogeneity among business. Never before, theres two sort of contradictory aspects of todays Publishing Business. One is that theres never been so many voices making it out to the public, much greater diversity of voices. In the Publishing Business, a lot of people pine for the good old days back when literature was more respected but you dont have to look very far to realize when theyre talking about the good old days that was the good old days of white male homogeneity in the Book Publishing business and so i think its actually kind of offensive when people for the good old days of Book Publishing because who would want to go back to the way the world used to be in that regard when there was only one or two type of people whose voices could be heard . So, but having said that, welltheres a great diversity of voices being heard, when you look at who works in the Publishing Business itself , the business is Something Like 89 percent white. The people who run Book Publishing business and who worked in the business which is an appalling statistic on many levels, not least of which because the business is based in new york city, one of the most ethnicallydiverse places on the planet. That is true, that is not an urban myth,it is true and most media in america is run by white males. Why does, how does someone put through the noise mark because one thing when youre doing something on the internet or using social media, traditional media does make it easier to find success in social media. Usually you get lucky, you get blessed or have an engine and i just dont want who is or who is not assigned to a major established thing or themselves through the noise to become a player . You could sell 10,000 books, youre doing well by yourself. For sure and thats a lot. First of all, what i would say is i think its worth kind of segmenting out a little bit between the impact of the digital age on creators and the impact of the digital age on people who are doing the sales and marketing of because there is an impact on both but theyre somewhat different so for johnny, johnny has been someone who i really admired for tackling the problem of how do you distribute diverse literature because Akashic Books roster is incredibly diverse and international, not just diverse black white in america but global, truly coming from oakland so theres questions about, and i cant answer these but questions about how do you market books to an audience that can be connected through Digital Technology you may not have had access to before so on the one hand, you can be in touch with authors around the globe using Digital Technology but you can also use that technology to market books. What i see from a writers perspective is that theres a constant battle or lack of balance between the production ofyour work , just the butt in a chair, typing away or writing longhand, whatever you do and need to be your own marketer so i had a book about two months ago calling the episodic career, but very practical book about the future of jobs in america and because i had some lets say interesting experiences before with internal book publicist, i decided to hire external but book publicist but not being rich i couldnt afford the typical sort of major league publicist who gets 5,000 a month for a fourmonth campaign, thats 20 grand and i knew i couldnt afford that but i found ways to find one person who was recommended to me who only does bookings on radio shows and then two people who were friends of a friend who used to work in pr fulltime and now just do it as a side hustle so they gave me a cheap rate but a lot of what we did whether it was with the internal publicists and by the way, the internal publicist got fired we got for my book launch so i was smart to get the external publisher and thats the kind of thing you have to deal with, its like one week shes like congratulations on your next book, the next its like im leaving on friday and i dont know what happened here but its all i need to know is that im covered. But a lot of it is about two things on the writing side, you have to actually insulate yourself from the digital age, i dont think writing gets on you are on twitter 24 seven and so i actually use an app called selfcontrol which you can blacklist websites or blacklist twitter groups, facebook, whatever when im writing so on the one hand on my production side of trying to insulate myself from the outside world but on the marketing side, it helps that i have 25 or 27,000 twitter followers which is not a lot by some measures but it is a lot my other measures but its mainly a lot because the people who follow me actually Pay Attention to what im doing. Theres this need to like put yourself out there using mechanisms like twitter but at the right time and to realize that black twitter is real and you can have truly intellectual conversations about the issues on social media platforms but those should not necessarily be happening when youre writing so i leave it there but you get the picture. Theres kind of like a twofold thing for people who are producing. One is to keep yourself out of the world of Digital Technologies is actually right, the other is to strategically use it to get your message out there. I have pointed want to ask you. I want to say it right, it might not be true. I was signed to a major label, i know. Being on a major does not necessarily mean going on a major tour. Correct. Theres two parts to that but you done something i find tobe brilliant. You are able to turn being on a major to an establishment house like social media, then come back to social media which actually allows you then more space for your writing and your awareness. If you can talk about that a couple minutes. Absolutely. Unfortunately, my division of gallery books, i am the last africanamerican on the staff there it is definitely not because of that was talented writer. There are so many more talented writers out there. Ive been able to. Shes being humble but will go with that. Ive been able to understand that writing the book is half adjourned. Especially in this day and age, its the other half so because in my division i was the only africanamerican standing and then a friend of mine, a Business Partner was the only africanamerican left standing in her division, we decided that we wanted to leverage what we know, what we had learned, what caused us to be the last africanamerican authors and start our own Publishing Company which we did, its called brown girls book and we currently have 40 books, we have 27 more coming this year and we had just taken, it has gone to a whole different level and that is because we understand the importance of Digital Technology. The advancements in Digital Technology are the best thing that has happened to black writers. The advancement in Digital Technology is also the worst thing that has happened to black writers and thats because everyone who has ever had a cousin say, theres drama in your life, you want to write a book thinks they can write a book so theres a lot of loss of the craft, respect of the craft and you have a lot of people that are just putting up material on the internet, these ebooks and is making some of the better material get lost in the shuffle soyou have to find ways to stand out in the noise. Why dont you tell us what the registry is. What do you think are three keys that a writer, the writer in you has used or can use or should use to write this, ill go with noise. The hifi systems, it was annoying. I totally agree with you on the amount of work does not mean the work is better. Quantity does not mean quality but how does someone with quality through all the noise . On, i have the mindset that i work smarter instead of just harder, i work harder and smarter and i also need in thinking outside the box. Anything that simon and schuster, they sent me on tours and do all that but everything they do for me , i go beyond and i double it on my own. So they have a level of respect for that and then im branching out so what is happening is you have readers, you have other authors, other people in the Publishing Industry respect that i respect the crap and i am always thinking outside the box. When i initially self published, when i get picked up by simon and schuster and i self published because he got rejected left and right, i couldnt get a book deal and every time you turn around i was getting rejection letters in my mailbox, some places i have even sent them but i believe in my work. And so i was outside the box and i know a book is about building a buzz so i would do things, i was in Oklahoma City at the time, i would call a bookstore in new york and say you carry my brothers keeper by Reshonda Tate billingsey . I call back about three hours later, do you carry this book called my brothers keeper and they say no, but right before closing i call again and id say im looking for this book called my brothers keeper and they said we dont have it but we got to get it because everybodys calling about this book. And my core, i knew the book was good. I just had to build a buzz so this of course was before the Digital Technology. That had taken off but it was all about building that buzz and getting people talking. You have to have that good writing at the core because theyre not going to talk but you have to get noticed inthe noise and that was my focus was was finding a way to get outside that box and get notice. Kind of addendum on that question, we understand you need tricks, in any kind of silly tricks , cars, home , anything that cost a lot of money or it could be some cloak and dagger but myself, how do you use community and technology and theres two different things, cards and community and technology to push book agendas, your personal agenda and also get your workout . I like the fact that you brought it back to Real Community focus so ill give an example. I have a god that god daughter lives in ann arbor michigan which is 45 minutes from detroit and i also have good relationships with some of the people who work in arts, culture and public radio in detroit so i was going out there anyway to visit my goddaughter but i would say to these freelance publicists, see if you can get me something while im there so all these things came together to make it one of the best readings i had on my torso again, my book is about careers, its called theepisodic career but there was a group called urban string , i you string, it wasnt a quartet, it was like a quintet. So its like there by a, violins, etc. Playing classical music, black kids from detroit and they are wonderful and the bookstore that we found was already doing this event with this youth strings quintet at 3 pm. They scheduled my book reading for 4 pm, this is a black own mother daughter bookstore called force booksellers in detroit thats been around for 40 years. They know community, thats how they market their books. To me, first of all the story of independent booksellers is the story of community because independent booksellers that are doing well posted them and make themselves integral to the life of the community. Theres always a place you can go to be with interesting people, hearing about interesting things so its not just that theres a place that sells books, if integrated into the bricks and mortar community so i was able to luckily find a way to be part of what was already thevibrant life of detroit. It was a packed reading and even though they had this event beforehand, almost everyone switched over so the people there for the strings, only a few of them aid for the book reading it also if youre walking by and you see a place full of people, you want to go in there. You want to get some of that energy so even if the crowd was not the exact name as it was for the music portion earlier, i think having a packed house on the street that had other arts businesses was critical so thats just one example. I think for black authors and independent authors, you have to seek people who already are Building Community so you want to tap into your own community and i could give examples of that but the reason i gave the example of source booksellers is there are people in every city in america and in some places that are cities and people around the globe who already have built that brick and mortar communityand you want to tap into that. Your mother sold me amug. Taking it back to you, everyone cannot be what my friend calls a noncreator where youunderstand the strategy behind your work. Friends who are brilliant writers who couldnt sell you 1 million, couldnt give you 1 million. Its not what they do. Does that hinder youchoose , those who do not have the ability to get you 60 but they are writing good work and they have a message or is it someone that gives you more of the 360 approach . And it still good writing, in the end a matter who it is, you need to do good writing. Thats a good question. Its definitely a factor and you know, that we do best with authors who are sort of embracing this spirit thats being discussed up here of thinking outofthebox and taking the extra steps, saying okay, on my book publisher is going to do xy and z but im going to add on top of that and do more so that attractive area these are dealbreaker issues but when you are deciding to publish a book, theres many factors that go into it and what someone brings to the table in terms of ability to spread the word on themselves is one of the factors. It goes into our decisionmaking but i also dont want to overstate that because theres plenty of books that we have published that are written by hermits, people who dont kind of ever interact with the outside world but thats just an additional challenge. Can i add real quick, browngirls but we do more commercial books. And we started out and we took some excellent books that the writers were just phenomenal, the writing was phenomenal and they sold about 10 copies. And at the end of the day, its a business so now we at one point had to shut down submissions, we had about 400 submissions coming in when we open so we had to shut down submissions so now we look at the total package. After we find an excellent book, were perusing social media area if you have Three Friends on social media, it goes into consideration because we know that that integral to selling the book so the difference between two equally wellwritten books could be your interaction on social media, the fact of whether or not a permit because we know we have this great book written but we dont want to publish great books just to sit on the shelves and say hey, wegot some good books that nobodys reading. Let me make sure im putting it properly. Theres a glut of technology being, i guess the earlier question, what is that line . You want to be able to say all right, i know how to ask it. An artist who doesnt have, actually i know way to ask this question. An artist does not have a social media factor but does have the ability, but can come to the product, how much time goes into it . Technology is supposed to be able to put you in with the environment. How much does the media play in pushing something online . For me, if theres a book i believe and we will work with the author because some writers, especially those that are the firm writers as they say, they dont know what they dont know so were a publisher that prides herself in working with the authors, its a partnership so if were met with resistance, thats a problem but if we go to an author and most of them are very amenable to say what can i do to sell my book . They just dont know. So at the core again is that wellwritten book before we decide were going to take that step. I think that, the long story short is that i do think that writers were not willing to engage in their own list of the are at a disadvantage in this era area theres no question about it and its also hard because its a crap shoot. You can write a really great book and even you the right social media and sometimes it catches fire and sometimes it doesnt and especially of your putting Financial Resources behind it as well as you know, sweat equity like lets say you hire an independent publicist as well as doing your own social media, that has to be deducted from whatever money you get for writing the book but the way i think about it is you know, and i think this would help both publishers and authors is that you have to really figure out what the long tail is for your book. Theres going to be aninitial set of sales but also for authors , upsides could be that i have a bigger platform to do speeches and lectures, i have more visibility in my career at large. Theres many different factors and i think publishers as well, you might have an author is a hermit but if the work is mimetic meaning that its au courant, its of the moment, its something that will catch fire, you can also be that publisher who says we are going to do an internetbased campaign and do a bunch of pull quotes and run them in sequence and you can say well, we know this author isnt necessarily going overweight and how can we create acampaign that will help do it . But you know, theres no question im sure , and it makes perfect sense that you have to judge people based on things other than surely the quality of their writing because right now, the Book Business for most authors and publishers of most books is sufficiently small margins. You have to Pay Attention to those questions, you know . You do can i add one thing and sort of echoing something fried just said, its just that social media is only one vehicle for authors to promote their work and the fact is if you have the opportunity to use twitter and instagram and all these things and you dont and youre not drawn to it, you could have a publisher say you need to get on social media but if youre not drawn to it and if youre not good at it, its not going to help you. Youre going to be effective from a book in ways that are organic to you are. I feel this way at least and theres many ways some of our most successful authors of our Incredible Health advocates but theyre not necessarily on social media and i say this because authors here alike, you need to buy on social media, you need to be on social media and i feel like its important to say that one of a bunch ofvehicles at your disposal for promoting yourself. Putting both marketing and promotion through the normal channels, social media and traditional media of course , magazines. Which goes into what we do with this place. Im sorry for my lateness, there was a mixup with the scheduling. I actually have a question for you. I just wanted to say hi to everybody, i didnt want to be rude. I everybody. When you do these lines and write the magazines on your life, how do you see technology as well as traditional magazines being inclusive to helping black writers or writers in general on an established brand or an independent or small press . When i started in magazines, there were probably , that was in i think 1,996 and there were black magazines like ysb and there were mainstream quote unquote magazine which were essentially white magazines area and then there was the source and then there was five so these music magazines , in essence had a lot more mature i guess contributors . Those are the places where if you wanted to break in and wanted your voice out there then a music publication was probably the most efficient way to do it and that was the place where your blackness was actually an advantage rather than adisadvantage. What happens now is that there is this huge market for race writing, quote unquote area and it runs the gamut from 10 ways that you should not insult black people, that kind of thing or the reason why i hate black girl magic. These pieces i think perform well because they create controversy area a challenge though is number one, a lot of people right those stories are getting paid 80 a post. Piecework. And the other issue is that there are so many voices that you might get a one off where you might get a big story. Reshonda Tate Billingsley the question is how long it stays out there and what you learn on the way because another, i think, kind of disturbing trend i have seen is places dont interview. There is a lot of unedited copies floating around. Magazines edit you to death. There is a huge group of privilege between people that get to write for concern magazines and certain and people who write online. You can easily become pigeon hold because you have written 250 articles in a month and you put that on your resume and it looks like you are experienced. But to somebody like me it tells me you did a lot of teeth work, worked hard, but you never had anybody sit down and evaluate your work for what it is. I guess i am saying it is a balance and goes back to what i think i heard over and over which is skill and tried trade. There is more room for black people in the writing but you to have been tight and tight on your own. You cannot wait for your editor to make you tight because that is not going to happen. Music and books are similar in terms of reaching the audience, but you can create Something Like a hermit or small group, find distribution and for low or moderate cost reach an audience. On tv, production cost interfere with reaching a level of access because it is not available because it takes more to make the product and more course to reach an audience. Let me get back to the three things i am looking at with books and magazines. How does someone became cable if they are a hermit. We are thinking and i am asking you does it take a total macro conversati conversation. What can someone do, starting with farai, what can someone do and beyond saying go sign with Warner Brothers or simon and shuster. What can they do later on . Like i said, i am very much of the Glass Half Full school when it comes to technology. I think that when it comes to all technology you have to evaluate whether you are amusing yourself or whether you are getting stuff done. You know, there is nothing wrong with amusing yourself but dont make a mistake amusing yourself is getting something done whether it is on the production side. You can be on black twitter all day and say nothing and it will get you nowhere. So i guess the most important thing is chose your weapons wisely. Chose how to use your time wisely. You will never be any younger than you are today. The reality is that also it is a time where, you know, i have had amazing connections, you know, this is kind of a side note but not completely but i grew up with half of my family being in zimbabwe where my dad is from and we would be sending these blue envelopes back and back but today everything is on facebook and i see their kids growing up in realtime. Digital technology has shrunk the world but you have to figure out what to do once you have access to the whole word. We have all a global reach through online distribution but if you are sitting around chitchatting dont mistake that for doing actual work. I think the first thing to do is understand how you work, how you are most productive, how you get things done and it is great to goof off, and i do it online and offline all of the time but understand the difference between work and play. Well while i believe there are exceptions to every rule gone are the days of if you write it they will come. There are maybe a couple breakthrough authors who can do that. But as jonnie said is not necessary to do it but if that is not who you are i suggest other ways. Media outlets i think a lot of time we cast a wide net into the Atlantic Ocean where we would have more success fishing in the pond in brooklyn. I encourage people to become famous and reach out to Community Newspapers and become famous in our area and branch out from there instead of trying to become famous in the United States of america. And also, just speaking outlets. Getting in front of people. Even if you are one of those socially inept people. If you can just get in front of small crowds and let the word of mouth build. We are a word of mouth community and Start Building that a couple people at a time if you are not a large crowdtype person. But you have to do more than just write. I agree with everything reshonda said. To get people to Pay Attention to you you need to develop traction and a snowball needs to start developing. If you are trying to get famous worldwide you are not digging in any where. What you have control over, you have much more control over your local role and need to get people talking. Word of mouth is more powerful than an enormous promotion budget. The budget is meant to develop word of mouth. Putting in a few thoughts of my own, on the idea of unedited stuff online, one thing i i courage writers to do is you need a community, you need to be part of a community and that means really investing yourself. If you are a writer, you need to go to other writers readings and support other writers so when you have something you want people to Pay Attention to you need to develop good will. It is a good idea to lean on community as well. I am sure every person in the room has a lot of very talented friends and family. When i started off as a book publisher and didnt know what i was doing i did know a lot of creative people. When it came time, for example, getting a cover design for our first book, i have a music backgrou background. I played for years and still do a little. But i had a rock and roll career in the 1990s and knew tons of creative people. That is rock and roll and i am talking about Book Publishing but creative people can cross over into different mediums. The first book i published was in 1997 and now i have published about 400. My main book designers are musicians i know and people from the music world who were excited about the idea of covering a book cover. I have a friend who designed 35 cd covers but never a book. He wanted to support my mission and did it for cheap because i was a small country. To get the Book Publishing company off the ground i have leaned on so many creative people i know and relationships i have developed throughout my life and people willing to lend a helping hand. For an author trying to get your work out there, i think, you know, if you want to be taken seriously dont put up stuff unedited. So it to your smart friends with editing capabilities and say can you read through this and tell me what you think. But to think you mastered it and dont need feedback is hubris. Creative feedback is so important. I think that is one major stumbling block for people going back to what farai was saying confusing chitchat with real dialogue. That is where your commitment comes in handy. And i think just to add on with the hermit idea. If you are a hermit and socially inept you still know people who are socially capable. Go to people you know who cant keep a secret. Go to somebody and tell them about it. I put out on anthology about black women and body image in 2005 before a lot of the internet rave. The only reason that book exists still is because my mother are seven book parties and my aunt had two book parties and my aunt in texas had one and people gave them to each other for the holidays. You need somebody to flood your personal market with what you have. And finally, this idea of being socially inept, i think, makes sense to a certain extent. But i think also what people, and i think this is what people have said earlier, what people are drawn to is authenticity. I have seen some of the most shy people in the world get up in front of people, literally shaking, and still connect with people. If people are here they are paying attention to what you want to say. It isnt a show. You are not here to perform. Even if you feel nervous you should not let that stop you. Wow. Thank you. I made notes and five things point out. Dont chitchat online. I love that. Find out what channels work for you to start a brand. This idea of brand i hate when people say they are a brand and have no idea what they are talking about. That said what it is to me. Taking about other voices and what was said about controlling the message. You are not chitchatting and gettingwo getti getting work done. You are trying to create a message and be what you were talking about authentic. We will take about 20 minutes of questions but before we do that because im an ogre we will keep the questions and if it is not a question i will cut you off. Just being fair about what is going to happen. It will not be a surprise when i say thank you and sit down. Dont make the questions fivepart questions. I will take twopart but after the second part this is not batman and we will cut it off at the second one. Under those rules and guidelines, please, lets hear some of your questions. Except you sir. Thank you, tai. It is a question. Is anyone on the panel familiar with the whole issue of editing struck me is anyone familiar with an Online Community called degriot space . It is an Online Community that requires you critique a certain amount of members and you can submit your own material. If you are not familiar with it my question is will you please make it more familiar. Definitely. I havent heard of it. But i want to say one thing to add on to that. There are services the opposite of that. That sounds fantastic because you are engaged and there is a requirement of engagement so you have to be serious. That sounds excellent and like a major service. What you dont need is programs like edit software, the Editing Software which i have seen people use and they think that means their work has been ed edited. And even spell check and thinking it is edited. People edit. Machines dont edit. In my realist position just because someone edited they can edit. Find people who are capable. But i want to check that out. Thank you. Thank you. Degriotspace. Com. Thank you. And there is an application process. You do have to go through it and be accepted and it is a community so works with what we are doing. All right. Thank you. Also, new rule, state your name. Hi, i am monique john and i am a reporter. I am glad the Panel Brought up the conversation of online investors. I am not that great at twitter per se but it is something that again i am investing more and more time into. Aside from obvious things like commenting on other writers work on twitter or jumping in on trending topics can you talk about other really practical pieces of advice to really build engagement that will really build your own community, your own numbers, and also speak even more about maybe your personal time management habits that have worked for you because i like the point about how you cannot beat on twitter all of the time if you are a serious writer. If you are a serious writer, you can spend a big portion of your day writing. I will answer the first part of your question. A lot of my background is advertising and marketing. And i think, and i swear by this, yes, Online Presence is only as strong as your offline presence. Anyone who tells me they have a Large Community online i tell them they are just sharing other peoples information. If you want to sell something, you have to create a Community Using Something Like a party. A thousand folks showed up at a party and i found out the event was free and you didnt get a thousand people. You had friends over. If you can do something that is 10 you can get someone to purchase, spend money or spend time. The last one is the eeasiest on. Direct them to find out more offline. You have to create an off line presence through traditional mediums like flyers or through your cousin. The time management, i suck that that. That is why i have an assistant. Can i touch on this . Just to ask you are you considered a feature report, straight News Reporter straight news. One thing i want to add in terms of building a twitter or participating on twitter is as a journalist you have to be careful what you put on twitter. So you know, i have seen it time and time again where somebody has an account in their name and they will say comments all mine but then they Say Something crazy about a political candidate and then they pitch the story to me and i am like we are not going to work with you with this. As journalist one of the most powerful things you can do is share thinks that will not normally found. People want to know what is going on and if you have a particular zone you have a collective of people i think you need to put in your personality. I am more facebook than twitter. I share articles on facebook that really depress people. Those are the two things i do on facebook. It must be a journalist thing. I did 20 years as a reporter and anchor and i am a print journalist now. You have to stay away from politics and religion unless you want to make a fraction of the community mad. But find something that works for you. I share a lot with my children because they are funny. Where have a lot of followers following for that. Some people are like motivation monday so every monday you have people coming to see what great motivational tip you are giving. Maybe it is a writing tip. Something where people are looking forward to every week i am going to find out what she is talking about today. Hi, i am kevin langley. My question for you since the panel is about the digital age and i dont know if you have experienced this personally because i am going through it as a writer and publisher but what do you feel in terms of instagram . Instagram has a very large Book Community calls booksagram and i am dabbling with studying the analytics and the transactions of that. What do you think about studying the social media such as instagram that have ravenous foll followings of readings and dyi authors sharing their things . What do you thing about authors, when we are not writing and focused on the marketing aspect, to research the social Media Outlets . I study it a lot. Instagram is the wave of the future. I cannot get on something my 13yearold loves so much. So i am fighting it. But it is a tool that we have. Instagram is the way to go. I am still a facebooker. There is something about a 40somethingyearold and a 13yearold i am trying to reconcile but it is an avenue writers have to explore. I think one issue with instagram is that from what i have seen is it a visual media. People craft instagram because they dont have nice photos. If you are not visual it may not be the best way to sell your stuff. My 14yearold explained she has two different instagrams. One is private i am not allowed to see and there is a pallet one and she shoots and everything week she determined what the palate is going to be determining on the color or mood she is in. I dont know what the hell she is talking about. One ps to throw out there is that internally at akashic book we look at how social media is impacting us and instagram has inched up more important than twitter or facebook. This is more yes or no. Do you think it depends on the person . I hateinstagram but i get more responses from facebook. I always think if there is Something Better you are at and your heart is in you will get a better response. I have a better reaction on facebook. You agree as well . I am also someone who did a reporting trip travelling across the country by train and started an instagram feed so i could chronicle that and it was useful for what i was doing but i dont keep it up and i would love to but i dont have an enough time so i do twitter and facebook and that is it. It is a time management thing. So, aside from the market concern it is also like do you have the time to invest in the platform. If you do, that is great. If you dont, then you will not meet your basic requirements for doing Everything Else you need to do. On that, do note, instagram and facebook are important. That was helpful to me because i am an anthropologist. Academic writers are trained to be as dull as humanly possible. So i guess what i am wondering is some of them have been good at translating into the online discourse. I want to know your recommendations for people who are trained within the horror zone of the academy and then also my second question is i sense and it may be my fantasy but there is a real black intellectual movement occurring in the culture and primarily occurring online. I am also wondering how black academics can be more supportive of that movement because i think it is happening and we should be doing more. Those are my two questions. Well, yeah, first of all, great to see you and i really enjoyed that visit. I have switched genres at different times within the construct of journalism from a straightforward publication to tv and radio and then to cultural oriented or data driven and there is always a hard gear shift when i switch into a different lane in journalism and i expect similar for an academic publishing poplar work. You have to say am i overexplaining but it gets back to what johnny and everyone else on the panel is saying about editing. If you, not you specifically, but people in academics want to meet more audiences someone needs to coach you on the differences of academic writing and poplar writing. How can academic writing support the black intellectual movement . I feel like academics are already supporting the Digital Black online movement. As columbia there was a whole conference just on black twitter. There is a lot going on. So i feel like people are already doing it because there is a lot that use this as part of the thesis. There is a lot to be gained from both angles. I actually get 60 of pictures are from academics. I can probably use about 20 . The 20 what they do number one is use the active voice. If you force yourself to use the active voice it is going to tease out more information from you. Number two, you have to tell a story. So you cant pitch something that is esoteric and write about it for a news publication because the question is why should i read this and invest my time. Number three, i think the language i know it is very general to say, but if you can say invisible and make invisible i would say use make invisible. The jargon that is used in academics can be confusing. Just tell a story, write it in an active voice, and have a good lead. Hi, how are you . My name is tracy smith. My question is for all of you up there but mainly johnny, reshonda and ryan. I want to get a sense of how you gauge success in your work. I will be freef, for me, success has been the long tale. This book is selling well but i did an event in San Francisco that is being packaged as Radio Station aired nationally. I agree to what she just said. To be pervert her slam professional but the success has already happened delicate the books to be published and i see success. Talk about being a part to the publisher the job should be to help bothers realize their dreams and this has long been the case where we published the debut novel from an author who just one of book award we did it publish that book but when i met him in jamaica his writing career was going nowhere he had deleted his manuscript of of the computer and richest eight continuing to be a Graphic Designer and there were met him at a writers conference that just the right time in jamaica and his writing blew me away publish his debut novel it was a bestseller about reviews and was reputed won awards in an editors choice but after that he went to a bigger publisher with the second book and before long he was no longer in jamaica he is a professor in minneapolis a paul. That had our paths not crossed he may still we a Graphic Designer in jamaica and the world would be no worse place although jamaica may be better. [laughter] and to meet that is the success of course, i have a staff into kids today need to make money but truly what inspires me the very first time my published a book was the exact same thing that inspires me now publishing my 400th is the discovery of incredible new riding and the fact we could play a part 40 author to realize their dreams. Thanks for being here what is your vice for younger artists and writers who are beginning a crucial step to take that passion to the platform that is super public is very personal and what is your advice for those that are beginning a process . I dont know your exact situation but be measured in how much you give away for free because there has become a mentality that anything should be accessed for free music, writing, poetry so when mr. What you sell all or publisher what you were paid to do and what you put on line and think it through dont know the right answer and i am not discourage you you for putting it up, i write for free as well as well as for money but think about that calculations in surrenders of with Great Community that is everything. Dont let fear keep your talent locked in a shoe box on the shelf because people will say i will not share this because i dont want to but do it every you have to do to get the talent out i do agree dont just put upon facebook because in everybody comes to expect it but people value but they have to pay for. We do have an untitled society you can give them the teaser but dont put everything up because they will value it more and then find a way to make your dream come true. Today if the doors were locked if there is a Million Dollars you could find a way to get here comes to the air vent or a secret tunnel and that is how you approach your dream. You find a way to make it happen even if you can go in the front door. In terms of getting your work out on social media if you are just guarding you should be careful who you share your work with. A good strong group of people i think are more valuable than those who want to Say Something crazy because palissy people start off in the comments are so evil then they shy away from using those tools so get support of people and then build it dont just put it out there. The simple answer is read. [applause] a couple announcements. Thinks for coming earlier today. Also to our board members. [applause] dont forget about social media share this panel with friends and family still forget about social media what is going on for all of the authors have books here they are in the bookstore so please go to the bookstore checkout the book and then get them signed. The next panel is coming up i know a couple of people on the panel she be memories the odyssey to manhood. That is next. [inaudible conversations] adulthood. [laughter]