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I had an opportunity to chat with Sylvia Hubbard and this very busy techno dynamo let me steal a few minutes of her time to pick her brain. She has some great things to share.



Sylvia, you are a one-woman marketing machine who has really found her niche in using technology. Please tell us what started you on that path?


Being broke.

In 2000, I was frustrated after I independently published my first book because I couldn't afford to pay for marketing & promotions, much less even buy my own books to sell. Back then (which seems strange to say just eleven years ago) e-books weren't popular, but I learned how to sell them because that was all I could sell.

You are involved in several literary promotion endeavors as well as running your own publishing line--Hub Books. It can't be easy to keep everything under control. How did you get Hub Books up and active?

I registered HubBooks initially for Motown Writers Network. I wanted a Literary Organization as a subsidy of my "Company." Plus once I heard someone say a long time ago it would get me better speaking engagements if I had a company instead of them writing checks to me. (That didn't work). In 2004, when no speaking engagements jumped off, I decided to take the step and publish my own book under HubBooks.

What programs do you use to upload your e-books?

Currently, I use Word to upload my books. I learned InDesign a long time ago, but I'm so comfortable with anything Microsoft (because I'm a PC girl) that I've always started my work there. I'm certified in Microsoft Word as well and I used to teach it at several community centers and a college. As the digital age progress and books become more artistically digitally, I'll start transferring books from Word to PDF to change them into mobi and epub files through Calibre Software which is FREE. (My favorite word)

You are a constant blogger. Do you plan your blogging in advance and how do you come up with interesting content?

I own over five blogs (six come 2012). The planned blogs are usually series of blogs (live stories, series or ongoing topics), but most times when I get the urge to write, I write and then post up for later. By the way, I'm always looking for guest blogs on the various blogs I have.

You tweet as well. When you began tweeting, what was your focus? What did you hope to achieve and do you think you have?

At almost 30K tweets in less than three years, I would say I'm a pretty avid tweeter. In any endeavor I do, my focus is to take what a service or network does and make myself noticed, so I can sell a book. Twitter is a fast moving, lots of taking large room of people networking, sharing and doing. If you're standing still on Twitter, you could miss the best FREE marketing tool ever invented. So in my three years have I accomplished what I wanted to on Twitter? I believe I have come close as possible to my goal. At over 3700 true followers (no autoboting spammers), I can say I have people who like what I do on Twitter.

Since you published your first book how has the marketing books changed?

Back in the day (just ten years ago), it was all about pushing people to buy the book. Now, as Scott Straten calls it, marketing is about "unmarketing." Now you have to sell yourself in order to sell the book, plus also continually engage those customers who have bought from you to get them to draw other readers to you. It sounds like a complicated style of word of mouth marketing.

What are some tips that you can offer authors and business folks on how to maximize technology?

First tip: USE IT! Don't just jump on a technolgy bandwagon by signing up to things you see your "friends" sign up to. See how it's utilized by them or other authors before signing up. I hate going to accounts of people who signed up for something and it looks like a tumbleweed rolled across my screen. You want to be where you say you are going to be by having each account you have open updated.

Second: Don't stretch yourself too thin. Utilize services such as Ping.fm, Hootsuite, SocialOomph, and even Bufferapp to give yourself great mobile apps, reminder campaigns and space out information so you aren't overwhelming your followers & friends.

Third: While having a website or blog (CMS), visit other blogs, social network pages and retweet others to show you support your genre and platform. Article market and guest blog so let others know about you but also present great content for people to read other than your books.

Fourth: Content is King, but Quality is Queen. Bring your best to others. Make sure you are blogging at least once a week and sharing information about your literary world with your readers and other followers.

Fifth: Help someone else. Do something for them online that they couldn't do for themselves. Send out a tweet of theirs, host them on your blog, and invite others to "like" their page. Be an asset to the World Wide Web, otherwise you're just a liability.

Please tell us about the Michigan Literary Network, of which you are the founder.

I realized in 2009, Motown Writers Network was getting a lot of writers, but I wanted more readers. Mainly my market has always been Michigan, but I needed someway to get readers to see the asset Motown Writers Network was. So I created The Michigan Literary Network. Under this subsidy, we join readers, bookclubs, libraries and even literacy groups together to connect readers to Michigan Authors and to also raise literacy rates in Metro Detroit.

What are you currently working on?

EVERYTHING. Lol. I'm doing a live book on my site. It's where I come up with a book from the top of my head and just write. Readers can come and read the book live and make comments, criticisms and so forth. It's called The Revenge of Three.

I'm also working on producing a paperback to be release the first of 2012 called Hope Is Love. It's an ebook exclusively available on my website in pdf, mobi & epub & the exclusive paperback version will be available everywhere in January of 2012. The paperback cover will actually debut the Christmas week for my readers and I'm too excited about! I'm always looking for reviewers and book clubs to host me, so please contact me at sylviahubbard@gmail.com to arrange this.

Where can readers find out more about you and your work?

Of course at my website, http://sylviahubbard.com. Related websites are:

• www.MotownWriters.com
• www.MichiganLiteraryNetwork.com
• www.LoveABlackWoman.com
• www.MotownMomMusings.com
• www.WritersGuide2InternetMarketing.com
• www.MotownLiteraryJam.com
• www.MotownBookClub.com

They can also connect with me on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter & Goodreads.

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My take on the changing neighborhood



Fort Green aka The Fort, was the first to fall about a decade and a half ago. The once notoriously deadly enclave—at least to those who didn't live there—is now the hip, swanky hub of buppie Brooklyn. The streets are lined with cafes, boutiques, bistros, wine bars and yogurt establishments. The former don't-you-go-in-there Fort Green park, where many-a-body and shootout have gone down is now a pristine locale for joggers, picnicers, and doggie walkers.

With The Fort converted into Brooklyn's version of The Village in Manhattan, black folk had a non-verbal understanding that Bedford-Stuyvesant was our last stronghold in the hood, the last stand. Our history of drugs and violence was so pervasive that not even the bravest of "them" would dare cross the battle lines into Do-or-Die Bed-Stuy. Most folks remained firm in their "I shall not be moved," conviction, whether it be the families that have owned their homes for generations or the real keeper of the flame, Brotherman on the Corner.

So when I married and moved to the faux Brooklyn suburb of Canarsie, I was confident that the joys of hood life would be alive and well whenever I returned.
You see, there is a certain annoying comfort in the familiar, like drunk "Joe" who greets the customers at the 24-hour corner store, beer can draped in the requisite brown paper bag; the summer block parties notorious for excessively loud music, wild-ass kids running amok, and closed off streets that tie-up traffic every Saturday from July to August; and the cookouts on the sidewalk. Only black folk can do up a cookout on the sidewalk, complete with a grill and folding tables for the potato salad and greens. Just give us a slice of concrete and we can have us a barbecue. Ahh, yes, the joys of the hood.

When my marriage came to an end, I packed up my kids and after a few pit stops returned to my roots, mere blocks from where I grew up. But something had happened to me in my years in faux suburbia. I'd been lulled into a mindset of having arrived. Where, I wasn't sure, but I was there. As a result, the Friday night shoot outs, blaring police sirens and the constant scream of the ambulances shook me rather than soothed me. I looked with suspicion and alarm at my hooded young brothers and loud, brassy, belly-baring young sisters. But I felt assured that once fully entrenched in the life and style of the hood I would regain my muse and submerge myself in all things Negro.

It soon became alarmingly clear, however, that I was no longer back in Kansas. It was subtle at first, hardly noticeable. There was just one or two of "them." A fluke? Perhaps they were just real light skin with "good hair." But as winter turned to spring and then summer, their numbers grew. I'd step outside and see them jogging with their teacup pooches in tow. Where a year earlier it was only the few intrepid men who had set out to explore the exotic world of the Negro life and set down their flag, now their women had come, toting many a curly-headed kid.
Other things began to change, too. The once vast wasteland of the avenues began to sprout antique shops, children's boutiques, coffee shops with internet access, new "affordable" housing filling one-time empty lots. And for the first time in the history of The Stuy, a veterinarian's office! Obviously to care for the influx of little dogs.

And where the once behemoth Pathmark had stood, complete with their rude, gum chewing, loud-mouthed cashiers, it was replaced with Foodtown, new management and staff that talked to the customer instead of the person on the other end of their cell phone, and smiled at you rather than rolled their eyes when you put your groceries on the counter. An entire aisle was dedicated to healthy and organic food! Imagine that. At least now I didn't have to travel back to Canarsie to shop every weekend. (Couldn't stand those heifers in Pathmark).

It wasn't just Foodtown or the vet. Along with "them" came bike lanes and tree guards, police patrols, sushi restaurants, safer streets and million dollar price tags on homes. Our once black corner of the world grew smaller as they crossed the bridges from overpriced Manhattan and the divides of Crown Heights and Williamsburg to settle and convert as is their way, their history.

So as our new neighbors reside amongst us, strolling, jogging and biking along our streets, joining our churches, rubbing elbows with us at the local laundry, dreadlocking their hair and standing in line on the weekends to get their soul food from Royal Ribs on Halsey Street; we gather in small groups or chat on the phone about "them."

"They're everywhere!" "Can't have nothing," we complain. "Not even our own ghetto." We shake our heads in disbelief, as we sip smoothies at the new outdoor cafe and watch their numbers grow wondering how much longer it will be before the block parties are no more, grilling on the sidewalk is a thing of the past, the music isn't so loud, the 24-hour store closes by nine and the life and vitality that drew "them" here is washed out and sanitized into something unrecognizable.
I ponder these questions even as I enjoy the amenities that have come to the neighborhood because of "them." I ponder these questions as I sit in my three bedroom duplex condo, looking out on my backyard, listening not to gun shots and sirens but contractors building a new two-family home across the street even as the mom and pop store on the corner has been shuttered for months and I wonder, just briefly, what corner Joe is standing on now.

http://sylviahubbard.com/2011/07/11/diary-of-a-free-friday-early-treat-again-syllit-motownlit-smashwords/