Monice Mitchell Simms's Blog, page 14
November 5, 2010
Rochelle Riley Made Me Look Good!!!
hey, fam! the blessings just keep rolling in.
this friday morning, i was beyond flattered to read a great article written about me, my journey as an artist and my novel, address: house of corrections by award-winning columnist, rochelle riley.
thanx to her and some other remarkable hosts and journalist – brenda perryman of talk to me with brenda perryman, margaret williamson of pro-literacy's read * empower * succeed and craig fahle of wdet's craig fahle show – the shrine of the black madonna (13535 Livernois Avenue, Detroit, MI 48238, P: (313) 491-0777) should be packed for my book signing and reading tomorrow!
check out rochelle's article — www.freep.com/article/…/1320/Detroiter-brings-truth-inspired-tale-home
hope to see you there!
buy your copy today! Address:House of Corrections- a novel inspired
November 3, 2010
atlanta!!!!
we had a ball in atlanta. found a nice, cozy hotel – midtown atlanta hotel (formerly known as the wyndham midtown hotel, which was one block away from steel restaurant and lounge where i had the signing/reading. it was a nice turnout, filled with fellowship, laughter and good food.
the next day on our way to the airport, we visited shoal creek baptist church in locust grove, ga. – the birthplace of our family. we searched for the grave of our great-great grandmother leila brock, but couldn't find it. it still did our heart good, though, to visit the place my sistah, gina, had never been and where i hadn't visited since i was a child.
hope you enjoy the pictures…
I got books to sell!
Me and Kitty, Steel Restaurant and Lounge general manager. She was great!
I'm reaching generations of mother and and daugter readers!
Me reading.
She's following along!
Our great-great-grandmother Leila Brock is here somewhere.
I visited here when I was five or six. It was great to return.
Chicago!!!!
Fam, Chicago was really a great way to start my first ever book tour. Thank you to Constance Shabazz of Books Ink for the Author Showcase, Jean – my Columbia College Chicago sistah for crawling out of bed on Saturday morning and coming to my signing, and Kim, Tracy, Avery and Jean for celebrating with me that evening. And of course, my sister, Jenice Mitchell Ford — I couldn't do any of this without you. I love you!
Me at my Chicago book signing
Me and Jean - Columbia College Chicago in the house!
L to R: Kim Ransom, me, sistah and Tracey King
November 1, 2010
For Make Believers – A Testimony
(Note: Because I couldn't get access to Wi-Fi Internet to save my life while I was in Chicago, this blog post was delayed…Better late than never, right?)
"I lift as I climb." - Congresswoman Dianne Watson
Staying true to my goal to share as I learn, I decided to pen a blog post on the eve of my first ever national book tour. (Actually, I wrote this yesterday, but was running around doing last-minute errands, i.e. buying a white blouse from Ross that I probably won't get a chance to wear, because it's so cold back East. In fact, as I type this now, I'm on a Southwest Airlines flight somewhere over Arizona, heading to Chicago. )
Anyway…What was I saying?
On the eve of my tour, I decided to pen this blog to offer some words of advice and straight up information to you, my fellow and sister authors who are dreaming of or are working toward one day being a published author.
I haven't taken a poll or anything, but I'm betting if you're anything like me, you're not working with a stockpile of seed money. But keep hope alive, my friends!
This past February, when I set up my account with the Amazon.com owned, publish-on-demand company, CreateSpace, I printed the first proof of Address: House of Corrections with a budget of less than $60 dollars.
Then, a mere 48 hours after I reviewed it, corrected errors on the PDF file and e-mailed it back, I was published and selling to a national and international audience on Amazon.com.
From that point on, I feverishly marketed and promoted my novel on every social networking site I discovered - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube, just to name a few.
At first – thanks to my family and friends – sales were fast and furious. Then, everything screeched to a stop and go trickle. I'm not ashamed to admit – I lost it for a minute. Like an addict, I couldn't stop checking my CreateSpace account for evaporating book sales and my self-esteem was plummeting almost as quickly as my dismal Amazon.com rating.
This just wasn't how it was supposed to happen. My novel was supposed to be flying off the cyber shelves. Instead, it was being buried alive by the hundreds, if not thousands of new books rushing through the Amazon.com pipeline every day.
Crushed, I had no choice but to work my plan. Posting quotes and excerpts on Facebook and Twitter. Hustling for radio and print interviews. Mailing copies I couldn't afford to spare to book reviewers and hoping for the best.
You see, I was on a mission. To sell books. Period. Because I had a plan: To go on a national book tour.
Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, D.C. and New York were the first cities to come to mind – for no other reason than I had family and friends in those places that I could stay with for free. I reached out to all of them and told them of my plan. And whenever they would ask me how I was going to do it, I would calmly answer, "I have no idea."
Because I didn't.
All I knew was that I wasn't going to become a New York Times best-selling author and Oprah's Book Club Choice by hiding behind my computer. I had to get out there. Face to face. Hand to hand. With the people.
Don't get me wrong – I love social networking. An introverted person by nature, I wouldn't have gotten as far with Address: House of Corrections as I have without it. But the real deal, fam? Despite all of this "communicating" that we do online every second and hour of the day, I've learned that folks will respond best to good old human contact.
But how do you make contact with people, Monice, when you have no money?
You go to them. Wheresomeever they might be.
I'm serious. I've done readings/signings at beauty parlors, restaurants and friends' homes – basically just about any place people would let me. And without fail, whenever I'm in front of folks reading my novel, they buy a book or books from me.
Why? Well, it could be my fantastic delivery. But I believe it's what I now know to be true – Humans are social creatures and we, for the most part, like to help each other. Especially if it means we can be a part of something special and unique.
That got my artistpreneur wheels turning. What if I built a book tour up from scratch this way? In essence – for my filmmaking brothers and sisters reading – how could I fourwall my book across the country with other entrepreneurs in brick and mortar book stores, art galleries, boutiques, restaurants and homes?
Intrigued and quite frankly, ignorant about how much work it would take to pull it off, I devised a plan that I'm more than happy to share with you…in my next blog. My computer is about to run out of battery power. LOL!
Hope this helps and stay tuned!
living by my pen,
monice
* For individual coaching, click below – http://addresshouseofcorrections.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/living_by_my_pen_ad.jpg
October 27, 2010
October 25, 2010
"Address: House of Corrections" Hits the Road for National Book Tour!
Fam! I'm so thrilled to be heading out for my first ever national book tour this Friday.
This is such a miracle.
In March when I first published my novel, I proudly proclaimed to anybody who would listen that I was going to be traveling on tour before the end of the year — and I had absolutely no idea how it was going to happen.
All I was hoping was that if I just kept walking in faith, working hard and putting out into the universe, it would come to pass.
And now, I'm four days from hitting the road. Thank ya, Lawd!
I'm looking forward to meeting all of you in Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and New York! Check out this link – AHC Book Tour Poster (Oct Final) - for my tour stops! And Thank you for your support!
buy your copy today! Address:House of Corrections- a novel inspired
October 19, 2010
wish i could have known you better
Grandma and Uncle Jay
writing a novel about your family can be tricky.
i stand by the truth that my debut novel, address: house of corrections is a life-inspired work of fiction about my grandmother.
i've never been any good at math and haven't tried to attach a percentage to how much of my novel is true, but if i had to come up with a number, i would say that 10% of my book is fact. the rest? curiosity infused imagination, journalism fueled research, and murder she wrote deductive reasoning.
most of the characters – my grandma included – are composites of real life folks that i know, have observed or read about. a smidgen of the attitudinal clerk at the post office. a dash of my grumpy elementary school gym teacher. a dab of my late uncle butch, who died so long ago in 1979, my memories of him, quite honestly, are fuzzy.
yes, i, like all writers, am innovative and creative. but i can't lie — i use who and what is around me.
which makes penning a life-inspired novel starring your family complicated, because i took liberties, swapped attributes of one person with another, and made it challenging - i hope – for family members to identify themselves and each other in my fictional narrative.
i'm not apologizing. it's my right and privilege as an author. but there's just something i need to make clear: there is one person that i made up completely from scratch.
i called him johnson. and the man who provided the stem cells for him to exist died today.
james miller was his name, but everyone called him jay. and i was raised around him all my life, but for all intents and purposes, he was a stranger to me.
the younger brother of my grandmother, he worked all the time, had four sons, fought in the korean war and he would have kept working at ford until the day he died, if they hadn't forced him to retire after 39 loyal years.
other than the fact that he – like many in my family – struggled with addiction, that's all i knew. and that's why i had no choice but to pull elements out of the rich ethos and birth his fictional counterpart on the page.
what happened after my character johnson first opened his mouth, i respectfully throw up my hands. i was daily surprised by the bits and pieces my subconscious weaved together to build his dna.
he was a mystery.
still, i readily and sorrowfully admit that i know more about the character i created than the living breathing man who sparked him.
i love you, uncle jay.
rest in peace.
wish i could have known you better.
September 16, 2010
For Make Believers — Can You Hear Me Now?
When I first began this blog, I promised not to write anything until I had something to say. Hence, the deafening silence for the past few weeks. lol!
As I celebrate my first seven months as a published author of my debut novel, Address: House of Corrections, I am now diving head first into yet another domain of the ever-changing publishing industry. The world of audio books.
O.K. full disclosure. I have a past in audio theatre. Eons ago when I was a graduate student...
August 30, 2010
Page Turning African American Historical Literary Thriller!!!
By
I started this book on Sunday and couldn't put it down. By late Monday, I had finished reading it. Well, I had almost finished it, because I refused to read the last chapter until the author publishes the next book!Merry's story starts in rural South and follows her through a coming of age in Detroit. Woven into the story line are historical references to areas in Detroit that many history buffs will enjoy. Merry's story is compelling – she is full of passion and...
August 16, 2010
For Make Believers — Eye Catchers
A picture is worth a thousand words. Or, in my case, $100 million dollars. (Hey, a sistah can dream, right?)
Whether you attribute the popular adage to a 1921 New York Times ad, Confucius or Napoleon, the saying remains true today — Especially now when Joe Public, distracted by their ipods and cell phones, are so inundated by social networking sites and mindless You Tube videos.
Long story short, today's audience's attention span – roughly the same as a gnat's – is...
