It is amazing how fast time passes. Today, February 24th marks exactly a year to the day that my first book “The Poetic Ruminations of Mr. Born Nice” came out. Since it has been a year, I cannot help but reflect on some of the wonderful things that have happened in this time period.
I started my book journey last year during Black History Month, a very fitting time considering my leanings. I started off promoting it HEAVILY on my social media presences at every interval I could without it going past the point of annoying. The hashtag #BornNice was born, signifying my entry into the arena as a writer of books. I decided to start off with a chapbook, as it would be the appropriate form for poetry that is performance based and not pages and pages. I bundled together my best poems, controlled for overlap, and found a capable editor who knows the arts. From there I would go on to get the resources together to launch this.
Since I did not have a great deal of resources (still don’t actually) I had to get the money together to get the book printed. I needed a number of things, the ISBN numbers, copyright fees, printing costs etc, and that took the most time. What I did was, I took the money I received from my freelance writing gigs to pay for all of the things I needed to get this book out. So if you liked my writing, shared it, or pointed me in the direction of paid writing projects, this book of poetry is in existence partially because of you. Writing for the people is fun, but to launch it out there does take some doing. Having done it, I don’t take it for granted.
Now, aside from the logistics of it all, once the book itself was out, then the real fun began. The first stop in my case was of course Sisters Uptown Bookstore and Cultural Center. The very same place where I honed my material as a poet. They were gracious enough to host my very first book signing event back in April, which was pretty well attended for a Tuesday night. From there, I would go on to the Harlem Book Fair, where I was fortunate enough to table up with another author Angela Williamson.
With the help of media friends like Ricky Young and Chantal Onelien, I was able to bring attention to my work via their respective radio shows. From there on, invites started coming in to perform at different venues. Among them are: Café Latte, The New Yorker Hotel, The Shrine, The New Amsterdam Musical Association, Countee Cullen Library, and hopefully more to come. I even hosted an event at Beloved Yogi Studios. In thinking back in how I did with the promo of my book, I believe I struck the right balance between doing that, and continuing to blog regularly. It ended up working out, and I brought some folks of interests into the fold as well. Now, some people in my circle have books out, or are working on them as you read this.
This has been awesome. What have I learned? I have learned that writing a book opens doors. Blogging is great, wonderful, and all that. I love it, but it has its limitations. I feel as though through this experience, that people value the book in a different manner than they may a blog. It is different audiences. Everyone that reads books does not necessarily peruse blogs and vice versa. It’s a learning experience. I see that when you put yourself out there as an author, and take yourself seriously, that other people do so as well. While you can win awards for blogs, (and I have, *Smile*) there is no uniform way to review a blog. Currently, I have two good reviews on Amazon for my book, and folks generally have been impressed. Poetry is indeed niche, but fortunately, I have been able to find my audience locally. The eventual goal is to take my little show on the road. Let’s see if year 2 will yield that as a result. Thank you immensely to everyone who has supported my first project as a self-published writer. Right now, I am working behind the scenes to get some features for the Spring. I, like many of you can’t wait till this weather breaks. You should know that there is a separate blog for the book now at Born Nice. Check it out when you can.
Enough pontificating. Time to get back into them blogging trenches. LOL. Peace!
Marc W. Polite
Still “Born Nice”
Congrats Marc.
Thanks Glenn!
Thanks Glenn!