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Urban Reviews: Tell our readers about Sweetpea's Secret.
Renay Jackson:
Sweetpea's Secret is about a
middle aged brother who leads a double life as businessman by day
and assassin by night. In this novel his past returns to haunt him
which could possibly lead to his demise. He has to use all of his
cleverness and wit (tricks of the trade, if you will) to survive the
sequence of events threatening to ruin his life. Sweetpea's Secret is all about Sweetpea doing just that, keeping
his secret a secret. No one invents a new plot or twist but the
success or failure of a novel revolves around how well the
characters are developed and the story is told. The characters in Sweetpea's Secret spring to life off the pages with the real. And
in my usual fashion, the story is told in a series of sub plots all
converging at the end to create a nail-biting finale. Of course I
cannot tell you what that is but rest assured, you will find it
enjoyable and entertaining.
Urban Reviews: Where did the idea for this novel come from?
Renay Jackson:
Actually, Sweetpea had cameo appearances in two of my previous
books (TURF WAR / PEANUT'S REVENGE) which created a curiosity for
readers. Since he led a double life it was only natural to do a book
about him because my readers were thirsty for more. I mean his
murders are completed cleanly and with style. Add to the fact that
he never leaves even the tiniest of clues as to who did it and you
begin to understand why the police have been blindly chasing him for
years. Anyone familiar with my work already knows that characters
from previous books lucky enough to survive usually re-emerge in
future books. In the case of Sweetpea, they get the lead role.
Urban Reviews: What made you want to be a writer? What was the most
challenging part about writing a novel?
Renay Jackson:
I never wanted to, or thought about being a writer. While helping
one of my daughters with a homework assignment for her English
class, I wrote a few lines to give her a visual idea of descriptive
writing. She took it and ran so in order to amuse myself I continued
writing. After a couple of days I thought I was working on a short
story and began calling it that, then found myself rushing home
after work every day to write some more. Next thing I knew, I was
creating Chapter 2 and a cast of villains. You have to understand,
what I was doing was very funny to me because I was taking character
traits from six or seven different people, combining them into one
person, and coming up with basically, a fool. So I was having a good
ole time. Then one day as I was working on Chapter 4, it hit me like
a ton of bricks: I COULD WRITE A BOOK. Nobody believed me but I
believed in myself so I kept at it. Six months later I was sending
off a completed manuscript to publishers who promptly sent me form
letter rejections forcing me to self publish.
The most challenging part of writing a novel is the isolation or
solitary confinement which requires you to spend hours alone in
front of your computer while all of your friends and family are out
having fun. Another challenge is having the discipline to finish a
book. In our "instant gratification" society with Google, Yahoo,
Facebook, YouTube, cell phones, and other stuff like that, you can
get whatever information you want within seconds or minutes so no
one has the patience it takes to write a book. They just don't want
to put in the time.
Urban Reviews:
What things did you do to help prepare yourself for the book
business?
Renay Jackson:
First and foremost, I was a rap artist before I was a writer when
raps actually made sense and said something. We also understood the
business aspect of the music industry so I took that knowledge which
included distribution, copyrights, royalty fees, promotion,
marketing, bar codes, mass producing a product, hustling 24/7 (not
harassing in front of WalMart), and learned specifics about the book
industry like ISBN's, store to seller percentages, avenues to avoid
at all costs like print on demand places, snakes out to make money
off you, agents, liars, cheats, thieves. It's an education you must
have about this or any business, which helps you to become
successful at it so I educated myself. A lot of it is common sense
and you would be surprised at how many school educated people with
degrees get taken for suckers in the book world.
I have never taken a writing class and my mother says I'm just a
gifted story teller blessed with the skill to do it on paper. I read
other authors but only after finishing a project. Then I devour like
about twenty books in a two week time frame. Nothing special, just
whatever books have been stacking up on my shelf. When I say devour
I don't necessarily mean reading all twenty books because I'm
finicky and treat reading like I do music. Think of this, you know
if a song is good or not after the first few bars so after a chapter
or two, I know if the book is good. When I write I try to grab the
reader by the throat on page one and keep them turning pages. Of
course I have to read books by my girls who I call M&M, Mary
Morrison & Mary Monroe. One makes me want to go have sex and the
other makes me go to church. It's a good balance. Normally I can
read a book in one day especially the good ones.
Urban Reviews: What are your career goals as far as writing is concerned?
Renay Jackson:
My goal is to write as many books as I can and get at least one
of them produced into a feature film. I have written the screenplay
for my first two books (OAKTOWN DEVIL / SHAKEY'S LOOSE) so now it's
all about seeing how that turns out. EDUCATION: If you write the
screenplay, minimum wage is at least three hundred thousand. If you
option it off (as many authors like to brag) you'll get a thousand
or two. If they write the screenplay for you then turn your book
into a movie, you might get thirty thousand. Bottom Line: write the
thing yourself.
I had no idea how to write a screenplay either but took my butt
to the electronics store, bought the software for Final Draft, then
wrote the thing. Most of my friends who considered themselves screen
writers advised me to buy software ranging from twenty-five to fifty
dollars. However, the people who were successful at it all used
Final Draft which was priced around two hundred dollars six years
ago.
Urban Reviews: What words of advice do you have for other aspiring authors?
Renay Jackson:
Don't be satisfied with being a one shot artist. What turned into
my blessing were the rejection letters because during the time it
took me to familiarize myself with the industry and the self
publishing game, I was constantly writing. By the time my first book
was released, the second manuscript had already been written so I
knew I would be coming out with another book. This created a domino
effect where every time I released a book, the next one was already
finished. Another thing I recommend is to learn everything you can
about the business and realize the avenues for success are shrinking
so you have to be realistic in your expectations. Online discounters
and major chain booksellers are sending independent book stores plus
distributors into bankruptcy so it has become increasingly difficult
to get your book placed on a shelf, or get a book deal for that
matter. I often receive mail from people who have a manuscript and
think they will make a million dollars off that first book. Not
realizing they would be ahead of the game to just break even and
even if they are lucky to get a publishing deal, six figures or what
have you, every penny has to be paid back. So you really have to
understand, nine out of every ten of us don't make money. Actually I
made more money when I self published than I have from my nationwide
deal. The tradeoff however is that as a self published author I was
making money but only known locally, as a nationally known author I
have a broader audience and core of readers but make less money
because all of my percentages are lower. When self publishing I
received one hundred percent. You have to choose which way you want
to go, fame or fortune. Generally speaking, not too many street lit
authors have both.
Urban Reviews: Are you working on any upcoming projects? (If so, please share
title, description and expected release date.)
Renay Jackson:
I don't tell about what's next because the day after someone
reads my latest work they already start asking about next. Sort of
like "what have you done for me lately". I am near completion of a
novel about a hard working family man who's betrayed by a scheming,
conniving wife. It's a different take from what I've always written
but another story that I do have to tell. The one I'm currently
working on is about a female who uses men then tosses them to the
side like a rag after she's abused and taken them through the
wringer. I love telling stories about women who do their men wrong
because it presents the other side since most of what's out there is
about dirty dog men taking a woman through the wringer.
Urban Reviews: Do you have any favorite authors or books that you enjoy
reading?
Renay Jackson:
Like I said before, I am diversified in my reading but to get my
groove on I read anything by my girl HoneyB, Mary Morrison to those
who don't know. And to put my mind on a more self reflective
Christian note I read Mary Monroe. You know she writes God Don't
Like Ugly, God this, God that. The girl will make you go to church
and pray. I also read my boy Robert Greer from Colorado because he
writes just as good as any white dude I know, just doesn't get the
breaks if you know what I mean. Maybe President Obama can help out in
the literary industry too, I'll have to ask my boy Barack when I see
him. I like the tone of that, President Obama, has a nice ring to
it.
Urban Reviews: Name one thing that you would have done differently in regards
to your work?
Renay Jackson:
I would have tried to secure a distribution deal in the same
manner achieved by Master P in the rap game. Street Lit authors are
not distributed to the right locations and geographical areas where
we will be most successful and black authors historically have
received the short end of the stick. That's the reason you can go
into any major chain bookstore and find only one tiny partial row of
books with the heading "African American" on top. We are clumped
together instead of being placed with mysteries, romance, science
fiction, etc. As a writer of color I am always offended by this
treatment because it's flat out wrong, but in the book world it's
been going on so long that it's accepted as common practice.
A new goal of mine is to make as many contacts and find out as
much as I can about distribution. I know that what it will take is a
new way to function within this old game but if anybody can do it, I
can. Just realize this, when people question me with a "why you" I
respond with "why not me".
Urban Reviews: What else would you like to share with us about yourself or
your novels?
Renay Jackson:
Certain people argue that urban lit reinforces negative
stereotypes associated with urban culture but actually we're not
reinforcing negative stereotypes because drug dealing, sex, and
violence are for real in the inner city. Those "certain people" will
find something wrong one way or another anyway. Now, I receive
letters all the time from those incarcerated letting me know my book
was the first novel they ever read. My story is the same as theirs
since the first book I ever read was El Dorado Red by Donald Goines,
I was sixteen at the time which is rather late to be starting to
read but I could relate with that book. The haters think everyone
needs to read about Heather running through the meadow into Adam's
arms with them living happily ever after, but in the cold world I
come from, that just doesn't happen.
Now when you talk about independent bookstores staying afloat,
they're not. Bookstores get 40% of the price of a book, distributors
15 or 20%, and the remaining 40/45 to the publisher or author. Since
most of the online sellers sell you the book 40% off anyway, that
puts the small bookstores out of business because of course I'll buy
a $20 book for $12 online instead of paying full price at the
neighborhood bookstore. The major chains also offer 20, 30, even 40%
discounts in their stores knowing full well the independent stores
can't possibly compete with that. Not only that, since the big
chains control the stores plus internet sales, they have their own
distribution setup and are breaking (change that: have broken)
independent distributors. It's almost impossible to get distribution
and when you do, it's limited. Being an author is not as glamorous
as most people think and if you expect to make money, you'd better
get a movie made from your novel or write mainstream.
As with all writers, I write from experience but could just as
easily be talking about Detroit, Baltimore, Compton, or any other
inner city filled with poverty, crime, hopelessness, and despair. I
just happen to tell the stories from an Oaktown point of view.
That's what I mean about keeping it real, having readers identify
with what you're writing because they know it's real. Some aspects
cannot be faked so when someone reads about a dope fiend smoking
crack in a transient hotel, and I describe the sights, sounds, and
atmosphere in my setting, they know I've been there.
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