Vickie Stringer: The Queen of Hip-Hop Lit
• Over the summer, Triple Crown was given its own bookshelf in Borders and Waldenbooks. Do you feel you were taking a risk by displaying your books by the publisher, rather than by the author, in these stores?
Stringer: I didn’t because I believe in all of my books equally. I’ve never loved one book over the other, so I was embracing the genre more than [Triple Crown author] Tu-Shonda Whitaker [for example]. I love the genre. I love that I do it that way because now the staff and the authors have something they can be a part of, that they’re proud of. So when you say Triple Crown, my shipping clerk can smile, my author can smile, my receptionist can smile. But when you’re a publishing house and [it’s all about the individual] authors, how divided is the team? ... When you say Triple Crown, it really is a collective effort. It is not just the author who’s written a great book, it’s the editor, the typesetter, it’s everyone. So I was never afraid of that. … We’re going to be united, and it’s going to be Triple Crown Publishing, and we’re going to have a lot of great books––not just a book by a great author. …