Vickie Stringer: The Queen of Hip-Hop Lit
It’s very powerful because my first book deal was $50,000, and I literally had to take that $50,000, living dead smack in the middle of the hood, and I had a choice: Go to the BMW dealership or help [other authors]. It’s a very tough choice. …
When [Triple Crown’s first author] K’wan sent me his book and when Nikki Turner sent me her book, I was like, “Gosh, these writers are talented. I love their books.” But then I said, “My book will have to compete with their books if I help them. They’re going to put them on the shelf next to my book.” I remember going to sleep and wrestling with [having] the courage to not be afraid and [to] believe, not just in the genre, but in these books, that they were fun and necessary. So I did something that I never thought I would do, and I said, “I’m going to give you the only money I have to help [you] put this book in print,” and that’s how my company was started. And I look at the life that I live today, and I think, “Oh my God, I have sold over a million books. … OK God, this is how it works. You help somebody, and you get blessed ten-fold. …” I wondered how he was going to give me this miraculous life that I prayed for, but I didn’t know it was going to come through me being humble.
I share this story with people, and I say, “This is the story of my success that people won’t print.” I wrestled with my success and almost missed the window myself.
• Why did these writers come to you for help?
Stringer: I self-published my first book, and it was everywhere. It was on the streets, so [these writers] were seeing it and reading it. They became Vickie Stringer fans, and they recognized that we had similar genres. They said, “No one else will help me, and you get it, so why don’t you put my book out?” I remember talking to K’wan … and I said, “Look, you keep calling me, but this company does not even exist. I don’t think I can do this.” But he said, “I trust you. I think you can do this. Let’s do the damn thing.” …
