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The New York City
Subway system was Heru Ptah's distribution platform when
he self-published his first novel, A
Hip-Hop Story late last
year, as reported by Deirdre Donahue in USA Today. He sold
10,000 copies that way, at $10 a copy. Some of his best customers
were mothers who "would buy it for their teens," but
his big break came when he sold a copy to Jacob Hoye, the
director of MTV publishing. Jacob was up all night reading
Heru's novel, which he compares to Bright Lights, Big City,
and says represents "the voice of a generation...the
music, the personality, the industry."
Jacob liked it.
He really liked it. And so, A Hip-Hop Story is now out of
the tunnels and into the stores, published
this week in paperback by Pocket/MTV books. The book actually
is one of several new titles driving a "new subgenre
of the urban, or street novel." Other entries include
A Phat Death by Norman Kelley and Angry Black Whiteboy by
Adam Mansbach (due out in 2005). The publishers see the books
as a way to attract a "more racially diverse readership." Jacob
Hoye comments: "Young people do read.
They just need
stuff that relates to their experiences. They want fiction
that addresses what they are dealing with."
Heru Ptah, who hails from Jamaica in the Caribbean but lives
in New York City and is in his early 20s, says Hip-Hop is "not
just music, it's a culture." He's a very interesting
youngster, who counts Shakespeare, Ralph Ellison, F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison among his literary influences.
He is a veteran of "poetry slams" in Germany and
the U.K., and wrote a screenplay before starting his novel.
He'll be promoting A Hip-Hop Story on MTV, naturally, and "vows
to keep hustling," saying: "Just because your book
is in the stores doesn't mean it's selling." He is already
working on his next novel, due out in 2004. It's about...Michael
Jackson.
>> READ : reveries.com : october 9 |
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