Well hello there TPC loyalists! Have you missed us? :) The TPC3 have been very busy, now that we have officially transitioned from “aspiring authors with a dream”, to bonafide publishers! Six months ago, the TPC3 (aka Steph, Omar, and James) came together to start a publishing company. After six months of intense labor to 1) get our company set-up and 2) get our debut novel ready for printing and distribution, we finally have a product to push! SELLOUT by James W. Lewis is now available for sale on our website (autographed for $10 plus shipping), amazon.com, and BarnesandNoble.com. We also have e-book versions! It’s wild to see the tree we planted just six months ago bearing such luscious fruit. But as we move into the new stage of “selling”, the TPC3 find themselves facing a whole new set of challenges. How do we most cost-effectively market this book? How do we keep track of sales and manage inventory? And as the orders trickle in, how do we make sure our customers get the book in in a timely manner? Before, we were writers, functioning primarily in isolation as we labored over words on a page. Now we’re out there, smiling, schmoozing, and slanging books! 24-7! Not to mention the fact that in a few weeks we need to begin production on WHEN LOVE ISN’T ENOUGH by Stephanie Casher, which is scheduled for release in October 2010! The hustle never stops for the TPC3!
Check back throughout the week as the TPC3 provide updates on how their managing the transition from writing books to SELLING books!
Reserve your copy of the book best selling author Jessica Tilles (Loving Simone) says is “A rare, fresh read…Lewis reminds me of my favorite author, Eric Jerome Dickey, keeping the dialogue lively and the action zipping along.”
My first booksigning. Crazy. It almost doesn’t make sense that I can put the words “my” and “booksigning” in the same sentence, but as of June 24th, 2010, I can marry those words together. I learned a lot from that day, too. In this video, I reflect on what the experience was like.
I descended the elevator from the sixth floor to the lobby as my stomach churned butter into cream. It was 9:15 am. Walking through the lobby and finding James and Steph setting up our booth, I wondered how long it would take for us to make our first sale. Even though it was pretty quiet overall I had no doubt we would be successful. But I felt the anxiety I typically experience just before a big corporate presentation or a big basketball game back in my balling days.
There were only two or three other vendors setting up alongside us. I noticed them gazing curiously over at the three of us, surely wondering which of us the author was or whether the three of us had penned the book together.
Ironically, either response would have been met with an affirmative head nod.
SELLOUT may have James W. Lewis’ name on the cover and spine, but is also has the TPC BOOKS logo there as well. That means that James’ rep wasn’t the only one on the line here and probably explains the jagged spike in my heart rate as conference attendees began to pass by – clearly intrigued by the SELLOUT cover, poster, and ultra dapper author before them.
It’s one thing to do the behind the scenes work to bring a book to life, it’s quite another to face real-life potential readers. I had to stop myself from overanalyzing their every reaction and tic.
Some people engaged the three of us directly. Others read the poster and picked up a flyer. Many picked up the book itself and read the back cover copy – some stoic, other wearing their interest all over their features.
As for the product itself, I was supremely confident. Not only had James written a character-driven provocative evocative page-turning novel, but our fans had helped us design the cover and crystallize the back cover copy. So we weren’t alone – we were repping the nearly 3,000 collective fans of Stephanie Casher, James Lewis, Omar Luqmaan-Harris, and Qwantu Amaru…the real Pantheon Collective!
And when all was said and done, eighty percent of people who stopped by our booth left with a copy of SELLOUT gripped in their possession. Not bad for our “soft launch”. A launch that only six weeks before seemed almost certain of not happening (props to Steph’s superhuman copyediting skills). It’s really a testament to James’ talent and the power of three people living their dream. If we can do it, anyone can!
You may have noticed that TPC shoots a lot of random video for TPC TV. It may seem random now, but what you are witnessing is actually the making of the TPC documentary Anyhoo, here’s some video snippets from our journey to the ATL for the much anticipated SELLOUT launch.
Loyal readers, forgive the blog silence, the TPC3 have been decompressing and recovering from a serious hustle session at the Black Writers Reunion and Conference. (Click here to view pictures) We headed out to Hotlanta with boxes full of books and an abundance of enthusiasm, ready to unveil the project we’ve spent the past [...]
How does one normally feel the night before the big dance? How does one suppress the emotional avalanche bound to come the moment someone yells “action?” Yeah, one can do all the preparation necessary to hit the stage and perform like a star, but nothing is real until you’re actually on that stage and the [...]
Well the TPC3 are frantically preparing for their trip to Atlanta for the BWRC, where we will be launching TPC’s debut novel SELLOUT by James W. Lewis. It’s hard to believe a text message planted a seed just six months ago and it has grown into a tall, fruit-bearing tree. In six short [...]
Anxiously awaiting the release of SELLOUT, and can’t wait for the book to go on sale? Well, we’ve got great news for you! Now through July 11th, get your hands on an advanced copy of SELLOUT, BEFORE it goes on sale worldwide by sending an e-mail to pantheoncollective@gmail.com. The advanced copies will be [...]
It’s here.
All pieces accounted for, complete and packaged up, ready for the world to see. Two-hundred and ninety pages of TPC’s first born. Simply put: It’s a beautiful thing to see a dream in your hands. Literally.
TPC would like to share that moment with you when James gets “punked” on the arrival of SELLOUT.
Anyhoo, here’s some video snippets from our journey to the ATL for the much anticipated 
