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Last Thursday began the kickoff for author events related to THE MESSAGE. I've begun appearing as an author without fully adjusting to the title.

First appearance: The Congressional Black Caucus' Author Pavilion, organized by Karibu Books.

Because of some book printer confusion, I didn't have any copies of THE MESSAGE there. Publishing industry rule #4081: as a debut author, get used to confusion. Shoot, embrace it! Realize it's all part of the journey.

Luckily, Karibu did have copies of HALLWAY DIARIES, the young adult anthology that I'm featured in and they sold a few of those.

For THE MESSAGE, I did have lovely postcards and a shiny sign of the book cover. See photos of me posing with the shiny sign. See photos of my friends Danielle and Butta posing with the shiny sign. You too can pose with the shiny sign if you attend one of my upcoming author events.

 Back to the topic at hand.

To be effective at CBC, you definitely have to step out from behind the comfortable cocktail-like table where you're set up and talk to folks, flag them down, flirt, or whatever it takes to get them to stop and check you out. I can't say I'm always good at this. Sometimes I feel outgoing and well, other times I smile and let potential sales pass me by.  But I do honestly like talking with people, except the kind of crazy folks who get very close to your face (and when you back up, they step forward) and tell you bizarre things about their personal life.

All in all, CBC was a good appetizer for the events to come.

Friday began the Baltimore Book Festival, one of my favorite literary events.

Still no books. I exhibited BackList with Ron of Mosaic Literary magazine, where I serve as managing editor. Because I do a million things, on my half of our 6x6 table, I was pushing: 1) Hallway Diaries 2) BackList 3) THE MESSAGE 4) THE MESSAGE's Baltimore launch party co-sponsored by Mic Life Magazine (get yo tickets now!). A lot, I know.

More crazy people stopped by but Friday was kind of slow. I almost think that the festival would benefit from just being two days (Sat./Sun.) as opposed to three. And I had a slight hangover from the night before partying with the black folks from CBC on Thursday night. Thankfully friends stopped by to help me work the booth.

Saturday morning rolled around. And I had to shoot to DC (and be back to Baltimore for the festival by 11:00 am) to pick up the BackList postcards and THE MESSAGE t-shirts that I left in my friend's car during CBC. Note: drinking and preparing for weekend-long book festivals do not mix.

But guess what was waiting for me after my two hour drive to and from DC 7:00 in the morning? 12 copies of THE MESSAGE arrived. My publisher scrambled to send me the few advanced copies that the printer sent to their office. Now I know 12 books isn't a lot. But beggars can't be choosers. Of course I wanted more copies, but I knew I had to work with what I had.

I opened the box and wanted to cry. I can say that THE MESSAGE is the most beautiful book I've ever seen. YES I'm saying this because I wrote it. And in an instance all those sleepless weeks, those extended moments of self-doubt, those urges of giving up, rushed through my mind and tears formed. But I knew I had to cry later.

Hustle now.

I have to say the Lord was on my side. Less than 15 minutes after the 12 office copies arrive, the bulk order that I placed with my publisher, the order that my publisher didn't think could get to me before Monday, arrived. I had books to sell at the Baltimore Book Festival! Can't you feel the victory?

Okay, here's something else I've relearned: One's got to celebrate the small victories in the battle of book promotion. 

Headed to the book festival. Saturday turned out to be a great day. Sold books. Sold books to Karibu on consignment.  Networked. Doug and Jackie Christie stopped by after promoting their book No Ordinary Love (see pictures) and Jackie bought two copies of THE MESSAGE. She told me she was going to tell everyone in Seattle about my book.

More friends came through to help me. A few folks stopped by to say that there's nothing redeemable about hip-hop. I could sense how threatened they were.

Anywho, Sunday was interesting. I ended up going out on Saturday in DC and got home very late, or early in the morning. Thanks to Karibu, I was suggested to the Baltimore office that coordinates the book festival to be a local author interviewed by WBAL, Baltimore's NBC affiliate.

I had to be in front of Karibu tent at 8:45 am, Sunday morning. I got home at 5:00 am.  I don't drink coffee.

But I pulled it together as the reporter asked me to 1) dispel the myths about hip-hop 2) talk about why I chose to attend the Baltimore Book festival 3) Explain how my book might get young people to read 4) explain why I wrote that I quit my job based on a hip-hop lyric (with only 3 hours of sleep, I was able to explain what I meant in the book--that I was inspired by hip-hop lyrics to pursue the career passion that would make me happy. My friends and I joked that we could see folks getting that twisted real quick with the headline reading, "Hip-Hop Encourages Unemployment").

I didn't get to see the interviews--one ran at 9:00 am and another at 6:00 pm , but I'm trying to track down a tape. My parents saw it and so did many people who ended up attending the fair. Folks stopped by the booth because they saw me on television. TV is the way to go in promoting books!

Many of my friends and family stopped by on Sunday as well, including my father, Felix Pride who left quite an impression on Ron. Felix could sell Old Bay seasoning to crabs (that's a Baltimore reference). Felix makes appearances in THE MESSAGE when I discuss our on/off relationship that we're working to make more consistently on. But on Sunday I felt a little like I was nine years old again where I feared that my parent was going to embarrass me. Let me explain:

I was on a Karibu-sponsored panel at 1:30 (this again on 3 hours of sleep) which centered around literacy, publishing, and pop culture. It was moderated by my good friend and Say It Loud founder Patrick Oliver, and featured David Miller, co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer of the Urban Leadership Institute, and Anthony Asadullah Samad, author of Saving the Race.
The panel was running late because Patrick hadn't arrived. My father is a very impatient man and began tapping his watch and inquiring with the Karibu staff why the panel is late. When they reply that we were waiting on the moderator, he said he'd moderate it, and rose from his seat as if he was approaching the panel area. People were urging him on, especially when they found out he was my father. I could feel my face heating up.

I think it was the look on my face that eventually urged him to sit down.

The panel was fairly normal. We ended up having a very nice turnout and we went over our allotted time. I did sign some copies of THE MESSAGE afterwards. Still haven't perfected the message (pun intended) that I want to include when I sign copies. Want something nice and catchy. I'll think of something good soon.

By the time the panel was over, I was ready to crash. But for the remaining three hours of the festival, I did my best to smile and provide my 30 second pitch about THE MESSAGE to potential buyers.

But I was blessed. Throughout the day, I sold a nice number of copies to folks of all types: parents, young hip-hop heads, curious older folks, teachers, youth workers.

In the words of Ice Cube, "It was a good day."

I've realized that trying to find a balance of having a life while promoting a book will be a never-ending battle. 

You can check out photos from my travels at my flickr page.

This week I'll be at Bennett College, Capital Book Fest, and VH1 Hip-Hop Honors Weekend at powerHouse arena.

I still haven't cried. 

The hustle continues...